Leominster State Forest Snowshoe

The great thing about this winter is that there's been plenty of snow for winter activities where snow is needed.  However, it has also been the case of "too much of a good thing".  It's been so snowy, that it's been hard to actually do some of the usual fun things like snow shoeing or cross country skiing.  And it's been cold.   Today, there was enough moderation in temperature and conditions to actually make it a good day to get out for a winter hike on snowshoes.

The ladies are away on a retreat weekend, so it's time for three generations of the guys to get out for an adventure.  The destination:  Parmenter Road in Leominster State Forest.  (Actually, this was a secondary choice, since there was no parking due to snow at our first choice trail head).

All bundled up, Dominic is along for the ride today.

Nice clearing with towering trees connecting snow to sky.

Alex has a little heavier load to carry.

The trail is nicely packed out thanks to the snowmobiles.

A little bit of a stream, but almost buried under all the snow.

There were snowmobiles out enjoying the day as well.  We just pulled off to the side whenever we heard them coming.

This trail keeps going and going.  And when there are no snowmobiles, the only sound you hear are your snowshoes on the snow.  Here's a curve in path (you can see Alex ahead of me, a little off to the right).

Here's a panorama of Rocky Pond, the body of water for which the road is named.

... almost like a long hallway.

This proves where we were since this sign is down the trail a bit.

The ViewRanger app on my phone told me that this hike was a little longer than I originally had in mind, but Alex was very pleased.  For the record, I was sore for a couple days afterward

Here are the stats:
Total Distance:  4.96 miles
Average Speed:  2.1 mph
Total Time:  2:22
Altitude Gain: 522 ft
Max Altitude:  957 ft

Prouts Neck Cliff Walk

Matt & Becky are visiting for the Labor Day weekend and wanted to get out for a hike.  Let's pile everybody in the mini-van and head up to Maine!  Rather than visit the famous (crowded) cliff walk in Ogunquit, Matt found a equally beautiful one in Scarborough.

While we missed Cassandra and Alex most of the day due to some health issues, we did our best to enjoy a day by the sea.

This short hike was a shuttle.  Betsy dropped Matt, Becky and me off near the Black Point Inn to start.

But first, Dominic finds the beach amid grasses much taller than he is.

A beautiful stretch of beach where the Scarborough River empties into Saco Bay.

A classic white picket fence near the beginning of the hike looking northward into the bay.

This is NOT somebody in our party.

I know the tide is low, but he might want to be real careful.

Cliffs.

Cliffs and rocks.

If you had a house on the distant shore, you would have a fantastic ocean view.

We were on a little bridge looking down.  It's a pretty severe drop.  It would be unlikely that one would actually hit the water should they fall.

Matt ventures down to an outcropping.

That green area is another neck of land out on the end of this neck of land.

Most of the hike around the neck put us right on the rocky shoreline.

But some of it was among the low scrub.

"Splash!"

Rocky coastline.
Does this qualify as a "selfie" (see lower right corner).

The land has been eroded away to the path we're on.

We made our way back to the beach where Dominic and Betsy were playing.  Dominic was practicing his "swimming" on the sand.

Between the end of the cliff walk and the parking lot, we walked down a long sandy beach.  There were kite surfers there careening across the bay.  The wind was blowing them our way.  I had to watch a while to see how they were getting back. 

Walk stats:

Total Distance:  2.62 miles

Total Time:  1:16

Average Speed:  2.07 mph

Max altitude:  43 ft

Min altitude:  0 ft (sea level) - doh!

Misery Island Family Paddle

August and September are the BEST months for paddling in the ocean. The water is finally warm enough that you don't have to have neoprene covering most of your body.

Yesterday was an exceptionally perfect day.  I wanted to take some of my family out to Great Misery Island in Salem Sound.  I had been out there a few weeks ago on an AMC trip, but I found a shorter, easier way to get out there and wanted to explore the larger island this time.  There were no clouds in the sky and the hardest part was going be to find a parking spot and launch site in Manchester-by-the-Sea.

Now here's the cool part.  I finally crossed the chasm of the techo-literate and am the owner of a smartphone.  What's cool about it are the interesting apps that actually do make life a little more interesting.  Case in point:  using the phone's GPS tracking to map our paddle adventure.

After driving around for 15 minutes, we found a great put-in at the boat ramp behind the police station in the center of town.

About an hour of paddling and we land at Great Misery Island.  It is managed by the Trustees of Reservations.  We joined this year, so figured why not check out all the cool places they hare.

This is the only picture we have of the 3 of us.  Unfortunately, I did not account for the delay in the camera to actually take the photo.

We found an actually bathroom on the island, then Betsy went exploring a nearby promontory.

Here's a view from the beach out toward the open water of Salem Sound.  Clear sky and calm waters.

The book I was using for a guide said this round-trip was 3.26 miles long.  I'm not sure what kind of miles these were, but certain not the kind used here in the US or by my smartphone.  See all the cool stats from our trip on my ViewRanger account.


I tried making the pictures a little bigger on this post.  Let me know if this size is too big.

See you on the water.

Search and Recovery Mission

Saturday, December 7


OK, so if you read my last blog entry, you may recall that I lost my water bottle.  This was the first Nalgene bottle I ever owned, and it has been through a lot.  The first time I remember losing it was hiking on South Mountain in the Lehigh Valley.  But I retraced my steps and eventually found it in the leaves.  It has almost floated away more than once on kayak trips when my boat overturned, but I always got it back.  Just last spring, I lost it orienteering in Carlisle, but when I went back to look for it, a young lady doing the same course as me found it and returned it.  The strap connecting the lid broke years ago and I was ready to throw it out.  Then I found a replacement part for it at REI to extend its life.

Needless to say, all during this past week, I was going over in my head where it might have fallen out of my day pack.  Unfortunately, since it gets dark just after 4pm, I was not able to get out to look after work any day.  Today's mission was to find that water bottle!  

I am starting from Redemption Rock in Princeton and heading north on the Mid-State trail (see map from last week's hike).

It's going to be a little harder than I thought to look for this water bottle.  Besides all the leaves, we got a little snow last night.  And it looks like they got a little bit more here than we had in Leominster.

I rarely travel north on this section of the trail, and I don't recall ever seeing this sign.  I'd better check it out.

Yup.  It's a glacial boulder alright, although not as impressive as Sampson's Pebble or Balance Rock.

At this point, I'm thinking it's not much further to where it fell out.  Looking back toward Mr. Wachusett, you can see there's a some snow even off the ski trails.

As I'm walking along, I keep seeing these tracks.  Ahh - these are made by wild turkeys.  They are all over the place this time of year.  However, I didn't actually see any today.

Alas, I walked for 30 minutes, well beyond where I thought it might have fallen out.  No luck in finding it, though.  On my way back I have to navigate snow-covered roots and rocks.  Even with trekking poles, it's a bit of a challenge.  I wound up falling on a big piece of granite on this steep, rocky hillside.

I hiked for about an hour (a little over a mile), but in the end I guess it was finally time to say "So Long" to my old water bottle.  Which is a shame, because it still had water in it and I was getting kind of thirsty.

Thanksgiving Family Hike

November 30, 2013

For the first time in 26 years we are in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving.  Betsy is in White Christmas this weekend, so traveling to PA just won't work.  Instead, everyone gathers at our Johnny Appleseed home for the holiday.  And apparently, everybody's up for a little hike on Saturday afternoon.  Nathaniel brought his hiking shoes home just for the occasion (assuming he gets a break from homework and projects).  Matt (coming up from Philly) just assumed we would be taking a hike.  Betsy stayed home to rest to she could give a great performance, singing, acting, and dancing (see photo on her web site).

For this hike, we did a small section of the Mid-State trail.  We dropped a car at the Wachusett Mountain parking lot ("down" arrow on left side of map) and then headed back to our starting point, the Crow Hills parking lot in Leominster State Forest ("up" arrow on right side of map).  The ski area is open with a few trails already.  I hope to behitting those slopes soon myself.  But today, we hike!

Cassandra joined us at the last minute with Dominic.  First he has to be loaded into the baby backpack.

It is a steep climb from the parking lot to the base of the Crow Hills.  Nathaniel & Matt had colds so were struggling a bit to breathe.  Once there, Alex suggested we go up to the top of the cliffs to enjoy the views.  That was an even steeper climb.

But Alex is right about the views.  Directly behind me is a 100' cliff and Crow Hills Pond in the distance.

After a bit of a walk, we get our first glimpse of Mt. Wachusett.  You can see the ski trails clearly.

Nathaniel tests the ice at the edge of this frozen brook.

You think crossing a brook in the summer is fun?  At this time of year, it's frozen on top, but still very cold water just beneath.  It's beautiful, but don't fall in.

The brook cascades down between the granite boulders.  The shadows are long even though it's only 1pm.

We make it to Redemption Rock, where James joined my last May.

The water formed hair-like icicles near these rocks.  Cool!

We're finally near the end, crossing "tick field".  Fortunately, no ticks at this time of year.  You can see snow from the guns on the mountain just across the road.

All told, it was only about 3 miles of hiking, but with the cold and the colds, it took us over 2 hours.  There was one casualty - I lost my favorite water bottle, and I'm not sure where. I don't have time to go looking for it now, because we have to make dinner and then we're off to see Betsy in her show.  Despite the loss, everyone welcomed this bit of outdoor exercise.