A dedication to the New England (and nearby) areas—travel, food, lifestyle.
This weekend Lydia and I hiked on the Hanover Greenway, the Fireworks Trail. It is a nice 3.2 mile trail, well maintained although at one point ran along a manufacturing plant, with a smell that wasn’t working well for our nature hike! Beautiful day all around, and there was not a single soul out there hiking with us, which was surprising given that it was the first sunny day in awhile.
Norris Reservation in Norwell is another hike we take often, it is beautiful regardless of the season.
Now, I have been to Walden Pond in the past. In fact I swam across it on a few occasions to prepare for triathlons. However, I was not prepared for the modernization of Walden Pond!! It is like a city, with massive parking lots and crowds you’d expect to see on a street in NYC! You can even shop at Walden Pond now!! I feel like Thoreau would run fast and furious from this, dare I say it, “tourist trap”. We literally had to endure pedestrian traffic jams, with people dragging strollers through the wooded paths and take photos on 12 inch iPads. Seriously, who hikes with large iPads? However, the pond was pretty, but with the recent changes I’m not likely to return, it has lost it’s appeal! The huge neon sign directing traffic should have tipped me off!
Ok, I confess, this event took place in August, but since it is a rainy weekend here in New England (thank God, it hasn’t rained in forever!), we didn’t get very far for our travels. The girls said this was one of their favorite day trips, we took the ski lift up the mountain and enjoyed the view. Thank goodness we found Lieren’s flip flop that floated off her foot while we rode the lift!! There were plenty of goodies and activities for the kids!
Well, you can’t win them all. I had seen a post on facebook about someone’s newest favorite hiking location, so we knew where we would be headed. We looked up the Wildlands Trust, and the two locations in Marshfield were Pudding Hill and Phillips Farm Preservation. We chose the Pudding Hill location because of the pond. We drove by it the first time, and found there were just two parking spaces. No one else was there, which was surprising because it was Labor Day weekend and the perfect weather (although not very sunny). Honestly, it was a little boring. Just a path in the woods, a path by a small pond. Regardless, it was one we have now logged for the books. We did try the second location, Phillips Farm, on our way home, although there was no parking that we could find. Perhaps on another day.
Happy Labor Day weekend to all!
Finally, some relief from the heat, it was only in the mid-80’s today. Still no rain (hard to believe Hurricane Irene was 5 years ago today!). We took the dogs for a walk around Houghton’s Pond in Milton, and tired dogs = happy dogs!
Well, we almost didn’t go anywhere this weekend as we were conserving gas money. But we got bored by Sunday, so we headed to an Audubon location close to home. With a late start, it was so warm we struggled to finish the brief walk. The turtles were out everywhere, and the drought made for some swampy waterways! Every weekend has offered picture perfect weather during this drought!
