Squannacook River - West Groton MA

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I had an opportunity to explore a short section of the Squannacook River this weekend.  This section of the river is very remote and removed from civilization, the only sounds you hear while paddling are the birds chirping.

The Squannacook River is a tributary of the Nashua River that winds approximately 16 miles through the towns of Townsend, Shirley, Groton and Ayer.  There are 5 dams on the river--3 in Townsend and 2 in West Groton.  Our put in was just above one of the dams at the West Groton Water Supply District Building at 305 Townsend Rd, West Groton MA.  This is a very convenient put in with lots of parking and a short walk to the water.

This section above the dam is called the Squannacook River reservoir and is a fairly large pond like section of the river.  There is a large manufacturing facility across the reservoir but it disappeared quickly as we made our way upstream.  As you paddle through the reservoir the river narrows down to about 30 feet wide in most sections.  Most of this area is conservation land so there is nothing along the banks of the river through most of this section.

I was struck by the quiet while paddling and pleasantly surprised bu the cleanliness and lack of trash that I usually see along the rivers I normally paddle.  Either there is a group that works really hard to keep the river clean or it is sees few people that litter doesn't get deposited. 

There were quite a few downed trees along the river, most were fairly easy to navigate around.  We did encounter one tree ahout halfway through our paddle that we needed to portage around which was a bit hairy as the banks are fairly high and steep.  Luckily we make it through fairly dry.

There was a good bit of rain last week so there was a pretty brisk current that made our upstream paddle a bit strenuous.   It is still a bit early in the season as well so I am sure that normally the current isn't that strong.  We paddled upstream for a total of about two and a half miles where we encountered a nice section of rapids which was our turn around point.

For a minute I considered dragging my kayak upstream a bit and running through this section but as I got a closer look I decided it was probably not a good idea as I really didn't want to get wet.   I am told that this section was just a trickle a couple weeks ago but it was pretty impressive on this day.  There are apparently a few more similar sections of rapids further upstream.

We encountered plenty of wildlife along the river including turtles, Great Blue Heron, Red Winged Blackbirds and beaver.  We also passed a couple fly fishermen, one of whom pulled out a small trout as we passed.  We also saw another group of kayakers at the take out who I assume took a shorter version of the trip that we did. 

The total distance of this trip was approximately 5 miles and took us about three hours upstream and back.  One important note, if you plan to paddle this river bring plenty of bug spray.  We didn't notice the mosquitoes while we were paddling but once we stopped to check out the rapids we were swarmed.  Over all a really nice river that I hope to explore more of very soon.