Paddling between the rain drops - Assbet River from Acton to Concord - June 24, 2023

At the picnic site below Damondale

Bill and I were scheduled to run a RICKA trip on the Sudbury River through Great Meadows today. Unfortunately, the forecast was for rain and possible thunderstorms and there is no shelter in that wide open marshland, so the Sudbury trip got cancelled. Instead, we decided to run the Assabet River from Acton down to Concord.

The Assabet River arises in Westborough and flows approximately 34 miles west to its convergence with the Sudbury River to form the Concord River. I’ve done a couple of sections of the Assabet including the flatwater section from Gleasondale to the Ben Smith Dam and the whitewater section through Maynard.

Al and Bill navigate the blow-downs

Al had checked the forecast and advised that we should have a window of storm-free weather from 11:00 to 4:00. I met Bill at 9:30 for the drive up to Acton, and it rained the entire time. We ran the shuttle at 10:30, and the rain had stopped by the time we got on the water at around 11:00 – Al was right. I was paddling tandem with Jonathan in my Mohawk - first trip for Jonathan after his hip surgery. Bill was paddling tandem with Al in his Wenonah – first trip for Al in a canoe in years.

The river was low - 1.8 feet, 60 cfs - so finding the deep channels and avoiding rocks and strainers was the order of the day. We ran through the site of the old Damondale Dam, and took a break for lunch at the new picnic site just downstream.

Erik and Jonathan at Egg Rock

From there we entered a section with numerous blow-downs. A couple were tricky, but we were able to paddle over or around them all without getting out of the boat. We stopped again at the boat ramp in West Concord and walked over to D&D for a coffee - it was an leasurly trip. (There is also a new picnic site downstream of the bridge in West Concord). From there it is an easy paddle down to Leaning Hemlocks with its memorial to paddler and poet George Bartlett with the words from his poem Floating Hearts. We continued down to Egg Rock at the convergence of the Assabet and Sudbury Rivers.

As is tradition, we continued down the Concord River to the Old North Bridge and the Minute Man National Historic Park. It was approaching 4:00, and sure enough the rain started up again. It was a brief shower and we took refuge under the Old North Bridge until it passed. It did rain for much of the ride home. Our timing was good.

Jonathan and Erik at the Old North Bridge

Links:
My Pictures
Maynard Gage
Floating Hearts – Poem by George Bartlett