Ah - the first kayaking adventure of the season.

Actually, it wasn’t the first one. I had tried this route a few days prior but didn’t know much about it so I’ll call the initial run a trial. There’s a spot down in the Needham area where the Charles River basically loops back on itself if the water is high enough. I had heard about this from someone at the Charles River paddling group a year or two prior. Basically you can take this little stream up-stream and then pull your kayak out and walk up these small rapids an then put back in and do something called the Dedham water trail back to where you put in.

Anyway, when I went to do it the first time, I wasn’t expecting to have to portage my kayak and was not wearing any type of good footwear to do that. So the next time I went back, and thinking that I needed to go the other direction, wound up paddling UP STREAM (clockwise on the map below), which took me about 3 hours just to paddle downstream the little part that connects back up to the main river. It was a bit anti-climatic, to be honest.

Round 3 will be to go the right way (counter-clockwise) for a downstream, easier paddle that doesn’t take me a whole afternoon. Overall, great adventure though!

I’ve included pictures from the first try and the second.