Most of February and early March were cursed with constant brisk winds. OK, I’m making a excuse for not getting out more often the last month.

Today was perfect. Tide was a little later in the day then I prefer, but doable. I put in at Bridge Street/Union Street in Marshfield, and from there journeyed up and down river, then back. But before putting in there, I tried the (upriver) Indian Head River launch point off Elm Street in Hanover. It is a source of the North River and there is wide variance in its tides from the mouth to the headwaters. So when I pulled into the launch at Indian Head, the tide was so low that it would have required a very wet hike of several hundred yards to pass the partly exposed gravel beds to get to waters deep enough to take up the paddle. (did I mention how cold the water is right now?)

The interesting thing is, the tide was high, at that moment, at Scituate/Duxbury. Instead of dead low, it should have been mid-tide on that spot of the river.

So I went in at Bridge Street.

First let me say to Jim and Holly (hope I remembered the names correctly) hello again! Very nice to meet you.

And I will finish this after “Smash”.

Interesting show, the singer, Katharine Hope McPhee, will be a big star and terrific performer for a long time to come.

I launched from the Bridge/Union street site about half an hour before high tide, and it was very high.

For comparison last April…

The handrails in the first picture are twenty feet above this shot.

So I launched and spent two hours paddling up and down the river.

What I like about this time of the year, I (mostly) still have the river to myself. The damn stink-pots are still laid up and the private docks aren’t out.

Mild winter is an understatement, I chatted with one property owner on the river who told me that the river never froze over this year, some floating ice, but no solid ice. Been a long time since I’ve seen that.

Now that I’ve broken the ice, so to speak, I must pick up the pace of my outings.