Chapel Brook

It is the first full day of Spring.  A great day to get out for an early season hike.  We're still doing out best to avoid people, so we'll head back out west to the Pioneer Valley.

There are a couple of Trustees properties in these towns of Ashfield and Conway.  Today, we'll visit Chapel Brook.  Since it is spring, we are thinking that there won't be too much snow to contend with (like the last time I was in Ashfield), but you never know.

There are trails on both sides of the road. We decide that the one beside the brook ought to be pretty with any melting snow.

Well, the trail down to the brook is pretty much a sheet of ice. 
Let's move on to "Plan B".

It goes uphill but we can walk alongside the trail so we don't slip so much.

It's good to have the trekking poles for stability on the trail.
We pass this very impressive rock face...

... as the trail winds to the left around it and fallen trees up the hill.

At the top, there's a lookout over the valley.  We take a short break.

The view to the west is terrific.

You can see there's still a fair amount of snow in the woods. 
And it's also quite a drop just beyond the rock ledge in the foreground.

It turns out we can actually make a loop on the trail by descending a pretty steep set of stairs and rocks.  It came out just to the right of the "impressive rock face" we passed earlier.  We didn't even notice the up-trail when we were there, but it was probably easier to come down the way we did.

All told, it wasn't that long a hike.  While we only hiked 0.83 miles, we did climb 249 feet for those great views.

On the way back to the highway, we stopped at Pekarski's sausage store in South Deerfield and picked up some great kielbasa for the upcoming Easter holiday.  Highly recommended! 

Weir Hill

We have the whole day free today.  Betsy would like to do a little Carter's shopping and I would like to get out to take advantage of the sunshine, so we decide to do both.

Not too far from our shopping destination in North Andover is another Trustees property - Weir Hill (pronounced "wire").  I'm supposing that most of the snow has melted or evaporated in the Merrimack Valley, so that's where we're headed.  Hopefully, it won't be too busy on a Sunday morning.  

It's a cold day, but we'll be fine if we dress appropriately.  The high is projected to be in the mid-30's but the wind isn't too bad.

The parking lot is busier than I anticipated.  We bring along our trekking poles just in case.

OK, so there's a little more snow than anticipated.  Actually, this is just a sheet of ice, so we compensate by hugging the edge of the trail.  Yeah, we need those trekking poles.

We arrive at a terrific overlook.  From here, we are able to see Mount Wachusett, Mount Monadnock, and even can glimpse the top of Mount Washington since it is such a clear day.

Betsy gets a little better view standing atop some granite benches.
It's a "blue bird" day, as you can see.

From the map above you can see that this property sits between a pond and and larger lake
that supplies North Andover's with drinking water.  On the pond, there were some people ice fishing.
I loved the shadows cast on the ice from the trees.

There must be a lot of water here in the other seasons.
There were several of these long boardwalks along this trail.

Our walk today was 2.4 miles taking 1:36.  Our elevation gain was 405ft.  Not bad. 

When we finished, we stopped at a nearby farm stand for some treats.  And while Betsy shopped, Steve found a nice place in the sun to catch some rays.  One of the passers-by in the parking lot said that I must be a "professional waiter."  That works for me!

Recharge Day

To help employees deal with the stresses of long-term working from home, today was proclaimed a "Recharge Day" at work and everyone in the company was given the day off.  With that in mind, we had planned to head over to the mountain to go skiing, but usually a 1/2 day there is enough, considering how long the lines can be especially on a Friday.  So to make the day more like a "day off", Betsy suggested we go exploring after our ski day was done.

To start with, I ran into "Kevin" doing the daily trail report at Mt. Wachusett and chatted with him for a couple minutes, because it looked like he captured Betsy skiing down the hill.  He also asked me to "say a few words".  So just like that I'm a star on Wachusett TV.

You can view the whole video here. You can see:

• Steve talking at 0:47
• Betsy skiing at 1:27
• Steve skiing at 1:32
  

After a lunch stop at home, we're off again.  This time it's down to the seashore.  Betsy said that to make it seem like a real day off we should do something.  So, we're off to Plum Island.  A week ago we were in nearby Newburyport for dinner with good friends and headed out that way to explore a little, but ran out of time.  Today, we'll make up for it.

 

Plum Island is this very long spit of land off the extreme northeast coast of  Massachusetts.  It is actually in the town of Newbury and to get there we had to drive through part of Amesbury and Newburyport.  The southern 2/3 of the island are part of the Parker River Wildlife Refuge, a major stop along the east coast migration paths.  

At this time of year, it's pretty deserted.  In the photo above, you can see the extensive salt marshes extending back toward the mainland.

There are several 3-storey bird watching platforms scattered along the roadside.
From here, you can see how close the ocean is.

Here's the view from down below.

We finally make it all the way to the beach.  It's freezing, but cool, too. 
We do a short hike to where we can see our summer spot, Crane Beach, across Ipswich Bay
(see map above).

On the way back out, we decide to make one more beach stop.  Little did we realize what a long walk it would be across this "double dune".  There was even a wild cranberry bog to see along the way..

Looking south, the light of the setting sun just kisses the top of the dune.

On the way off the island, we stop at the Plum Island Grille.
Believe it or not, Betsy's dish on the left is gluten free.
We gave the chef 2 thumbs up for this efforts.

It was an hour drive home, but well worth it.  I'm I little tired, but definitely recharged.  I think.