by John Hicks-Courant
johnhc@TheWorld.com
On November 23rd, 2002, at 9:00 AM, four men in three canoes set out from Middlesex Turnpike in Bedford and paddled through Billerica to the Knights of Columbus in Tewksbury. These intrepid, foolhardy fellows were Bob Rauseo, Mike Hall, Frank Linton, and yours truly.
It was cold. As the first boat in the water, I was perhaps half a mile downstream — a quarter of a mile as the crow flies — looking back upstream as Mike and Frank launched their canoe. I couldn’t even see Bob. The falling snow formed a white wall through which I could only make out the colors of Mike’s and Frank’s clothes. There really are few things quite as pretty as watching snow fall from the middle of a floodplain. (This assumes, of course, that you are dressed appropriately.)
By the time we pulled out at the K of C at 1:00, we had paddled through every kind of weather other than rain. Bright, warm sunlight followed the snowfall. Later the sky clouded over and we were treated to contrary arctic winds.
As the lead boat, I managed to collect most of the trash. I half-filled my single-person canoe with the flotsam and jetsam of suburban civilization. I am still amazed at how modern sneakers — especially the knockoff brands that look more expensive than they really are — manage to float when completely saturated with silt and water.
When we emptied the boats at the K of C, we managed to fill one forty-gallon contractor’s garbage bag and half of another. I consider this a testimony to our success at keeping the river clean. A decade ago, the shorter trip from Rte. 3A to Whipple Road yielded nine boats full of garbage.
Some observations in anticipation of the upcoming Cleanup Season:
— Trees have fallen into the river in the wooded sections
— Trash left by the Anglers of April will collect
in the backwater of those downed trees
— The optimal time to do the first cleanups in
the wooded sections will be May and June
