Another Spring day on the Nashua River.

Well we made it down to the Nashua again this Saturday. The parking lot still had about 2’-3’ of snow but it was much easier to manage this week since the extra melting sort of crusted it over a little preventing any sinking in over the rubber boots. We were lucky enough to have some company this time, Steve and Seth Miller decided to make the drive out and take their C-1s out for a spin. It was their first time out this year so we were all out with the same intention of waking up the paddling muscles and enjoying a little scenery.  Speaking of scenes we ran into a pretty interesting one as we put in the river, this is kind of gross but far too interesting to not share so you have been warned. As we slipped the boats into the water we happened to notice what appeared to be a ball or something red and round caught up in a streamer just below the put-in ledge. Once we got in and floated around a bit the disturbed water also started moving around this pile of “stuff” Travis and I moved over a little closer to get a better look and realized it was a giant pile of entrails! Next to the pile of guts was the water logged body of what we think was a deer. Dead animals can be a common site on the river in the spring mainly due to animals running out on the ice to avoid a coyote, or maybe the snow is whiter on the other side, we might never know why they do it.

Once we all got a good look at the gruesome site we were on our way down stream. The pace was good and we quickly made it down to Rt. 2, I forget how fast those C-1’s are until your paddling right next to each other and they are keeping up effortlessly even though we have 2 paddlers in one boat. Steve and Seth were both paddling Wenonah Advantages which are really nice boats, it’s on my long list of boats I wouldn’t mind adding to the small fleet we already have. We easily made it past the spot we had to stop at last week and headed down towards Ayer and the dam which would be the next stop unless we ran into ice before that. Sure enough we made it almost to the dam before running into an ice jam that was almost passable but still stopped us. Next week it should be open for sure with the balmy 40-50 degree days we have been seeing sprinkled into the forecast here and there.

We turned at the 5 mile mark and made our way back up stream, at this point the wind started to pick up a little bit but it was a warm breeze which is always a lot easier to deal with then a frigid cold winter breeze. We paddled back up to the put in with about 2 hours and 15 minutes on the water and 10 miles added to the training log. It was good to have some company on the paddle and we promised to see the Miller brothers soon enough. Before we know it we will be back to our normal Wednesday night spot on the Charles River with everyone once the clocks have been changed and we have a little more light at night.