Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9, 2012

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norm
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Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9, 2012

Post by norm »

I've been to a lot of Boston Harbor Islands in the past year, but there are a few I have not stopped at or not visited recently. Since my regular mid-week paddling buddies were unavailable Wednesday, I planned out this trip for Thursday and posted the trip Wednesday afternoon. The plan was to paddle about 7 miles before the first rest stop on Gallups Island, then proceed to Calf Island for lunch and exploration. On the way back to Hingham we would also make a long stop on Peddocks Island to see the extent of the changes that have been made there in the past couple of years.

There are a few astute Wild Turkey Paddlers that know to watch the "Upcoming Trips" message board (or subscribe to automatic messages from the forum) and signed up for the trip even though the posting was less than 24 hours before launch time. So, we had a good strong group of 5 for this 18+ mile full day schedule. A few of us also planned to stay for the weekly Thursday evening paddle with the rest of the Turkeys and enjoy well deserved PPR at Stars. Our group for the day would be myself, Sue, Ron, Bob and Greg.

We launched from Hingham Harbor at about 8:00am with a very comfortable temperature in the mid 70's and almost no wind to start the day.

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We headed past Slate and Grape Islands and through West Gut watching plenty of commuter ferry boats carrying people to work. The water still nice and smooth.

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Our first stop was on Gallups Island after 7.4 miles and just under 2 hours of paddling.

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There were no signs on the section of beach where we landed. There were remains of some railroad track that led to nowhere. I guess maybe it extended into the water in the past and was used to pull boats out onto the beach.


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A view of Long Island over an old breakwater.

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There is a nice shaded waiting area at the beach end of the pier.

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The pier seemed to be in pretty good shape, but there are missing floorboards in a couple spots. Ron fell through one and scraped up his leg while backing up to take a picture. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt too badly.

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There are signs in the waiting area about the island being closed and why it is closed.

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A view of Rainsford Island from the pier.

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There seemed to be trails leading inland from the pier, so Sue and I walked inland a little bit. There were storm fences blocking off areas and everything was overgrown.

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An old foundation was barely visible.

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Hidden in the overgrowth were a couple pit toilets that were in pretty good shape. The one on the right even had toilet paper.

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After using the facilities, we went back to the pier.

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As we started to leave, a DCR landing craft boat arrived from the direction of Georges Island and a ranger called me over. He informed me that this is the one island that you are not allowed to land on. I told him we were kayakers just stopping to stretch our legs after 7 miles of paddling and he repeated "this is the one island you are not allowed to land on". I told him we were leaving immediately.

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While I spoke to the DCR ranger, the others proceeded back to the kayaks and found a State Police boat approaching from around Long Island. They were given the same message "this is the one island you are not allowed to land on". Message received!

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Back on the water, heading towards Lovells Island, in the shallow water near Gallups.

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Bea took this picture.

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Approaching Calf Island. We chose to land at the beach on the southern tip, nearest the Cheney Mansion ruins.

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Greg and Ron approach the beach with a hazy Boston in the background.

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On the beach were four chairs but no people. Sue noticed marks on the beach as if somebody had just dragged heavy kayaks into the water recently.

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We all sat down and ate lunch. Only Ron chose to use one of the chairs.

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Just up from the beach is a nice little clandestine campsite with a view of Great Brewster Island.

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The campsite even has a chair swing.

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All five of us ventured into the woods behind the chair looking for a trail to the mansion ruins but retreated quickly to the beach after getting swarmed by hundreds of mosquitoes about 25 feet into the sumac bushes. From the southern beach of Calf is a different view of Middle Brewster Island than we are accustomed to seeing.

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The rocks caught my attention. Some of them are so sharp and jagged.

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Other rocks were smooth. Of course the smoother ones were below or near the high tide line.

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Another view of Middle Brewster with more rocks in the foreground.

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Looking to the northeast, the Graves Lighthouse is barely visible in the haze about 2 miles away.

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Looking back to the south-southeast, Boston Light in the shadowy haze only 3 quarters of a mile away, beyond Great Brewster.

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I'm always trying to match a good picture I got of an oyster catcher on Middle Brewster a few years ago. This is the best I could do this time.

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I still wanted pictures of the Cheney mansion ruins, so I soaked myself in bug spray and found a closer spot to climb up to the ruins after a quick dash through the sumacs. The prominent, most visible remains of the mansion is the billiards room chimney.

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Looking at what was left of the foundations, my guess is that there was a concrete veranda around the perimeter of the house on the sides facing the water.

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The sumac bushes are really taking over the whole area and I imagine the roots will undermine the remaining concrete soon. Even the chimney has plants growing out of the brickwork that is sure to weaken it faster.

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The house was set back from the edge of the cliff a little, but there was one section of the veranda that extended right to the edge.

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Parts of the wall are falling over into the water.

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Looking over the edge, down at the water.

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The view down to the beach.

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Looking back to where the house was and the gauntlet of sumacs full of mosquitoes. There's no standing still or you'll be eaten alive this time of year. It might be better to visit this island in early spring before the bugs come out and the trails get obscured by the bushes.

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I did a quick Google search to see if I could find a picture of what the mansion looked like and found this rough photo on the Patriot Ledger website:
[http] http://www.patriotledger.com/lifestyle/ ... ds?photo=1 [/http]


When I returned to the beach, the DCR landing craft was coming ashore to drop off a crew to map out the trails of the island with GPS units.

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They loaded up with bug spray and made their way through the mosquito infested sumacs to the mansion ruins. I don't think they went much further because they returned to the beach pretty quickly and called for the boat to pick them up again. They said everything was too overgrown to find any trails.

One of the DCR crew up on the veranda I had just come down from.

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A sailboat in the harbor near Deer Island.

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Over by Great Brewster we spied some kayaks, so we got out the binoculars to see if it was anyone we know. It wasn't. There were 5 tandem kayaks and two singles.

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It was time to go, so we loaded the boats back up and got our paddling gear on.

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Our next destination was Peddocks Island and our path would take us near Great Brewster and along its gravel bar. We got close enough to see if the picnic table is still on the chunk of concrete at the top of the cliff.

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At the beach were the kayaks that we had seen paddle by. It looked like a youth group getting ready to camp out on Great Brewster.

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Greg and Bob with the Great Brewster gravel bar and Boston Light behind them.

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A merged pair of photos taken over my shoulder as we paddled toward Peddocks Island.

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Hull Gut was pretty calm but the windmill was moving.

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No need to cross the gut today, we stayed close to the northern end of Peddocks.

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The thoroughly renovated visitors center on Peddocks Island.

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The back of the nice, new dock facility.

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We sat in the shade at the new picnic tables in front of the visitors center for a few minutes. A National Park Ranger came over and greeted us. I asked him a few questions before we went inside. They do have air conditioning and an elevator in the building now as well as modern bathrooms and a couple vending machines for drinks. There are plans to renovate the chapel next year and I think he said a nearby building will become a snack bar.

The interior of the building seemed a bit empty but there were nice historical pictures on the walls.

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Behind the main room, a half flight of stairs down, there is a room full of round tables with a wide mural on the wall.

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This island was used as a prison of war camp during World War 2 and there are some prison bar reminders in a few places. This is the side entrance, handicap accessible door to the visitors center.

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Inside is the elevator (already "out of order") and the 2 vending machines.

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Ron chose to have a rest in the shade of the trees while the rest of us took a walk around Fort Andrew to see what has been done to stabilize the remaining buildings, what has been demolished and what the new campground looks like.

The roadway along the parade ground. I think the buildings on the right were barracks.

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Only the foundation is left from the Post Headquarters building at the end of the parade ground.

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Someone made the comment that the interior would make a nice volleyball court.

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Looking back down the trail, behind the barracks, that we took to find the new campground.

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The stairway on the outside of the Gun Battery Fire Control Tower has been removed.

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Only one yurt platform was close to completion and the supporting cement pilings looked pretty pathetic in their placement.

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One other floor frame was started.

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Is this what they mean by the phrase "good enough for government work"?

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The camping area is right by the Fire Control Tower which has been closed up at the top to stabilize the building. You need to realize that this island was almost devoid of trees back in the 1940's. This tower would have had a commanding view of the surrounding area.

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Here is an aerial image from 1932. Notice how few trees there are. The Fire Control Tower sits alone on the right hilltop. The WW2 white chapel that is so prominent now did not exist at that time.
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This water spigot looks like it is an antique left for show. Bob didn't think it would work. I gave it a try and water came out.

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They have even run some underground electricity to the camping area.

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If I remember correctly, it looked like there were foundation piers poured for 8 yurts. It wasn't clear whether there will also be tent sites mixed in with the yurts.

We could not find an easy way to get to the gun batteries near the campsites and the mosquitoes were starting to get us, so we took a shortcut down a steep hill behind the barracks to get back down to the lower level.

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At the crossroads behind the barracks we chose to take the path towards the storehouse and the lower gun batteries.

Looking out across the parade ground before turning and heading toward the other side of the island.

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There is a tunnel leading into one of the gun battery areas and our flashlights were not bright enough to illuminate the darkness for our eyes accustomed to the bright sunlight, so I tried a flash picture to capture what lurked in the darkness.

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After coming through the tunnel, it seemed like we were in an overgrown courtyard complete with picnic tables. No evidence of any gun mounts here like are seen on other harbor islands.

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There were these little rooms on the sides that looked like they were small arms gun nests for a last stand or something.

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We took a different tunnel on the way out and there were piles of stones and metal pipes stacked near the road.

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At the end of the road is the storehouse.

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Up the hill and around the corner is the path along "Officers Row" where there were more than a dozen buildings at one time. All that remain now are a few of the brick buildings that stood up to the weather and vandals better than the other buildings.

The NCO quarters.

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Beyond the NCO quarters, the next stretch of buildings has been razed. I think there are about 4 gone.

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I think the next 2 remaining buildings were the Hospital Stewards Quarters.

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Next there was only a long line in the grass that I figure was the hospital foundation. There were no more remaining buildings.

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An old telephone pole with a street light in the woods shows there were probably a lot of wires here in the past.

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I wonder if the fire hydrants all over the island still work? Not as easy to test that out.

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We took a look at taking a shortcut down the hill back to the parade ground, but it was too rough and we didn't find the staircase.

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Without the shortcut and with nothing else to look at, we just strolled along the long path back to the pier.

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The view of Bumpkin Island from the trail.

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A view of the new Peddocks docks.

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Geese resting in the shade near the parade grounds.

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The parade grounds from in front of the chapel.

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The chapel.

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Ron had found a comfortable spot under a tree and was sound asleep when we got back. Greg woke him up saying something like: "excuse me sir but this is the only island you are not allowed to sleep on".

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It was time to pack up and head home.

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On the way back to Hingham Harbor, the water was a little choppier and we came across a few sailboats.

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The wind was blowing straight out from Hingham making it a bit of a slog for our return leg, but we came across this Turkey who was enjoying the wind. He said he was doing 4.5 mph without paddling.

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When we got back to the beach, the Thursday night crowd was busy launching their boats. Sue, Ron and I joined them for the evening paddle. Bob and Greg headed home.

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Here is a Google Earth picture of our actual GPS track for the day and evening paddles.

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A few specs from the trip:

Morning launch time: 8:06am
Stop on Gallups Island: 9:52am Distance: 7.43 miles
Depart Gallups Island: 10:33am
Arrive at Calf Island: 11:27am Distance: 10.25 miles
Depart Calf Island: 1:18pm
Arrive Peddocks Island: 2:37pm Distance: 13.89 miles
Depart Peddocks Island: 3:58pm
Arrive Hingham Beach: 5:30pm Distance: 18.24 miles
Depart Hinghan Beach: 5:39pm
Arrive Hingham Beach: 7:27pm Distance: 23.87 miles

Thanks for joining me everyone for this long day of paddling and exploring.

Norm
Last edited by norm on Mon Mar 04, 2013 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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kayakerjnj
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Re: Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9,

Post by kayakerjnj »

Great shots Norm!

You guys a fun filled day!!
Paddle with a big smile, its contagious 8)


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Re: Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9,

Post by Ken R »

That was a great report. It realy makes me wish i had gone.
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TraceyJ
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Re: Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9,

Post by TraceyJ »

Very nice report, Norm, and
a lot of great pictures.

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NorwayLady
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Re: Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9,

Post by NorwayLady »

Great report, Norm. Amazing how I managed to get into this report....and I wasn't even there. Looks like you had a really intresting day on the water!
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Re: Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9,

Post by Birdseye »

Always wanted to get up to see that chimney but never made it. Thanks for the report.
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Re: Hingham to Gallups, Calf, Peddocks - Thursday - Aug. 9,

Post by Ron »

Thanks Norm. I am glad someone in the group can write.
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