Trail Report for October 20

On Monday my sister and I managed a quick hike up the Wapack Trail to the summit of Mount Watatic.  We did scramble down a side trail to the second lower summit to the east where the views are better.  The sky was in a state of flux, beautiful blue sky but clouds gathering as we prepare for three days of rain.  We delayed the start of our hike for about an hour and a half, waiting for temps to nudge a little closer to 40 degrees F.  At our usual start time, the temperature was closer to 31!!  There was a brisk wind on the summit, but I couldn't resist trying to take some pictures with my phone.  My sister was aiming for time, so backpacks were left home:  no camera, binoculars, thermos of coffee.  The purple highpoint just under the clouds is Mount Wachusett, to the south of Watatic.  The Midstate Trail connects these two mountains on its way to Rhode Island.  We do hike a small portion of the Midstate but have been unable to find the next piece of it as some new home construction has changed things.  Maybe this fall on a Friday hike with my husband we'll find it.  I think we've missed the bright reds.  All the swamp maples changed in late August through September so now we are heavy into orange and russet and yellow.  The trails are just beautiful carpeted in color.

 In 2002, the towns of Ashby and Ashburnham purchased Mount Watatic.  This was championed by a group of citizens who wanted to prevent a cell phone tower on the summit, as well as preventing any kind of development.  In doing so, trees are now growing up and choking out the beautiful scenic outlooks that were once plentiful along the trail.  Perching on top of a cairn on the summit, I managed to get this glimpse of Mount Monadnock to the west.

 This view is looking toward the east, over Ashby towards Boston.  With our naked eye, we could just make out skyscrapers on the horizon.  They are not seen with my phone.

These two markers are side by side in the stonewall that runs along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border.  The tall granite post marks the state boundary. The A & A stands for Ashby and Ashburnham Massachusetts, where the two towns' borders meet.  I did not get a picture of the New Hampshire side of this marker, but it is engraved NI NH, standing for New Ipswich, New Hampshire. The low flat stone marks the northern terminus of the Midstate Trail. 

The Midstate Trail is a 92 mile hiking trail which extends from Rhode Island crossing the gentle hills of central Massachusetts and eventually connects to the Wapack Trail in New Hampshire.  This is just about the border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  My sister and I hope to hike the entire Wapack Trail at some point.  Our goal for this fall was to hike the 22 mile trail in three sections.  We have done the first one....sort of.  We did not begin at the trail head to include Mount Watatic, but began it about a half mile beyond these markers.  Maybe next year we will start section hiking the Midstate Trail!

Wordless Wednesday

It is amazing and maybe a bit embarrassing to realize that I have lived in a community for 27 years and have only recently discovered some hidden treasures.  The first picture is the abandoned road my sister and I have begun walking this year for the first time.  Once a week we try to venture off onto lesser walked paths in the woods when my husband has time to go with us.  Last Friday we discovered this section of waterfalls.  It did involve a water crossing to get back onto the road but no one fell in!  Just beautiful and right in our own backyard, so to speak.

September Saturday Recap

  I'm disappointed I haven't filled up my Trail Report page this summer.  My sister has two new hips ... can we say three?  One hip ended up being replaced a second time!  We've been walking almost every day, but not quite the same as hiking.  When we do get a hike, it is a power hike with a focus on time and distance and pace as opposed to views and birds and contemplation.  I suppose it hasn't helped that we both graduated to sort-of-smart phones this summer.  She uses a stop watch function and is all about the time!!  I downloaded "map my hike" which is just my cup of tea as it uses GPS technology to show my route!  It speaks to us at each mile and lets us know our pace per mile as well as a split pace time and at the end it calculates calories burned.  After three years of not hiking, we each had some weight to lose as well as just needing to get fit again.  My favorite part of "map my hike" is syncing it to my lap top then watching a video flyover of our route through google earth.  Most of our "hiking" has been walking an abandoned road in town which gives us a quick three mile walk almost every day.  Once or twice a week we try to get a four or five mile hike in.  We are grateful for the Wapack Trail and the Midstate Trail in our backyard.  The Midstate Trail gives us a 5 mile roundtrip hike through changing terrain but it is mostly soft!  We have seen evidence of horse and bear, deer, and possibly coyote along the trail. 

  We also have Mount Watatic in our backyard, which is a relatively easy but steep hike to a rocky open top with views to Boston, as well as mountain ranges in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Last Saturday morning we began our hike with headlamps at 5:20 in the morning, hoping to enjoy sunrise on top.  It is VERY different hiking in the dark.  We made it to the top just about first light, with plenty of time to find a spot protected from the strong wind.  Coffee poured and muffins handed out, we leaned against a rock to watch the sunrise.  A very overcast day, the sunrise was not spectacular but it felt so good to finally do it as we've talked about it for years but always find a good excuse to stay in bed a little later on a Saturday morning.

Happy Birthday

It is impossible to choose a few pictures that capture the essence of a life.  There are newborn pictures where we naively have no clue what might be "wrong" with our "Pale Peanut" but we know enough to treat her gingerly after an xray at 6 weeks showed she had brittle bones.  It was an entire year before a definitive diagnosis was given, Mucolipidosis II also known as I-Cell disease.  This picture was taken in your second year.  Great Gramma had not had her heart valve surgery yet.  You  had been on oxygen since you were 8 months old,  had surgery to repair a diaphragmatic hernia at 9 months, and had a g-tube for supplemental feeding put in at the same time as the hernia repair.  This picture is blurry, but I think it's appropriate since most of the pictures this week look blurry through my teary eyes.  You changed our lives forever 5 years ago.  Your three years, eight months and one day were packed full thanks to your wild and crazy parents and the incredible strength of your mom.  You kept us distracted during your grandfather's and uncle's overlapping military deployments.  You met the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff now Retired Admiral Mullins and his wife.  You met Brobee and Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba as well as Geoffrey Giraffe.  You went to the top of Mount Washington, put your feet in the Atlantic Ocean in Kittery, Maine (you didn't really like that), went to parades, traveled back and forth to Pennsylvania to visit family and feed ducks. You loved the zoo and butterfly places and Davis Farmland.  Your dad and mom would bring tiny hatchling turtles for you to watch.  While you weren't able to go many places that last year or so, people were brought to you.  Teachers, therapists, nurses!  You giggled and entertained and learned and we were in awe of how well you could communicate without being able to use words.  You expressed so much with your faces and your fingers, your whole body.  I was so grateful when we finally got long tubing for your oxygen so you could travel around the house!  It was fun to bring you down cellar to do laundry.  You would ride in the basket on top of the clean clothes.  I remember a few months before you left you were so agitated when I brought the clothes up.  You kept leaning and making your little "demanding" noise.  (Leaning was one of your clearest forms of communication)  Somehow we realized you wanted your mom's sweater which was on top of the clean clothes stack.  You not only wanted it, you wouldn't rest until we put it on you!!!  Then you smiled and snuggled against your mom.  You held up your hand, covered by the long sleeve and smiled.  You wanted to be just like mom, like any other little girl.   You would be turning 5 today.  You rocked our world and we will never be the same.

Wordless Wednesday

Flocks of juvenile American Robins all around.  When I look quickly, I think they are Northern Flickers!!