Kayaking - 8/6 Charles River, Boston

 Kayaking the Charles River                                                                        6.4 miles

After taking down the campsite, we drove down to Cambridge, Massachusetts where we launched our kayaks at Manhattan Beach.  We paddled 3 miles up towards Boston and it was a very cool paddle as we were able to see Cambridge on the left and Boston on the right.  We paddled against the wind and the water didn't seem too choppy.  When we passed the MIT boat launch, we saw lots of kids out practicing sailing on small boats.  There must have been about 20 or 30 sailboats and they were definitely having fun.    We went across the river and paddled into the Esplanade where it was really calm as it's sheltered from the main river.  This appears to be a well used area as we saw lots of runners, bikers, people on scooters and people just sitting on the grass.  The river banks were covered with wildflowers which the city must have planted.  When we got back in to the main river channel, we saw even more kids sailing - older kids on bigger boats.  We passed three large 'ducks' - the Boston Ducks Tour company.  We paddled up to the Museum of Science where we saw a wall.  We didn't go any further and we're thinking this may be the location of the locks that we had read about.  We turned around and with the wind at our backs, it was a faster return trip.  We don't often paddle with cityscapes so we enjoyed the scenery on this paddle.  

Put-in, we parked in a parking lot here.