There were three replies to my Wednesday afternoon posting, so Bea, Karen F. and Ken W. would be joining me. When we arrived at the bridge, it was still a bit overcast and there was a little chill in the air.
Seems like summer is over as we each put on one more layer of clothing to start the day.
We talked over where to go knowing that the wind would be picking up. Bea lobbied to stay out of the back river and instead head out toward the marsh behind Gurnet Light House first since we'd be able to arrive out there at about high tide. So the group decision was to head across the bay, along the back of Duxbury beach, to the back of Gurnet Light and then if there was still time when we returned, go into the Duxbury Back River.
As we were paddling along the back of the beach, we came across a group of people that were apparently traveling in a van. From the distance we couldn't tell who they were, but as we got closer, it seemed to be a bunch of people with cameras.
As we got a little further along where the beach was fairly thin, we could hear crashing surf on the other side so we decided to stop at a spot where there was a path through the dune grass and take a look at the waves. We landed and brought the boats up onto some seaweed.
We couldn't get through to the roadway where we landed, so Ken and Karen scouted out a spot further down the beach where the bushes were thinner.
King Arthur Road still showed how much rain we've had in the past week.
The opening in the dune fencing.
The water didn't look as rough as it sounded.
All four of us had cameras and all four of us had them out for pictures on the beach.
I was looking at how smooth the stones on the beach are and thought how nice some of them would be as skipping stones.
We headed back across the dune to our boats. Here's a shot of our destination, off in the still overcast distance.
On the way back to our boats, we came across all the people with cameras again who had moved further out the beach road. This time we could see the logo on the van that identified them as a Mass Audubon group as we had suspected.
We made our way to the entrance to the creek that weaves it's way to the back of the Gurnet.
The water was much calmer in the creek.
At one point, the creek heads straight toward Saquish Neck.
The creek curves back and forth, getting closer and closer to the light house.
Eventually the creek gets close enough to read the "Gurnet / Saquish Residents Only" sign for the people on the road.
We came across the Audubon group again.
I've seen the tower on this house from the other side of Saquish Neck on a trip earlier this year. From that side it seemed like it was a much smaller house.
Near the end of the creek, the light house view becomes blocked by houses.
We went just about as far as you could in long boats.
Then turned around and started making our way back.
The sky seemed to have brightened and cleared while we were in the creek.
The Standish monument could now be seen across the bay.
The wind had also picked up while we were in the creek
We decided to follow the same route on the way back. It would be a lot tougher now heading into the wind. At 11:45, we stopped for a lunch break. It seemed we were interrupting some birds that were searching for lunch.
I chose a spot with a little protection from the wind to sit and eat lunch. It felt so much warmer to get out of the wind for a few minutes.
Ken found this caterpillar thingy and handed it over to Bea to take a look at it.
There was a lot of other stuff in the seaweed - a couple different size horseshoe crabs shells.
After a 45 minute break for lunch, we headed through the marshy area that had blocked the wind making our beach landing easier. There was a kite boarder on the other side.
We all cut through a gap in the marsh where Bea has taken some nice sea-scape pictures in the past at a lower tide level.
Of course Bea got a phone-call after we got into the rough water, not while we sat on the beach.
We were entertained by the skills of the kite boarder as we made our way back to Powder Point Bridge.
The sky was much clearer now than it was when we set out in the morning.
Originally we thought there might be enough time to explore the Duxbury Back River area, but it was about 1:30pm when we got back to the Bridge. I had to leave by 2:00pm, so we called it a day.
Here is a topo map of the area with the route we traveled highlighted.
A few stats from the trip:
Launch time: 9:04am
First stop: 10:11am Distance: 2.63 miles
Distance to end of creek: 4.41 miles
Second stop: 11:45 Distance 6.305 miles
Take-out time: 1:35pm
Total distance paddled: 8.75 miles
Thanks for joining me Bea, Karen and Ken.
Norm
