As you know, Leominster is the birthplace of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. Since we live here on Johnny Appleseed Lane, of course we know much of the local "JA" lore. However, until today we have never visited Johnny Appleseed State Park.
By some accounts, the park is listed as "permanently closed". But I was able to find the trail map shown at right. On the map you can see Johnny Appleseed Lane and I've mark our house with a big red dot. The Nashua River runs within most of the park's boundaries and the Fall Brook joins the Nashua here as well.
One of the parking areas is now within the borders of the Leominster Babe Ruth baseball fields, adjacent to the old Italian American Center. My, how things have changed here in 33+ years we've lived here. Anyway, this is where we will start our hike today.
Along this section of the Nashua are the remains of the old Leominster dam. When the boys were younger, they would ride their mountain bikes down along the river and actually found this dam. Moreover, I once padded down the river and actually went right through some of the dam's remains.
The dam is actually one of the first things we see after starting our walk. Now decorated with unsanctioned artwork, one must be super careful here as there are no railings and it's a long way down to the river.
Looking downstream, there are logs laying across the river creating additional paddling obstructions.
I walked upriver a little to get another view of the dam. You can see how high it is above the water.
As the park doesn't seem to be an official "park" any more, the trail markings are kind of poor. We wander arounds the trails that we can find. There seemed to be more trails across the Fall Brook, but were unable to find a way to get to them.
We're thinking "x marks the spot", but we're not exactly sure what the "X" is for.
Here's our actual track. We covered 1.22 miles exploring in 49 minutes.
Because we're along the river, there was only a total of 103 ft of elevation gain.
It should be noted it is April, which means the ticks are out. It's great to get out even for an hour so enjoy the outside, but avoid tall grasses and check yourself when you're done.
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!
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!
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.
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.
It's another winter holiday, which means I can't (and won't) go the mountain to ski, but I will not stay couped-up either. Time to knock some more Trustees properties off the list.
It is a gray day, but the temps are right around freezing and it is raining intermittently. I still want to avoid people if possible, but I will turn south to see what I can find.
I start by vising Quinebaug Woods in Holland, MA. On the way there, I pass some parts of the Quinebaug river where I have paddled in the past (see April 21, 2019)
As I'm walking down the trail, I see this bright purple. It's too early to be flowers, for sure It turns out to be some garland, clearly added to make this a trail-side Christmas Tree.
The trail is wide and accommodates not only hikers, but evidently cross-country skiers as well,
The trail winds down to a river. I'm thinking this actually is the Quinebaug River. Seeing it now, it's obvious why we only paddle it in the spring.
I got back to my car and realized I had missed one of the landmarks of this property. The remnants of an old chimney on the hilltop. The house that was previously here must have had quite a view.
On the map, you can see how I went back out to see the chimney, then came back an alternate way. Total mileage was only 1.25 miles gaining a total of 238 feet of elevation. This was not nearly as exhausting as my outing a couple weeks ago in 13°F weather.
My second stop today was at Tantiuques, which is either pronounced "tan-te-us-quays" (per the book) or "tant-E-ooo-kwiss" (per the sign on property). In the Nipmuc language, it means “to a black deposit between two hills”. It was the site of one of New England’s first mines. A lead mine, as it happens.
In any event, using Google to navigate here from Quinebaug Woods was difficult at best. Taking the "shortest" way, it should only have been a 4 minute ride; however, the map software didn't take into account local road closures. Or worse, dirt/private roads. I had to go back into Sturbridge and get onto I-84 down to Exit 1. It was easy after that.
Just off the trail, one can see where some of the mining happened amid these large rock faces.
This is my "Yes, it's me" photo to prove I was actually here.
The way back took me to the top of a small ridge. There wasn't much a a view, but for 360° you can see Rhododendrons.
I missed this on the way in (because I was chatting up another family of hikers). But this is an old mine shaft that they have gated for, presumably amid safety concerns.
This track was only 0.82 miles of hiking with elevation gain of 105 feet. An easy one.
When I was done with stop #2, I briefly thought about making it a "three-fer" and hit Peaked Mountain in Monson, MA, a couple towns to the west. Ultimately, I decided that might be taking on too much. When I got home, I discovered that even though it's not in the blog, we visited that property back in October 2015. So it's already checked off my list :)
As you know, Leominster is the birthplace of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. Since we live here on Johnny Appleseed Lane, of course we know much of the local "JA" lore. However, until today we have never visited Johnny Appleseed State Park. 
