West River with the BVPC - May 23, 2023

The open boaters 

I saw on Facebook that Danny and Bill would be joining the Tuesday night trip with the Blackstone Valley Paddle Club on the West River in Uxbridge, so I decided to join as well. Open boaters make every trip better.

The West River in MA (not to be confused with the West River in VT) arises at Silver Lake and Cider Mill Pond in Grafton and flows south for approximately 13-miles to its convergence with the Blackstone River in Uxbridge. The river was a source of power for several textile mills during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.

Heading out

As part of the flood control work completed after Hurricanes Connie and Diane in 1955, a large flood control dam was built on the West River by the Army Corps of Engineers. The flood control land now includes 600 acres of woodland and marshland along the river and upstream in the towns of Uxbridge, Northbridge and Upton.

On this trip we would be paddling from West River Road in Uxbridge up to the flood control dam. By late spring or early summer, the backwater from the dam just above Mendon Street (Route 16) is full of invasive weeds, so this trip needs to be done early in the season. We paddled upstream over two beaver dams. The river that twists and turns through pretty woodlands and marshland as we made our way up the West Hill Dam and back.

The crew at the put-in

Links:

My Pictures

New Year's Day on the West River – Northbridge – January 1, 2020

Forgot my hat, so the helmet had to do!

“Winter is not just about skiing”. That’s what Jo-Ann told a reporter from the Hartford Courant who came to get some pictures of our 2015 New Year’s Day trip on the Tville section of the Farmington, and she was right. New Year’s Day runs are definitely a tradition around here, and some consider it bad luck if you are not out in your boat on January 1^st.

This year I had the usually options for whitewater runs including the Upper and Lower Winni, Tville and Crystal. In the end, I decided to stay close to home and do a section of a river that I had not done before – the West River in Northbridge. Although Bill is not big on cold weather paddling (he has become more of a winter hiker), he agreed to paddle tandem with me. 

The crew at Harrington Pool Picnic Area

The West River is a 13-mile long tributary of the Blackstone River. It originates at Silver Lake in Grafton, and flows though Northbridge and Uxbridge before entering into the Blackstone south of Wheelockville (above Route 122) in Uxbridge. After devastating floods in the 1950’s, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed the West Hill Dam on the West River in 1960. The dam includes a 567-acre reserve upstream in the towns of Uxbridge, Northbridge and Upton.  

We met 717 Mendon Road in Northbridge, and carted out boats down to the put in below the bridge. The river twists and turns through the backwaters of the West Hill Dam. We paddled about a mile down to the Harrington Pool Picnic Area. We talked about portaging over the street and down to the dam, but decided instead to find a sunny spot out of the wind and take a break. Then we headed back up stream to the put in. From there, most of the crew continued upstream of another mile, but Bill, Louise and I decided to call it a day. It was a fun and easy way to start the New Year, and just enough to guarantee good paddling mojo in 2020.

A pretty section of the West River

Links:

My Pictures

West Hill Dam

Put-in at 717 Mendon Road, Northbridge