Tag: hike

Weetamoo Woods – Yellow Trail – Tiverton Rhode Island

It was another day just wandering around looking for some good trails to explore when I came across the Weetamoo Woods. Strange name, I thought, as I wandered in. As it turns out this gorgeous scenery came with a gruesome and perhaps entirely regrettable historical narrative.

I had no idea this was somewhere that was tainted with the blood spilled during the King Philip’s War. More so I had never heard the name Weetamoo before. As it turns out she was a woman chef of the Pocasset tribe. She led several hundred men in her own army during King Philip’s War against the colonists. And King Philip – he was her brother-in-law during her third marriage (of five.) Her leadership was largely unrecognized by the white settlers because of her being a woman but she fought valiantly in her short life. Unfortunately, she was eventually cornered by the colonists during King Philip’s War, drowned, and her corpse defiled. They brought her head to be displayed to the public on a pike in Taunton Massachusetts. And her children who had been caught alive? Sold into slavery. Most of this story was narrated on a plaque at the entrance.

Dark. Morbid. And wholly unjustified. No wonder they don’t teach us about what really happened in those early years of our nation during our schooling. It’s much more comforting to just go on believing in the Thanksgiving Story. Everyone being nice to each other…

I was struck by this story. This woman was a force in her own right, and she had followed her heart, led her people, and fought with everything she had. And now I was here, near where she died, just casually ambling through a patch of woods we’ve named after her. I was humbled.

Since I was alone on this particular day and lacking someone with a sense of direction, I decided to stay on the yellow path which cut straight through the forest before ending some ways out. Although I could still hear traffic for quite a while these woods seemed more remote than they were. A few big, gnarled trees took on an appropriately creepy vibe. Most people don’t realize that the trees in these parts used to be huge I mean with trunks you could wrap several people around in a hug – the sort of thing we normally only think of existing in the Redwood Forest on the opposite coast of our country. White settlers cut pretty much every last one of them down. I’ve yet to see any evidence of a tree older than these times but before the settlers trees were so big because they were allowed to grow for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years. Everything you see today is new growth. Trees that began their life after everything else was cut down.

I pondered how different these woods must have looked then during Weetamoo’s life in the mid 1600’s. Were they scary? Perhaps even haunted? I couldn’t blame them if they were. I made sure to talk to the trees a bit and thank them for such a beautiful trail. Whether you believe someone is listening or not doesn’t matter. It never hurts to be kind in these situations. Kind and grateful.

I wasn’t the only out on this day. Lots of people had come with their dogs and they were passing me like no one’s business as I struggled to keep going. My body has not been happy with my recent attempts at getting back into shape and was pitching a fit as it usually does – overheating and stabbing me in the side with sharp pains. I stopped several times to sit on rocks and eventually turned around before finding the end of the trail because by then it was getting dark and I didn’t want to be stuck in the woods with no sweater or jacket for the night. Especially in woods with such a gruesome history. No… I have my limits.

That being said I really enjoyed this trail. It was pretty wet at parts, but it was gorgeous and easy to hike. And all the people with their sweet little dogs? Bonus. Definitely a puppy bonus.

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Mount Lebanon – North Trail – Pepperell Massachusetts

You ever have one of those days where you just have a complete meltdown because of things out of your control and then you ask the universe for some guidance and end up somewhere wonderful? That would have been today for me. Serendipitous, you may say. Earlier on in the day I thought I was near my journey’s end when it came to me being a medical mystery for the past 20+ years but the rheumatologist I went to disagreed and I felt like I’d slammed into a concrete wall for the last time. I went out into the parking lot and yelled in my car and then tried to drive home but then I realized NO, I was not going to go home defeated. I needed to find my inner Zen, recenter, be a peace with the universe. So, I asked the Universe to guide me to a good trail.

And when the time felt right I took one of those fateful detours up a random road which turned out to be Mt Lebanon Road. In less than a mile I got what I asked for. A trail. A trail I knew nothing about as I don’t live in the area. It found me. I parked and headed in. And whew! This trail was… how shall we put this politely? Rugged. Untamed. Quiet. Although it seemed to be near a neighborhood all I could hear were the chipmunks screaming at me and the birds above. No one else was here. This was PERFECT. An answer to my prayers.

I toddled in with the wonder of a small child. And before I knew it the aggravations of the day started to fade and I found myself at the feet of some very colorful autumn trees and then little creatures started to show themselves. Fuzzy caterpillars of all kinds, a darling little tree frog, more irate chipmunks, a pair of mourning doves, and a night crawler so big I thought it was a snake! I felt blessed, quiet, at peace. I looked up to see a dead tree which still had one living branch, really a whole new baby tree, jutting out from it far above my head. I know it seems silly but this seemed like another sign – to keep going, to never stop fighting for myself. Before the day was out I would find another dead tree that seemed oddly significant. It was bendy, really bendy, almost serpentine as it snaked up towards the sky in an S pattern. Normally I’d just say that was a weird tree but that diagnosis I was seeking earlier was for EDS – a disease punctuated by hypermobility. I.e. people with it are bendy. Too bendy.

When I fell tired I perched myself on a rock and in a calmer state than I was in earlier I made a little video about why this particular doctor’s appointment was so frustrating. And the trees listened. And so did a few people on TikTok. I felt better. A lot better. And then I went back to wandering this ill marked trail, eventually ambling off of it only to end up in someone’s back yard staring at a staircase to the road. I turned around, completed the North Trail loop, and because I have NO sense of direction I ended up back at in those poor people’s back yard before correcting my route and finally finding the car. I was spent, feeling a bit foolish, but I’d returned to my happy self.

Which brings me back to this weird review of the trail. If you happen to be in the area looking for a moderate trail with little to no traffic and a few pretty scenes check it out! See if you can find your Zen here too. And for those of you who have been reading this blog and want to see the videos I took of my little 2 part meltdown feel free. I’ll include them after the pretty pictures. Much love to all of you!

https://www.tiktok.com/@theophanesavery5/video/7286531466605940014?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7272815293484172846
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McGregor Pond Trail – Converse Meadow Nature Preserve – Rindge NH

Today was a weird day. I knew I needed a walk but I didn’t want to go too far and besides this I knew my mother could do with an outing as well. So I grabbed her and we headed out to the Rindge Town Forest. When I got there all I saw was an unmarked dirt road (driveway?) with a lot of no trespassing signs on both sides. She was not in the mood to push this so we went back to Converse Meadow and I used this opportunity to check out the last little bit of this loop that I did not get to see on previous occasions.

As it turns out McGregor Pond is like a 250-foot offshoot trail off the normal loop. It was SHORT but that was perfectly OK! We were happy to find a bench there and we sat and chatted while looking over this pretty little scene. Actually it was just the right amount of walking for her so it all worked out well. As it is Autumn the weather was perfect and the trees were beautiful. I had a really lovely time and if you happen to be in the area doing this loop, make sure to check out the McGregor Pond offshoot!

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Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area – Montague Massachusetts

What’s the best way to end a day of antiquing and wandering? For me it might be just a little stroll through the woods. I let my companion choose the trail on this day and this became our chance to make the Prius cry again as it was down a long bumpy dirt road. And when we got to our destination we weren’t even sure it was our destination. All we could see was a faded sign board in front of an access path to the telephone poles. Still, we poked at it and eventually found a path that branched off the telephone poles.

It was starting to get dark and I was a little worried we might end up lost out here because there were no trail markers, numerous branching paths, and there was always the possibly of bears and whatnot. We only saw two other people the entire time we were walking. One was at the entrance – a woman picking ragweed aside the road. The second was on a bicycle who zoomed by at one point.

This trail seemed very suitable to mountain biking. It was long and flat but just the right kind of packed down dirt to encourage this sport. It was less suited to hiking but that’s OK, we still managed. As it was also a wildlife area there were studies going on. Signs warned of cameras (to prevent dumping!) and we found some mosquito buckets gathering specimens and the biggest bat box I have ever seen. Thing could have probably held 80 bats but being dawn I am pretty sure they were already out of it and hunting bugs. We did however find a cute little tree frog and the moon was so big and beautiful as it came up that I took a gorgeous photo of it between the trees.

This place was a nice stop. We got a very brisk walk out of it which was good for the blood. Otherwise, this wasn’t really a trail I’d suggest to hikers so much. There wasn’t any great views or anything, it was more just a good place to exercise. So, if you’re in the area and want to go mountain biking by all means this place is a good bet. And it goes on for a while. Just bring your sense of direction, you’ll need it!

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Ponemah Bog – Amherst New Hampshire

Ponemah Bog was one of those last-minute finds that I expected nothing from. I had been in the area running errands when I decided to see what Google thought was worth exploring and the Ponemah Bog came up so off I went! And let me tell you – this place was sooo whimsical and fun!

It’s an easy boarded path into the wetlands and of course a wildlife sanctuary. As such dogs are not invited (sorry pooches!) I ended up at this bog twice – on the first visit I brought my mother just as a fun outing and I took SO MANY photos, including my first close up photo of a crane flying by and landing! But when I got home I found my camera didn’t have a card in it. My hard work was lost… but not my spirit. I went back a week later to take more pictures just so I could make this blog entry and here’s why:

It is the PERFECT season to go out in the bogs. Summer has passed so the pounding heat of the sun and the drumming of blood sucking bugs has slowed to a crawl and better yet it’s fall foliage season and some of the trees are already starting to turn their vibrant colors. And much to my surprise this included not just the trees but several low growing plants and a massive carpet of moss! Red moss! A whole field of it! It was absolutely magical!

Frogs darted under my feet, birds screamed at me for ruining the neighborhood, and I found LOTS of turtles sunning themselves on logs. This place was ALIVE. There’s a number of observation points and they’re all beautiful. I sat at some of them and just soaked it all in. On my first visit I came across a girl scout troop who complimented my T-shirt and told me to make sure to buy cookies (OK!) and on my second trip the only other person I saw was a workman putting fresh paint on the ends of the planks so no one trips. I tripped anyway because I have no grace whatsoever and ended up with an immediately SOAKED shoe – so…. don’t go off the boards!

All of this would have made it well worthwhile but the thing that really set me off was the carnivorous plants. In all my wanderings I have never seen them in New England but I did today! Sooo many pitcher plants and they were all stunningly gorgeous! It really set my heart a’ flutter. And really made me want to sing a score from Little Shop of Horrors but that’s a separate issue… ANYWAY… if you happen to be the area I would definitely say you should check this place out. It’s easy to get to, easy to walk, and very easy on the eyes!

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Converse Meadow Conservation Area – Red Trail – Rindge NH

Today I decided to go on a little adventure and find the Rindge Town Forest. This resulted in me turning around after hitting a super sketchy and totally unnamed dirt road which had a “Posted – Private Property” sign to one side. I think the private property sign belonged to the neighbors but with no other signs leading the way and me in a Prius I decided not to take the dead end “primitive road” and get stuck on perhaps private property.

Instead I turned around and decided to check out a far more welcoming trail at the Converse Meadow Conservation Area just a few miles away. This place is also weirdly hard to find. It’s in a neighborhood and the parking lot doesn’t look like a parking lot until you’re in it. But once you’re in it there is a big bulletin board letting you know what’s up.

Today I went alone. I needed to have my moment of Zen with nature. I miscalculated how goddamn hot it was and how long the trail was but that being said it was exactly what my soul needed. There was a gentle breeze coming off the pond and big fluffy white clouds that eventually turned grey and threatening.

At the beginning of the trail there’s lots of memory benches, just super sweet places to sit and just mellow out. There are also a number of signs that let you know a little bit about the history and wildlife of the area. I guess a long time ago there was a mill here but there didn’t seem to be anything left of it. This was just… nature.

And the trail was lovely. One half of the loop gave access to different viewpoints of the pond, all absolutely luscious. Birds sang above my head as frogs, fish, and beavers splashed in the water. I even saw a bald eagle fly by! Didn’t get a photo as it was through the trees and happened really fast but there is no other giant white-headed bird in the area so I am certain it was a bald eagle.
I sat at one point to cool down and to just melt into the scenery. Not a soul was out here besides me and it was just so amazing. I can’t believe I have lived in the area for almost my entire life and never knew about this place! Well now I do and so do you. So, if you’re looking for a gorgeous and surprisingly long (but easy) loop check it out.

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Fort Wetherill Jamestown RI

Fort Wetherill was another one of those finds that I kept having suggested by search engines and AI but nothing online made it look that impressive. Still, it was only a few miles away from where I was staying that day so it made sense to go check it out.

To get to this place you have to wind through a bunch of sweet little neighborhoods reminiscent of European villages. There’s more trees though. And by the time you get there it’s a big park with a ton of parking and no one there. There was literally one other car.

I was not expecting this place to be so massive! Or so taken over by trees. It’s not that old – at least not compared to some of the other forts I have visited for this blog. Fort Wetherill was commissioned during World War II to protect the bay and as a sister fort to Fort Adams – which I haven’t gone to yet but I am sure I will at some point. It’s in complete disrepair now. For the most part it looks like it’s being eaten by a jungle of weeds. Many areas are fenced off from going inside but there are parts you can still go inside or even on top of the fort for some spectacular views of the property and the ocean.

We spent a good chunk of time just wandering around the structure like lost rats. The graffiti was something else. Hilariously someone commented to me that they love the graffiti in New England because you can always read it. And it’s true! We lack the highly stylized fonts of the west coast. In addition to this it was oddly cerebral. Although there were the usual tags there was also some pretty decent art – including a chimp dressed in a gnome cap. And someone had taken the time to hang bizarre vaguely medical looking paper flyers like they may have done in the early 1900’s. It added a certain… ambiance.

I really enjoyed this place. It was a great place to spend the afternoon and probably had some hiking trails too – we just didn’t go that route on this particular day. I don’t know why this isn’t a more known destination although maybe it is and we were just there on an off day. Hard to say as I did also get some responses about other people having loved this place in the past. All and all it was well worth the trip and I think would make a fantastic outing for photographers.

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Wales Loop – Brookside Trail – Sharon NH

Every outing I feel like I come closer and closer to having the cops called on me for being almost criminally weird. Today was no exception as in my search for the perfect aquascape fish tank I was on the lookout for a clump of wet leaves and mud – which I found before squirrelling it away in my purse in a plastic sandwich bag. No, I’m not conjuring creek nymphs, I swear. I was just after the healthy bacteria that breaks down said leaves so I could introduce them to my little aquatic habitat. Old School filtration – nature knows best! Plus how better to multitask than making your nature walk into a treasure hunt?

So that’s how I ended up at the Wales Loop. I’ve been here before but it wasn’t quite like this – all the rain we’ve been getting this spring and the melted snow from the mountains was whooshing by in a very feisty little river! On my last visit this was little more than a slow creek but not today! It was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything my mother was saying (as I brought her out for this adventure to be my hiking buddy for the day.)

Surprisingly, there was already two cars parked there aside the road (as there’s no proper parking) when we got there and we passed three sets of hikers. For such a tiny and out of the way trail this was encouraging! Also encouraging was the boot brush at the beginning of the trail asking that we wipe our feet before and after entering to avoid the spread of invasive seeds.

As always it was just absolutely gorgeous scenery winding along the river. And it smelled so fresh! I had also chosen this trail because except for this tiny incline at the beginning it’s for the most part very flat and super easy and that’s what my mother needed to start the sunny season. We did not do the whole loop as we wanted to enjoy the river as much as possible so we turned around when it started to head into the woods. Perhaps I will do that half of the loop at a later date.

All and all I would highly suggest this out of the way trail for anyone in the area looking for something a little less known or an easy trail. We all know there’s plenty of mountains around but not all hikers are up to that challenge! And there’s no shame in that. Go out, listen to the birds, dip your feet in a river. It’s all good!

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Blue Hills – Abigail Adams Trail – Milton Massachusetts

It’s come to my attention that if I don’t want to turn into a completely miserable person I need to get out into nature at least once a week when possible. So that’s what we did – this time we ended up at the Blue Hills Reservation for a day of hiking.

The weather was perfect – not too hot, not too cold, and with the trees changing into their vibrant Autumn colors it was just pure bliss to be out here. And we had also decided to bring Stormy the cat along in her little soft cat carrier in the hopes of trying out her harness for the first time.

We parked in the first parking lot we came across and tried to find a trail at random but there were a lot and many crisscrossed and none of them seemed like they were marked with titles… All we knew was that we were trying to reach the summit where there was the ruins of an old observation tower and a weather station. Upward we went!

If we are to believe the signs we only climbed about half a mile from the parking lot before we found what we came for – a big stone structure just quietly sitting in the woods surrounded by picnic tables and overlooked by a tower to one side. I chucked at the old decaying fireplace which had “No fires” written on it. This seemed to be a lovely place to play with the lighting and do a bit of whimsical and nature photography. There were other people about, some even had dogs, but everyone was pleasant and respectful. And that was all good because up until this point I had been struggling with a migraine and such intense dizziness and nausea that I had to take several breaks on my way up. I was asked why I had even bothered to go out on this day but it wasn’t that bad earlier on in the morning when we had left! Such is the nature of my life.

When we got to the top we stopped and let Stormy out of her carrier to go explore a bit with wide eyes. She was very unsure of the place but seemed to settle in a little bit until other hikers would walk by and she’d fixate on them like they were monsters come to eat her. It’s weird as we had both thought she’d been plenty exposed to people up until this point. She didn’t even seem to care about the dogs!

I left her and her human to climb to the top of the observation tower a story above. It was primitive but beautiful and the view on this Autumn day was as breath taking as you’d expect. So many vibrant trees spread over the landscape and off in the distance you could see the city of Boston. I have found Boston to be a strange place – still surrounded by a lot of woods. Eventually my companion made it up here too with the cat and we all enjoyed this great view.

The weather station was a quarter of a mile up another trail, basically just around the corner but it was being renovated and not open to visitors until 2023. Fair enough. On our way down we took the Abigail Adams Trail and ended up in a totally different parking lot, having to walk a little ways past the visitor center to a different parking lot where we found the car still minding it’s own.

This excursion was brief but very enjoyable. I would call the trail short but moderate difficulty as it was mostly a steady incline with lots of rocks with which we had to scrabble across. Not appropriate for anyone who needs a flat or very easy trail, and not enough of a challenge for people into real hiking. The perfect in between!

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Cat Hollow Park – Killingly CT

*If you’re just here for pretty pictures feel free to scroll to the gallery at the bottom, I took a lot!

You know we haven’t done all that much in Connecticut… so on this particular day that’s where we decided to poke around. Only thing is I don’t know squat about Connecticut so I had to conspire with Google. I asked for a town map because I didn’t want to drive much more than an hour. It’d already been a super packed week. On the border of Connecticut I saw Killingly and decided that sounded like a interesting town name and I asked what was there… Cat Hollow State Park was the answer. Even better it was supposed to be a park with the ruins of two old cotton mills in it.

I didn’t really know what to expect. Probably something swank, this is Connecticut after all. And the park was newly established – only running since 2003. What does a baby park look like? Wellllll….

Driving into town it was indeed a posh area filled with great big mansions behind thick brick walls and iron gates. And all the street names had hideously adorably animal names like Doghouse, Cockcrow, Cat Hollow, and my favorite Peeptoad. Did we fall into a fairy book? No, we most certainly did not, because when we drove up to the park it looked thoroughly abandoned. It was a gate across a road with one car parked in front of it, a big trail map bulletin board with NOTHING on it and I mean nothing, not so much as a scrap of paper or hint it ever said anything on it. There was a bench just beyond but it was looking at nothing except the blocked off road. What just happened?! How did we end up here??

Although not impressed by the state of this place we still decided to get out and look around. And in good spirit I decided to place one of my books on the bench to be found by some passerby as part of my book bombing campaign. Who knows, maybe someone will find it and love it.

We were a bit confused at what we saw from there. Beyond the gate it looked like a very new paved road big enough for cars but obviously not driven on by cars. Infact even though the road looked almost brand new it also looked like it’d been left over from some apocalyptic society collapse. It was odd. Not far up the path we found another bench, this one had its leg chained to a pole with no less than three locks but the pole was only 2 feet off the ground which means the chain loop could have easily been lifted over it if someone was insistent on bringing home this bench. Even funnier still the chained loop wasn’t even a loop. Upon further inspection it was just a chain placed on the ground to look like it looped around something. Very odd!

Then we started seeing the weird graffiti. Every big rock seemed to have the same image on it – that of a neon pink spraypainted figure with big X’s for eyes and a crazy hairdo that made it look either like Mom from Futurama or Nosferatu. If there’s anything I have learned in the past few years it’s that teenagers love abandoned places and things. Wherever you can find ruins in the woods you will also find great evidence of teenagers. The two for whatever reason are inseparable and these odd tags throughout the park only further proved this observation.

It wasn’t far in that we came by a fence – the most woeful fence I have ever seen in my life. Behind it there was some sort of wrought iron equipment sat on the river, maybe the remains of a water turbine or something similar. The fence did nothing to keep me away from it as just around the edge of the fence was a path where people were clearly going around to see it anyway. And beyond that there was a rough path into the wilderness which I honestly couldn’t tell if it was made by humans or deer but I figured what the hell might as well “bushwhack” our way through this as one internet guide suggested we might have to do in this park. And it wasn’t too far away that we found the first substantial set of ruins over this river.

This trail seemed to have ended at these ruins so after poking around we headed back up towards the road and continued on foot from there. Apparently, this road extended for half a mile. We wouldn’t get that far though before we found more trails jutting off the sides. We decided to take another one right around the edges of a fence that seemed to have a different set of ruins behind them. This one brought us into the woods to a very serene little spot where the river had more or less dried up so we could wander over it at will.

It was then we realized all the rocks at the bottom of this riverbed were blackened which seemed very weird. Was this some sort of pollution form the 1800’s? Probably not, after coming home I learned these mills all burned down, one as recently as 2001. You could see the charred line on some of the larger rocks a little downstream.

We walked along the river’s edge for quite a while until we came to the biggest feature of the park – a giant stone wall over the river that on a normal day is a beautiful waterfall. They must be suffering drought this year as there wasn’t so much as a trickle. There was however a young man meditating on a rock underneath it, weary of our presence. We wandered on.

I think we ended up doing the trails ass backwards because this is when we found the “picnic area” and the sign denoting the beginning of the trail being choked out by vines. This seemed fitting for this part. Here we also found more graffiti (with one rock literally looking like a kindergartner painted on it) and of course another trail that led under some bridges and out into a field on Main Street. It was cool under the bridges, and we loitered for a while digging the graffiti salamander looking down at us.

After returning from that dead end we found what looked like another trail on the high ground making jokes about bigfoot and starting to sweat from the oppressive heat and humidity. We took a few breaks and just mucked about before finding our way back from where we came. I’m told there’s a mile and a half of trails out there but every map shows something different and when we were on the ground there wasn’t any markers or guides or even any way to note when a trail had started soooo…. it was a fun place to wander but uh, poorly organized on the park’s side. That being said seeing the ruins were very cool and we both enjoyed just chilling out there in nature.

When we finally managed to find our way back to the car it was only then we found the signs saying what we could find here in the park and where to go. They were… in rough shape. Could have been used as the set of a post-apocalyptic horror movie. But hey, I guess it’s an E for Effort?

Sadly no one took my book in the two hours we spent puttering about.

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