AMC Paddle - Charles River Medfield to South Natick

I've only paddled a couple sections of the Charles River:  the section near the boathouse in Newton and in Cambridge out to the Boston Inner Harbor (both years before this blog started).  In any event, I was up to try this section in South Natick.  To be honest, I always think of the Charles as running west to east and never considered that it sometimes runs south to north.

I was with AMC Worcester today and we had a small group  of 7 paddlers in total.  For the most part, the river was wide and slow moving, so the paddling was easy.  Nonetheless, there was actually quite a lot to see along the way.

This was another shuttle trip which means having to find places to park cars near the take-out just before the dam in South Natick, which was hard with all the activity at the nearby baseball fields.  But we finally got started on the river at 11:10am.

This wooden train trestle cuts through a corner of the Medfield Charles River State Reservation (park).   In the extreme foreground, you can see I am paddling my yellow Pungo 120, which I usually paddle on these inland rivers. 

There were many sections of the river that looked like this: peaceful, wide open river with low vegetation.

On these river trips, we often wind up chasing great blue herons down the river.  This one took a break and stood still long enough for a good picture.

At our lunch stop, we were treated to some retrieval training for dogs.  Apparently, dogs and owners were being trained.  The man in charge would throw a duck decoy out into the water, then give a signal to the dog to go retrieve.  The dogs were even able to retrieve "blind", that is without seeing where the decoy was thrown.  Very cool.

The dog waits patiently at the river's edge while the man at left prepares to throw the decoy into the water.

On signal, our dog splashes into the water to retrieve the decoy.

He swims out to the decoy...

... then brings it back to the trainer...

... and drops it at his feet.

    

Then, they run through this scenario...

... a few more times.

After a nice lunch, we started down the river once more.

This river landing is located in Rocky Narrows Reservation.  There are both hiking and equestrian trails available here.  Some of the horses and riders are taking a break here. .

From this stately house, one can view the river
through a long gauntlet of trees.

Our Lady of the Charles
This large statue of the Virgin Mary
was placed here by local
 poet and professor in 1929.

Just a little past the statue was this footbridge, known at the Sargent footbridge.
"This private footbridge was built by Daniel Sargent after he bought the house on river left and an adjoining parcel of land on river right in 1921." (Charles River Guide)

Along the way, we also passed Peters Reservation.  I'd love to come back to this area and explore these various reservations for hiking.

We ended our adventure just after 3:00.  In 3 hours 55 minutes we traveled 9.13 miles averaging a lazy 2.33 mph.  The sunny weather held for day and look forward to another one soon.