Charles River - Bays Region with RICKA - May 15, 2026

Heading out

Today I led a flatwater trip for RICKA on the Bay’s Region of the Charles River. It was a small group - just five of us. We had three kayaks, and I paddled tandem with Jonathan in the Spirit II.

The Charles River arises at Echo Lake in Hopkinton, and flows generally east for 85-miles, zig-zagging through 22 cities and towns in eastern MA before emptying into Boston Harbor. There are a lots of great flatwater trips on the Charles including the Lakes District in Newton, the Dedham Loop, and my favorite section from Medfield to Natick. Today we would be paddling the Bay’s Region from Needham to Wellesley.

Jonathan in the bow

We met at 10:00 to launch our boats at the Charles River Peninsula (87 Fisher Street, Needham, MA). This section of the river is relatively undeveloped except for some large houses as the river flows through Dover/Sherborn. The river starts off as marshland, and then turns to woodlands as you get above the Dover Street Bridge.

There were lots of turtles sunning themselves on the rocks, and an eagle circled overhead and perched in a nearby tree. After a break for lunch at the Elm Bank Reservation (900 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA) we headed back downstream. Total trip was 11-miles.

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Charles River - Scouting the Bays Region – May 12, 2026

I did the first weekday paddle of my retirement yesterday at Redwing Bay on the Charles River. I’ll be leading a RICKA trip there on Saturday, so I went to scout it out. Great day for a paddle, but I needed to cut it short to get home for supper before the opening BVPC trip on the North Branch of the Pawtuxet.

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Charles - Needham to Wellesley - September 3, 2022

In the "new to me" Capella

I had put a RICKA flatwater trip on the calendar in the spring, and my original plan was to do a shuttle trip on the Medfield to Natick section of the Charles. When I got an email from Steve saying that the river was choked with weeds above the Farm Road/Bridge Street bridge I had to change my plans. I decided to do an up-and-back trip in the “Bays Region” from Needham to Wellesley.

Under the Centre Street Bridge

We met at 10:00 to launch our boats at the Charles River Peninsula (87 Fisher Street, Needham, MA). In this section, the river is relatively undeveloped except for some large houses as the river flows through Dover/Sherborn. The river starts off as marshland, but turns to woodlands as you get above the Dover Street Bridge. After a break for lunch at the Elm Bank Reservation (900 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA) we headed back downstream – 11 easy miles in my new Capella.

Skye, Cheryl and Erik - the three Capellas

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Charles River Peninsula

Elm Bank Reservation

Keeping the Circle Small - Charles River Bays Region - June 13, 2020

Bays Region

When I think of the Charles River, I usually think of the section from Medfield to Natick since that was the first section that I did, but there are lots of nice sections of the Charles. The "early morning paddling crew" got out yesterday for a run on the Charles through the “Bays Region” in Needham and Dover. I did this trip several years ago with the RICKA crew, but we put in at the other end at Elm Bank Reservation (900 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA). 

The Charles arises in Hopkinton and meanders 80-miles on its 30-mile trip to Boston Harbor. We had the place to ourselves at 8:00 when we put in at the boat ramp at the Charles River Peninsula (87 Fisher Street, Needham, MA). We paddled a short ways downstream under the South Street Bridge to check out the Cochrane Dam before heading upstream. In this section, the river is relatively undeveloped except for some large houses as the river flows through a couple of the ritziest towns in MA - Needham, Dover and Wellesley. We went upstream about 3.5-miles to the Dover Road/Charles River Road Bridge where we turned around. When we got back to the put in at around 11:00 the place was packed.

The crew - Erik, Conrad, Al and Jonathan

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Charles River Peninsula

Charles - Wellesley to Needham - October 17, 2015

Bill and I had agreed to do some tandem paddling, so I loaded the Spirit II on the rack and headed off the to the Charles River. We joined RICKA for a round-trip from the Elm Bank Reservation (900 Washington Street) in Wellesley to the Cochrane Dam on Fisher Street (Charles River Peninsula Access Road) in Needham – about 11 miles. The river is relatively undeveloped except for a few large houses, and the foliage was great with lots of yellows, golds and reds. Nice trip.

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