Charles River in Massachusetts

Trip Overview

We knew this would be a difficult stretch of the Charles River. The Medway section of Charles River has two man-made dams: the West Medway dam and the Sanford Mill dam. And we were far enough upstream that we could encounter other obstacles in the thinner water.

It turns out there were lots of obstacles.

The first obstacle was getting onto the river. We wanted to put in just downstream from the Caryville Dam in Bellingham by the Medway border. After the dam, the river rushes under Pearl Street and into the bowels of an abandoned factory. It�s not clear what the river encounters in that dark tunnel under the factory. Even if you want to find out, you can�t get close. The factory is surrounded by a chainlink fence blocking all access to the river. It looks like there are some good spots to put in at the rear of the building, but the fencing blocks access.

Around the corner on Plain Street, there is an empty lot owned by the town. But there is no path down to the river. You have to hack through trees and undergrowth down a steep embankment. It's covered in poison ivy. Under the poison ivy is a deep coating of debris, broken glass, and trash. It's a nasty place to start a kayak trip.

After finally getting in the river, we immediately hit obstacles on the river. There were dozens of trees down in the river. Some we could limbo under. Some we could squeeze around.

Then we encountered big trees completely blocking the river. The first one was so big we got out onto the mostly submerged tree trunk and hauled the kayak over the obstacle. The next big one was three trunks in a row. The Boy hopped out on the first trunk, made his way to the riverbank, walked downstream and walked out onto the third log while I wrestled the kayak over the obstacles.

Read more of this report at my blog:
http://dougcornelius.com/

Accommodations:

None

Fees:

None

Directions:

Plain Street in Bellingham, MA

Resources:

"The Charles River: Exploring Nature and History on Foot and by Canoe" by Ron McAdow