{"id":1512,"date":"2025-07-05T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2025-07-04T20:13:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:13:40","slug":"afternoon-paddle-on-the-ipswich-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/afternoon-paddle-on-the-ipswich-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Afternoon Paddle on the Ipswich River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For an afternoon paddle that day, I considered a few options from Middleton to Ipswich. I loaded my canoe atop my car, tied it down, then drove to the boat launch at High Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having paddled here a few times before, I knew well that a wrong turn can easily lead down the Beverly-Wenham Canal.  After using a maps app on my smartphone to double-check my orientation, I stowed the phone in a dry bag and then pushed off, heading upstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After beginning my trip with a single-blade canoe paddle, I switched to a double-blade kayak paddle when the canoe paddle struck the river bottom. A double-blade paddle requires less water depth but also requires five or six feet width.  The river is generally quite wide from Middleton to Ipswich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current of the Ipswich River can be strong during high water.  Today, the current was slow and this was no surprise.  Up-river in North Reading, a depth gauge had shown less than twelve inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came upon a wooden arch bridge over the river.  Built upon concrete piers, this bridge looked quite nice and was high enough to allow any and all paddlers pass beneath.  Yet I could see that both ends of the bridge were intentionally blocked to disallow foot traffic. Pulling my canoe to a stop in some grass, I retrieved a camera from my dry bag and photographed the bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A bit further on, multiple large trees had fallen across the river.  Getting past these obstacles would take some work and I debated continuing on or turning back.  I pressed onward.  After negotiating with a deeply muddy embankment, I pulled the boat ashore, dragged it fifty feet across the grass, taking care to avoid poison ivy, and put back into the river.  At a different tree across the river, I pulled alongside the log, climbed out, and muscled the canoe over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an automobile bridge over the river, a couple stood at the rail to enjoy the river.  I paddled under the bridge and then checked my smartphone to know the exact road. Rowley Bridge Road \u2013 my turn-around point.  I thought of friends who lived nearby, but the daylight was waning and I did not have time to go visit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The return trip downstream was a bit faster than paddling upstream. But of course I had to again navigate around the downed trees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For an afternoon paddle that day, I considered a few options from Middleton to Ipswich. I loaded my canoe atop my car, tied it down, then drove to the boat launch at High Street. Having paddled here a few times before, I knew well that a wrong turn can easily lead down the Beverly-Wenham Canal.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,54,20],"tags":[274,52,273,275,276],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-newengland","category-photo","tag-massachusetts","tag-ipswich-river","tag-ipswichriver","tag-paddlesport","tag-riverphoto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1517,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions\/1517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevindavisphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}