Weymouth Fore River, New Ramp, May 17, 2012

Trip reports that don't have a page dedicated to them.

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norm
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Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:13 pm
Location: Stoughton, MA

Weymouth Fore River, New Ramp, May 17, 2012

Post by norm »

This trip was organized by Pat to check out the new Weymouth Landing launch ramp for hand carried boats. Pat asked if I would do a trip report, since I was taking pictures.

I looked back at the original discussion about this ramp, started by Gary. One of the questions that got answered in this trip is that this ramp should be fine at the lowest of tides. I arrived early and it was close to low tide and it was rocky in the water at the bottom of the ramp, no worries about sinking in mud. The end of the ramp is right in the channel for the Braintree Yacht Club, so there is enough water to make your way all the way out of the river from here. The channel was well marked for all the boats at the yacht clubs.

As you may have seen from the general discussion http://wtpaddlers.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2726 with all the pictures by Gary, the parking lot is very nice with a pavement entry from the road leading onto fine crushed stone, surrounded by fresh loam with new grass planted and starting to grow. There is a path that leads toward town, between the commuter parking lot and a short side channel of the river. I didn't venture very far up the trail to see where it went. The path was blocked by 3 posts so cars would not drive on it. The path to the boat ramp was also blocked by 3 posts that would prevent anyone from trying to back a trailer down the ramp. Right now, you could go around the poles over the new grass, so I wonder if they might add some boulders to create a border at the edge of the parking and grass.

When I arrived, there was a family of geese walking up the ramp.

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The geese fed on a little bit of the new grass and then meandered back down to the water. In a reply to the trip posting after the trip, Pat reported that the ramp was steep and skinny. In these pictures, you can see the steepness.

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Pat also mentioned the width of the ramp is a problem for long kayaks, especially glass boats that could get scraped up on the ramp concrete. The granite walls are probably 11 or 12 feet apart and with the steepness, a 16 foot boat's bow runs aground on the ramp while the cockpit is still in about waist deep water. It makes for a very difficult landing. Here is a picture showing the width of the ramp with my 15 foot long kayak at the bottom.

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Since I had come straight from work rather than going home first, I arrived much earlier than the others and took a short paddle up river to see if anything had changed since Bea, Sue and I paddled this area in February. What I found was that the yacht clubs had now installed all their docks and about half of them were occupied. There are still a lot of boats up in the storage area.

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Also, upriver there were a few families of geese, but I didn't get close enough to get a good picture in the low bright sunshine. The river was blocked near the condos with some sort of net strung across from wall to wall, so I wasn't able to go as far up as I did in February. I checked out the side channel across from the Braintree Yacht Club and found that it just ends with a bunch of large storm drains pipes from Weymouth Landing. Pat had called me on the marine radio when he arrived, so after about 20 minutes of paddling, I returned to the ramp and got out to help Pat, Ron and Chip launch. The water was now up the ramp a little, so I volunteered to help Chip and Ron get their glass boats in without scraping them too much. Then with a wet plastic boat on a wet ramp, I was able to get in, secure my spray skirt and then slide into the water with a bit of a seal launch.


Pat in his plastic Tempest.

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Chip and Ron in their glass boats.

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Heading out.

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Just as we started getting going, I noticed a dock on river right that had some toy boats, one in the water and one up on the dock.

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The boat on the dock looked like a toy tugboat that might take a little outboard motor.

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The toy boat in the water was set up complete with action figures and a helicopter taking off from the deck.

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We paddled out toward the real navy ship, the U.S.S. Salem but stayed on the far shore avoiding the commuter boat area.

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We went under the Fore River bridge and turned up the Quincy Town River. Before going very far, we realized it was getting late and turned around and headed back to be sure we'd be off the water before dark.

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When we got back to the ramp, Pat and Ron were in the lead and were first to get out of their boats, using the cracks in the granite walls for hand-holds to steady themselves as they struggled to get out. Then they helped Chip and I land and get out. This is definitely a ramp for plastic kayaks 12 feet long and shorter.

Here is a topo map of the area with our track highlighted.

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A few specs from the trip:

Launch time (for me): 5:45pm
First landing: 6:08pm
Back on water: 6:34pm
Take-out time: 8:03pm
Total Distance Paddled: 5.53 miles


Thanks Gary for telling us about this new launch ramp. Thanks Pat for organizing a quick trip to check it out.

Norm
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