“There is in my nature, methinks, a singular yearning toward all wildness.”
― Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
I've been called thorough, but never Thoreau. Nevertheless, when the invite was extended to put paddle to water and to represent Middlesex Community College alongside State Senator Edward Kennedy and a team of future leaders from Lowell High School who would be making the first runs on the whitewater currents of Lowell's Concord River, the time was finally nigh.
For me, it was a long overdue experience. Along with my fellow E Streeters, I had previously conquered the Penobscot, Kennebec, Dead, New, and Snake Rivers in these great United States. But amazingly, considering I CAN SEE IT FROM MY OFFICE WINDOW at Middlesex Community College, I had never ventured into the Mighty Concord River.
Time for that to change, courtesy of Jane Calvin, Katie Durkin and the fine folks at the Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust, who organize weekend trips down the Concord River with Zoar Outdoor.
Here we are with our crafts, still dry as a bone (and I might add, basking in the sunlight that would disappear as the day progressed.)
This past weekend, it was the brave hearts from the Lowell High School who took the 2019 maiden voyage along the Concord River to show the rest of the Adventure-Seeking World how it's done.
Give it up for Amina Bangura, Rose Prout, Kimberly May, Youvanny Tim, Anthony Roman, Nicole Bula, Angelia Liang and Sabatini Suon!
They were joined on this outing by Lowell State Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the biggest cheerleaders of Lowell's whitewater rafting program you'll find in these here woods.
At the Inn and Conference Center on Warren Street. the starting point for all the trips, it was time for the first of many group shots. The wetsuits, life vests and helmets don't allow for a lot of freestylin' pics, but that didn't stop some of the folks from Lowell Telecommunications Corp from giving it the old Middlesex Community College try! The LTC folks, by the way, chronicled the trip on their video Go Pros, and will be broadcasting the results on their station later this month.
Senator Kennedy did an amazing job interacting with the Lowell High students. He reinforced to them how lucky they are to be living in an industrial city that also offers Class 3 and 4 white water rapids options, something you would normally only find in the western, more rural parts of the state.
He alternated between wearing his teacher hat, his State Senator hat, his former County Commissioner hat, and his former Lowell Mayor and current City Councilor hat.
Thankfully, reason and safety won out, and he opted to go with his water safety hat/helmet instead.
From the ICC, your voyage takes you out to Lawrence Street, alongside the Lowell Cemetery, where you unload the rafts and start your adventure.
The LHS students belong to the COMPASS and T.R.E.E.S. and Outdoor Adventure Environmental Clubs, after school programs taught by the folks at Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust and Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm. Both of the programs are STEM-based clubs that focus on hands-on activities, community projects, and outdoor classroom experiences.
Three cheers for these brave souls!
The Concord River trip consists of two trips along the water, for adventurous rafters ages 14 and up. Yes, participants are required to wear life jackets and helmets, along with the wetsuits and waterproof jackets which you will be thanking all of your ancestors for once that first wave hits you.
One thing you're NOT required to do is to stage the Tusken Raiders scene from Star Wars.
But for Katie and I, it was unavoidable.
Ladies and gentlemen - grab your oars!
The Lowell trips are coordinated by the fine folks from Zoar Outdoor (website here:
Zoar ) who have this rafting thing down pat - and not just this writer. They know every nook and cranny along this stretch of the Concord, as can be evidenced in some of these action shots taken by Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust Head Honcho Jane Calvin, who traversed the entire length of the course to capture Pulitzer-worthy pics throughout!
The 1.7 mile long stretch of urban whitewater on the Concord rips you through three sets of Class 3/4 rapids: Twisted Sister
Umm.....not that one
No, this Twisted Sister on the Concord, Three Beauties which can be found on your approach to the Church Street/Andover Street bridge, and the Middlesex Dam alongside the Lower Locks Garage on your approach to Middlesex Community College.
The outing provided some sightings of Lowell wildlife - and we're not talking the Zoar tour guides. No, in this case, we saw otters swimming alongside our rafts, a heron gliding overhead, and lastly, a beaver watching curiously from the shore near the Bagshaw Mills, marveling at our dam navigational expertise.
So fun fact via the folks at Zoar - when the water level is right - WHICH IT WAS THIS PAST WEEKEND - Three Beauties becomes an intensely fun surfing hole.
What does that mean? Well as this writer found out the extremely hard way, surfing involves paddling upstream into a wave or hole with the goal to fill the boat with water. Let me tell you. IT WORKS. It also almost resulted in Ye Wicked Good Blogger becoming a Wicked Good Blubberer when I went @$$ over teakettle and was only saved from a dip into one of the the Beauties whose name I did not catch by the nimble hands of our guide, Tom, to whom I will be eternally grateful, because I think the moment would have been captured via Go Pro, a video that would have gone instantly viral.
Cue your favorite Beach Boys song, here's a couple of said surfing pics:
And here's a smattering of other action pics taken along the course
Take note in this pic of ALL THE WATER in the front of the Senator's boat!
Sadly, the voyage needed to come to end, and we had to disembark behind MCC and the ICC (an adventure unto itself, as curious fishermen watched the conquering heroes return to dry land.)
The day after our trip, the folks in this year's Public Matters leadership class run through the Lowell Plan were making their own team-bonding trip down the river. (We had already broken in all the most dangerous stretches for them.)
It seems unlikely, but on the infinitesimal chance that you STILL have any questions about the greatness that is Lowell Whitewater Rafting, or need more information, the Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust has conveniently put all of the information at your fingertips in one place and you can check out their website here: (trips run weekends through the end of May)
I tried to figure out some heartfelt way to close out the blog post, but then realized Henry David Thoreau had already captured my wonder and appreciation, and said it much more profoundly.
Take it away Mr. Thoreau!
I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made; the weeds at the bottom gently bending down the stream, shaken by the watery wind, still planted where their seeds had sunk, but erelong to die and go down likewise; the shining pebbles, not yet anxious to better their condition, the chips and weeds, and occasional logs and stems of trees that floated past, fulfilling their fate, were objects of singular interest to me, and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.
