Michael and Keith paddling from Winthrop Street, just below the Willowdale Dam down to the Riverbend Headquarters of the Ipswich River Watershed Association.
This stretch of the river is one of our favorites - in addition to just being really pretty, it also offers a variety of opportunities to learn about reading the water, managing small obstacles and a noticeable variation in the paddling experience depending on the water levels.
To see a stark illustration of the change in weather patterns in 2023 and the impact it had on the river, here's a link to a video of a "paddle" on the same stretch of river taken almost to the day (August 10. 2022 to August 8, 2023) a year earlier, in August 2022: • Walking Down the Ipswi... .
The two videos clearly show the differences at key points like the launch, the big blowdown (I was able to go under the water level blocking log in this video), at the Old Stone Weir and at the "riffles" below the Mill Street bridge (I'll work on a single video that runs the segments back to back - may be a bit).
Hope you enjoy it - comments are greatly appreciated.
Keith
22 сен 2023
