I have driven by the Nashua River in Groton, Massachusetts on several occasions and kept saying I want to paddle it. We finally made it happen. One warm summer day my daughter wanted to paddle board. When we were looking for a place to rent them we found Nashoba Paddler in Groton on the Nashua River. They had a large selection of kayaks and paddle boards. We had called ahead to make sure they had paddle boards and were told they had enough that we did not need to reserve in advance.
The guy working at the rental company was nice and efficient. It was $40 a paddle board for two hours. We were given life jackets, the paddles and the board. They also had a waterproof map of the river we could take with us. Once we were given our paddle boards the guy helped us on the boards and gave us recommendations on where to go on the river to see wildlife. He said we could swim, but do not swallow the water or if we were fishing to not eat the fish.
We headed up stream, the river was fairly flat with little current. There were others kayaking and boating on the river. One of our paddle boards were a little small for us, we returned it and were given a larger one. We are learning to always go longer with the paddle boards as the larger ones are more stable. The guy told us we could stay out as long as we wanted since the first board did not fit us right. We spent about two hours paddling around the river, as that was enough time for us. It was nice floating back to the rental company with the current. The Nashua River was a great place to paddle and explore along with seeing wildlife like various birds and beavers. We did not feel it was clean enough to swim in. We enjoyed our time on the Nashua River and would absolutely return to paddle again and rent from Nashoba Paddler.
After our paddle we were hungry and stopped for lunch at The Cafe at Groton Wellness Center. This is a small cafe inside Groton Wellness Center that has salads, sandwich’s, specials, coffee and smoothies. This is a farm to table cafe. We enjoyed our lunch of different sandwiches. The cafe does not take cash so plan accordingly.
We had a great few hours paddling the Nashua River then having some yummy lunch.
