Re: [Paddlewise] New Hampshire and Mass paddling

From: Kirk Olsen <kork4_at_cluemail.com>
Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:52:41 -0400
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On Tue, 3 Jul 2007 16:33:24 -0700 (PDT), "Marilyn Kircus"
<mkircus_at_sbcglobal.net> said:
> I brought my fast little solo canoe and both single and double blades
> with me to Groton, MA  and am looking for both suggestions for
> interesting paddles and organized trips.  I can keep up with moderate sea
> kayaks and tandem canoes and  can handle up to class II water and 2 foot
> waves with this boat. 
> 
> I would like to paddle less than 2 hours from here. So far I've only
> paddled on the Nashua river. 

Lots of good choices in the area.  http://www.nspn.org is very active
local sea kayak club.

Starting close to you and heading east (I'm not that familiar with the
choices west and north of groton and will leave that up to others):

The concord river from Billerica to concord is nice.  It can get crowded
on weekends.  

The shawsheen from dascomb road in andover or upstream of ballardvale
can be a pleasant quiet water paddle, it's not as good when it's hot and
the water gets low.

Sections of the merrimack river can be fun.  Below 495 from Lawrence to
haverhill there's not much development along the river.  Or if you put
in in Lawrence (near 28), to head upstream toward lowell there's a big
launch area.  On weekends I expect it's a bit busy.  I paddle there off
season.  The parking is near a not so nice neighborhood (I've never had
problems there) and the river gets nice amazingly quickly.  Frequently
there's a bald eagle hanging out in the trees just west of route 93,
there's only about a dozen buildings and a golf course along the south
shore of the river from the launch site up to Lowell.  There are a
couple launch sites, on the merrimack, in west newbury - you have the
chance of bald eagles both up and down stream from the launch site, the
water is a bit quicker, it's a further drive too, with less development
along both banks.  

Driving further I love paddling in the mouth of the Piscataqua,  Launch
behind Frisbee's store in Kittery point maine for some nice exploring,
stick to the creek behind gerrish island, lunch at chauncey's creek is
an great excuse to go up the creek.  Or on the south of the river mouth
behind new castle island(I'm not sure of launch sites behind new
castle).

Driving a bit further into Mass, the Ipswich river in Topsfield/Danvers
is a popular canoe destination.

One of my summer favorites is paddling essex bay, in Essex
Massachusetts, or paddling out from the Ipswich river and have lunch on
the south tip of plum island, or the sandbar opposite Cranes beach.  If
the weather is calm this is a fun place to be - it's also the site of
Keith Attenborough's rescue so it can be an ugly place to be if the
conditions get rough.


Kirk
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Received on Thu Jul 05 2007 - 04:27:42 PDT

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