Top 10 Places to Launch on the North & South Rivers

Kayaking on the South River near Rexhame Beach.

Paddling season is here! If you enjoy canoeing, kayaking or stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), summer is the perfect time to get out on the water. The weather is warm, the breezes are light, and getting your feet wet -- or even your entire body -- might actually be welcomed. 

The North and South Rivers offer several appealing options for traveling by boat or board. Once you know where to park, where to launch, and how to plan your route, you’ll be ready for a few enjoyable hours on the water. 

BOAT TRANSPORT

But first . . . you have to get there. Or more to the point, you have to get your boat there. And that’s not always easy. Have you ever driven down the road with one anxious arm out the window, attempting to hold a wobbly canoe in place atop your vehicle? You’re not alone.

I recommend two items that will make the process infinitely easier: cam buckle tie down straps made of nylon webbing, and a roof rack with crossbars. Employing the right tools for the job makes a world of difference. Run the straps across the top of the boat, not underneath it -- one toward the front, and one toward the rear. Go over and back with each strap, using the crossbars to hold the straps in place. This works so much better than foam pads, bungee cords, and those random moldy ropes you found in your garage. 

Once you learn the best way to secure your own particular vessel to your own particular vehicle, and once you’ve successfully done it a few times, much of the stress of boat transport will fall away. 

NORTH RIVER ACCESS

There are seven public access launch sites on the North River and its tributaries. The most user-friendly for canoes, kayaks, and SUPs are the Marshfield Launch on Union Street, the Pembroke Town Forest on Brick Kiln Lane, and the Hanover Public Launch on Indian Head Drive. They all feature free parking and direct access to the rivers. More experienced paddlers might also check out the Driftway Conservation Park in Scituate, and Damon’s Point in Marshfield, being very careful in the areas around The Spit and the river mouth, where the waters are more challenging to navigate. Lucky Norwell residents have access to two additional sites. Your green recycling sticker grants you parking spots at the Norwell Town Landing on Bridge Street, and the fishing pier/boat launch at the end of Chittenden Lane. 

SOUTH RIVER ACCESS

There are three public access launch sites on the South River, all in Marshfield: the Town Landingon Ridge Road, the dunes at Rexhame Beach, and the Francis Keville Footbridgeon Ocean Street, behind CVS. As above, these sites offer parking (in season at Rexhame, there is a fee if you don’t have a town beach sticker), and reasonably direct access to the river. Keville requires a 0.15-mile carry, and Rexhame is a little farther than that. 

WEATHER, WIND AND TIDES

If your schedule is anything like mine, finding a few hours to get out on the water can be a major accomplishment. But that’s just the start of the planning process. You also have to consider the weather, the wind, and the tides.

No matter how beautiful a day it happens to be at the moment, check the forecast before you even think about unrolling those nifty cam buckle straps. Thunderstorms and paddling don’t mix, and storms can seemingly come out of nowhere on a hot summer day. Luckily the weather professionals generally know well in advance if that’s going to happen. 

Clear skies are good. Light wind (or no wind) is also important! Even if the tide is in your favor, if you try to paddle against a strong wind, you will have quite the workout (and you will get tired). You can still paddle on a windy day, but make sure the wind is blowing in the right direction. Also remember that our rivers have LOTS of twists and turns, so the “right” direction may quickly become wrong when you round the next bend.

Tides are a huge factor as well. Our local launch sites can be accessed at any tide, but in most cases, you’re going to want to travel at mid-to-high tide, not low. It’s not just about how much water there is -- it’s also about how swiftly the water is moving (especially if it’s moving in the “wrong” direction!) Low tide paddling will generally involve at least a little bit of wading, portaging, or scooching (when you sit in your boat and try to “scooch” it over a sandbar.) It can also present some fierce currents.

For an out-and-back paddling trip, where you start and end at the same location, launch an hour before high tide, head upstream, and begin your return trip around when that hour is up. If you prefer a longer trip, go earlier, still turning back at high tide.

For a one-way trip, where you stage a vehicle at either end, depart 2-3 hours before high tide and ride the incoming current to your endpoint. You can just as easily do this in the opposite direction, when the tide is going out.

For either case, it’s important to understand the tidal offset on the rivers. Start by looking up the time of the Boston high tide, then for the North River add 1 hour for the launches at Union/Bridge Street and Chittenden, 2.5 hours for the Pembroke Town Forest. Add up to 3 hours for the Francis Keville Footbridge on the South River and the Hanover Public Launch on the North River. Damon’s Point and Rexhame Beach both involve a 40-minute delay. There is no tidal offset for the Marshfield Town Landing on Ridge Road or the Driftway. 

SAFETY

One final note. A PFD (personal flotation device), aka life jacket, is required for every individual when boating. A whistle clipped onto the zipper of your PFD increases your odds of getting help when you need it. Please be safe out there . . . and have fun!

For detailed information about all of the launch sites mentioned above, as well as a more in-depth review of “Timing the Tides,” visit nsrwa.org or exploresouthshore.org. See you on the rivers!

by Kezia Bacon

July 2019

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. You will also find 20+ years of Kezia’s Nature columns there. 

Visiting Cuffee Hill and Black Pond Bog

On the way to Black Pond at Norwell's Cuffee Hill Conservation Area.

Now is the perfect time of year to visit Norwell’s Cuffee Hill Conservation Area -- or more specifically, to visit Black Pond Bog, which is located within the 350-acre parcel. Like many of our local nature preserves, Cuffee Hill is interesting throughout the year, but in May, June and July, visitors are likely to see some truly unusual sights. 

Most of Cuffee Hill is owned by the Town of Norwell, but portions of it belong to the Nature Conservancy. The 83-acre Black Pond Bog Nature Preserve is one of only nine Nature Conservancy properties in Massachusetts. In 1962, it became the first of such properties in our state, thanks to a collaborative effort by local garden clubs, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the North River chapter of the Izaak Walton League, and the Nature Conservancy.

A view of Black Pond Bog.

Black Pond itself is a kettle hole pond, created tens of thousands of years ago by a large chunk of melting glacier. Accord Pond, also in Norwell, is also a kettle hole, but all of the other ponds in town -- as well as many of the other ponds on the South Shore -- were created by mill dams. William “Cap’n Bill” Vinal, an Emeritus Professor of Nature Education at the University of Massachusetts, published a booklet in the 1960s, entitled “A Visit to Black Pond Reservation.” In it, he explained how as the white cedar trees and other vegetation that grew around Black Pond died and decayed, they sank to the bottom, creating a layer of muck. Over time, the water became so acidic that the surrounding plants could barely make use of it. What resulted was a quaking bog. 

Black Pond is surrounded by sphagnum moss. One of few plants capable of growing in such acidic conditions, sphagnum absorbs water from the air, not from the pond. As it dies and decays, it forms a layer of peat. Other plants take root in the moss and peat, creating a thick mat at the edge of the water. When you step onto a quaking bog, you can actually feel it shake! That alone is one reason to visit Black Pond Bog. 

Spaghnum moss at Black Pond Bog.

Another reason to visit is to see the unusual species that grow out of the moss -- the sundew and the pitcher plant. Both of these are carnivorous: they consume insects. The sundew secretes droplets of a sticky liquid. When small creatures such as gnats land on its leaves, they become immobilized. They are digested in the liquid and ultimately absorbed into the plant. The pitcher plant has a similar type of liquid, stored inside its bowl-shaped leaves. Its odor attracts insects, and after they crawl into the bowl, they find that the little hairs growing inside prevent their escape. Eventually they drown. In both cases, the insect carcasses provide essential nutrition for these plants, which would otherwise lack nitrogen. 

You can view the pitcher plants and sundews, as well as wild orchids, as you walk along the boardwalk at the edge of Black Pond. You’ll also see several varieties of fern. Cinnamon fern is by far the most abundant -- look for a light brown fuzz growing on the lower part of its stem. You may also find the much rarer Virginia Chain fern, as well as Royal fern.

The boardwalk that runs along the edge of Black Pond Bog.

The Cuffee Hill Conservation Area also includes a large expanse of cedar swamp. This extensive wetland serves as storage for some of the town’s water supply, and is a major source of Second Herring Brook, which flows into the North River across town in the Norris Reservation. 

Upland forest makes up a larger portion of Cuffee Hill. There are several well-marked trails that lead through groves of pine, hemlock and beech. You’ll also see the occasional holly, and in the lowland areas, Atlantic white cedar. Some of the beech trees are quite old, and the cedars are some of the largest in our area. You can download a trail map from our website at https://www.nsrwa.org/listing/cuffee-hill-conservation-area/.

One of the three major trailheads on Mount Blue Street.

Cuffee Hill is known for its historic features as well as its natural ones.The property is named for Cuffee Lane, a historic cart path lined with stone walls that begins on Mount Blue Street and extends through the property. In the 1700s, Cuff Grandison and his wife established a farm on the property, clearing two fields and moving the rocks to the sides to build stone walls. The Grandisons were among the town's earliest African American settlers. Their descendants continued to farm the land for several generations. Members of the Grandison family served with the Green Mountain Boys in the American Revolution. The land eventually fell out of agricultural use, and the forest has since begun to regenerate. 

A view of Cuffee Lane, and the remains of Cuff Grandison's stone walls.

Prior the Grandisons, the land was owned by Thomas Clapp and his descendants. In 1640, Clapp received a grant of 75 acres at Black Pond from Plymouth Colony. By 1707, he had acquired additional acreage -- mostly swampland -- in six separate transactions. Joseph Clapp is remembered for sheltering 40 of the Acadians who were deported from Nova Scotia during the French and Indian War.

The town of Norwell purchased most of the lands in the Cuffee Hill Conservation Area in 2013, creating the largest contiguous area of protected, town-owned open space in the town. 

The Cuffee Hill Conservation Area is located at 181 Mount Blue Street in Norwell and is open daily from dawn to dusk. Dogs are permitted on leash. There are three designated parking areas. If you’re entering from the intersection with Lincoln Street, the first parking area, on the left, accommodates 3-4 vehicles. The second parking area, on the right, is about twice as big, and provides the most direct access to Black Pond Bog. The third place to park is a roadside pull-off near the start of Cuffee Lane. Visit nsrwa.org or exploresouthshore.org for more information, or to find your next outdoor adventure on the South Shore!

by Kezia Bacon 

June 2019

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. You will also find 20+ years of Kezia’s Nature columns there.