Things are improving slowly on the work front, but I’m afraid next week’s monthly wrap-up will be on the thin side again. I did get one completely glorious day in! I took Wednesday off and went up to the North Shore with a friend and our oldest child. We visited Old Town Hill in the morning, a very pleasant area to ramble around and all but deserted on a weekday. For lunch we stopped in at Angie‘s, and then headed over to Salisbury Beach for a while in the afternoon. We hoped to see seals, as I have previously on visits to that beach. The tide was in (so their basking rocks were underwater), there was a lot of glare, and I forgot my binoculars, so we couldn’t be sure if any of the distant specks were mammalian. Still a beautiful afternoon.
Category: hiking
Maudslay State Park
Had my first visit to this park yesterday, on a cold, bright morning with a small group from Meetup. It’s an interesting landscape. Anywhere you go hiking in New England, you’re likely to be reminded that this is not untouched land by any stretch; stone walls and the relative youth of the trees keep it front of mind that a couple hundred years ago, this was cleared farmland. Maudslay State Park, in contrast, was a private estate not much more than 50 years ago, and the park system is actively keeping up some of the structures, so it feels a bit more manicured than many of the local spots I’ve seen so far. Still a lovely place to visit, with easy meandering trails, views of the river, and (according to the signs) plentiful flowers in season.
Mt. Pisgah Hike
Spent a few hours rambling around in the woods today. Lovely terrain, lots of variety but nothing too steep. The woods are very open, mostly young oak and beech, and there are a couple of nice vantages and streams to enjoy. A very warm day here — in a pre-climate change winter, these woods would been a foot deep in snow at least.
Lynn Woods Loop
For unknown reasons, one of the reservoirs in Lynn is named Walden. If you ever want to circumnavigate it, know that it is larger than the famous Walden Pond in Concord — we did just shy of seven miles yesterday, making this my longest hike to date. It was an utterly gorgeous day, and I was grateful for the chance to be outside.
Apppleton Farms
It has been a rough spring for getting outside, just one thing after another for months. On Sunday, however, we finally got back out to one of the Trustee properties we enjoyed last year. The day was chilly and overcast for mid-June, but we had a nice ramble and saw some cows!
R Jean Stevenson 