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Hingham Harbor + Weir River - June 18, 2011

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:09 am
by norm
What a beautiful day to be out on the water. Clear skies, warm temperatures, calm waters, low power boat traffic and good company. I posted this trip Friday afternoon after finding out Thursday night that my other paddling plans for the weekend were not going to work out. I got an immediate response from Bea that she was interested but needed to start earlier or paddle faster, so I changed the start to 11:00am instead of noon. Saturday morning, Karen checked in to the WTP site and decided to join us also for her first trip of the season.

We all arrived on time to find very busy parking lots in Hingham. The swimming beach parking lot was full of canopies which I later found out from Karen was a farmers market that they have every Saturday.

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The boat ramp lot was dominated by sailboats large and small. Two large sailboats were setting up all their rigging over to the side before launching while about 20 smaller sailboats were in the process of launching.

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The small sailboats were Mellonseed Skiffs that had come from far and wide to sail together for a day. Bea recognized the builder of the boats, Roger Crawford, and went over and said hello.

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We launched our kayaks a few minutes after all the Mellonseeds sailed away and we paddled amongst them for a few minutes.

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We headed through the moored boats and along the Hingham shore towards Worlds End looking at all the large houses.

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After all the small boats had left, the 2 large sailboats launched and motored out through the channel to open water.

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Paddling along the Worlds End shore,

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we came across a couple of Canadian Geese that hurried across our path.

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Power boaters must all be Bruins fans and have gone in to Boston for the Stanley Cup victory parade today! There sure were very few power boats around considering it was such a nice Saturday with high tide at 2:00pm. As we rounded the point of Worlds End into the Weir River, we came across one cabin cruiser headed for a mooring where all the boats raft up to party in the summertime.

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We cruised past all the party moorings and up the Weir River with the current pushing us along.

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The skies became clearer as the day went on and the wind was non-existent.

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We headed up the arm of the river to the right.

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Until we came to a bridge that you cannot pass under.

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On the way back, we came across a group of cormorants sunning themselves.

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We spotted a great egret hiding in some high grass and tried to get closer for a better picture but this one was not very cooperative.

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We moved on up the branch of the river by the windmill where there were some osprey circling overhead.

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I found this house to look a little out of place for this neighborhood.

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There are houses all along the right side of the river.

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We came across another great egret that was much more photogenic.

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We stopped and turned around when we came across the tide gate warning signs.

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As we started heading back, we noticed a lot of geese on both sides of the river.

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Then our photogenic egret flew over and posed for a few more pictures.

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It was about 1:00pm and I was getting hungry, so Karen found a spot where we could pull over and have some lunch.

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We were across the river from the windmill and an osprey nest with chicks in it that we could hear but not see.

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There were a cluster of cormorants on the other side of the river also.

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I noticed a small jelly fish in the water and tried to get a picture of it. We saw a few throughout the day.

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Bea noticed a little crab in the shallow water in front of her.

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I was kinda glad we didn't have to wade into the water much to launch our boats. Besides the jelly fish and crabs, the water was not very clean. We had to wipe our boats off at the end of the trip.

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On our way back out of the river, we came across fishermen on the bridge and standing in shallow water.

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We stayed to the right as we left the river and came across a whole neighborhood of houses built on the very rocky shore. This first one was brand new, squeezed into a very small lot.

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We came across one of Karen's neighbors working on his sailboat and she swung by to say hello.

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I liked this paint job on a boat house garage door.

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After we rounded Worlds End back into Hingham Harbor, we decided to cross the channel and pass between the islands. There are always opportunities for pictures of sea gulls there. I presume the one on the right is a young sea gull.

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There were also other types of birds on the island, like these oyster catchers.

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We arrived back at the beach at about 3:00pm in pretty good time for Bea to make it to here evening event. I was glad I could head home and take a nap after being out in the sun and salt for 4 hours. There was still plenty of water in the harbor for more paddling but still not much activity.

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A lot more people than I would have expected must have gone to the Bruins victory parade. They missed a terrific day on the water.

Here is a topo map of the route we covered. We only did 10.8 miles, taking it easy on Karen. We launched at about 10:45 and landed at about 3:00 with just one 20 minute stop for a lunch snack.

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Thanks for joining me Bea and Karen. I hope the weather holds for the whole week and everybody can enjoy the same conditions on Thursday evening.

Re: Hingham Harbor + Weir River - June 18, 2011

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:43 am
by Surge_on
Great trip report and pictures. I would have loved to have joined you but we just got back from a few days in Maine. We've never ventured beyond the far side of World's End, but the Weir river looks quite
interesting. My wife is the photographer in our house.

Mike

Re: Hingham Harbor + Weir River - June 18, 2011

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:25 am
by norm
Surge_on wrote: We've never ventured beyond the far side of World's End, but the Weir river looks quite
interesting. My wife is the photographer in our house.
Mike

It's an easy trip if you get the tide right. You have to be a little selective with your photography to leave out the overhead power lines and messier houses, but it's worth the trip.

Personally, I'd rather have a few days in Maine!

Re: Hingham Harbor + Weir River - June 18, 2011

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:22 pm
by NorwayLady
Norm, thank you for posting this very last minute trip. My expectations were low since the forecasted weather for Hingham showed scattered thundershowers from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm! But we stayed close to shore and kept an eye in the sky. It turned out to be a beautiful day on the water.

Norm behind the lense and in his boat!
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