Sometimes when you have been out adventuring for as long as I have the inspiration starts to run a little dry and then you just have to ask the universe what it thinks you should do. In this particular case it thinks I should go to the oldest wooden jailhouse in the United States which was said to be open. Sounded good to me so off we went! And there it was in all it’s adorable glory sitting next to an old blacksmith shop and a Naval Museum. But woe! Although the brochure on the door said it was open it was not. So we took a walk down the trail directly behind it – two days in a row – because as you guessed it, it wasn’t open the day after either.
And you know what? The trail was a destination in and of itself! Cute and cozy and near civilization and yet covered in vines and greenery that made it seem like an import of some far away jungle. Before very long we crossed a railroad track which provided a fun opportunity for photos. Beyond that there seemed to be a number of unmarked trails all jutting off of each other. I am honestly not sure where we ended up or why. But when I started overheating we headed our way back, having had our walk in for the day.
It was kind of cute. I would definitely tell someone who lives in the area to go check it out. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the old jailhouse will be open! If only… as for the trail, it was nice, worth travelling very far? maybe not. Although the surrounding area was super interesting and unique so maybe….
It’d been a hell of a few weeks for me and unfortunately, I think my chaos gremlin followed me to Rhode Island on this particular week because my usual travel companion wasn’t having an easy go of it either. We both needed desperately to get out of the house but lacked the energy to actually do so. A compromise was made – to stay in town and go back to a destination we’d already been to before – a destination I remember taking photos of but for some reason cannot find said photos or blog entry?? Shame because I took very few photos this time around thinking I already had plenty!
Prescott Farm is the site of a historic farmstead and gristmill. It has one of very few surviving windmills in here in the US built in the early 1800s and there are several other historic buildings also on the property you can poke at. And “gardens,” lots of “gardens” which appear to be wildly out of control fenced in weeds… which I guess are mostly native and probably were used at some point by locals but I definitely saw some things in there that clearly blew in from somewhere else. A vegetable garden this was not. Although I did find a patch of choke cherry trees along the perimeter. SOMEDAY. Someday I’ll have land and chokecherry trees of my own with which to make jam with.
The location is known for its little duck pond where a gaggle of them wait to be fed. We however were here to check out the hiking trails first so off we went past the old homestead, the historic markers, and the windmill, into the woods! The woods were a well needed respite from the heat. Despite the fact that today was hotter and muggier than a teenage Shrek’s jock strap (sorry) the woods were cool and refreshing! And pretty! We found a bunch of little fairy houses that someone had left at random trees and then I spotted a really fat deer – the first one I’ve seen on island in all my visits here! And just beyond the deer we came across a weird bird sitting at the edge of the water just chilling, giving no mind to us whatsoever. My companion thought it was a hawk because of its coloration and short stubby shape, I thought it was a blue heron because of its beak. Drawing closer to it I realized it wasn’t nearly big enough to be a heron and its beak definitely wasn’t that of a hawk. We were both bewildered by the animal who still didn’t care we were staring at it like leering predators. We’d only later learn its identity by posting photos on FaceBook – it was a night heron. I have never heard of such a thing and am growing increasingly concerned I might be wandering ever closer to becoming a birder, the horror. This goes doubly for my companion who thought he heard an owl. This resulted in us both stalking a mourning dove to the chimney of the farmhouse. To be fair the “mourning” sound of mourning doves does sound a bit owl-like.
The trails were very short and sweet and at times a little messy but it was cute and I was happy to have seen some wildlife. We were however about to approach the famous duckpond. Ooooooph, it was very choked in out in weeds, I don’t think they were native either. However, the ducks still persisted, as did frogs, baby turtles, pond skimmers, diving beetles, and a fantastic orgy of every kind of dragon fly you could think of just finding their love match. It was kind of funny. The ducks showed interest in us only as long as it took to figure out our sorry asses didn’t have any food for them and then they wandered off crankily quaking at each other.
This was a nice little diversion – just the amount of green and activity I needed to get back onto a path of a well-regulated nervous system. So, if you’re in town maybe check it out. It’s rather cute, child friendly, and has a little history. Also, the windmill is nice to take photos of.
It has come to my attention this entry from last fall was never published so I’ve decided to release it into the world today. Late is better than never! So here we go…
Over the past few years I have had to get more creative in how I find trails, especially ones close to home that no one seems to know about – like this one! Believe it or not I found it while looking at a Redfin map. Whhhy it was on a realtor’s map I couldn’t tell you but I knew I had to swing by and check it out.
I had no idea that I’d be driving down a series of sketchy camp/dirt roads to get here. The Prius LOVES me for these unplanned adventures, especially when fallen leaves obscure the road and make everythign slippery. Nothing like having the fear of God put back into you because you’re driving a Prius.
ANYWAY. This place is near civilization and yet still in the middle of nowhere. It’s odd, but the PERFECT introvert’s trail! Although there was a cute little parking lot which had room for numerous vehicles we were the only ones there on this day and according to reviews online this seems like it is usually the case. Maybe because it’s new? The trail board claimed it was only set up in 2016 and already was faded almost beyond being able to read. A handwritten note to the side pleaded for help to repair the bridges.
The trail itself was a bit wet and slippery under a thick layer of dead leaves but other than that it was an easy trail that ends at a cute little pond view before attaching to a well known snow mobile trail. It made for a really lovely afternoon walk. We didn’t see another soul and it was SO QUIET. A hidden gem indeed.
Today I was doing errands and decided to go on a hike afterwards. I found the Ayer Conservation Trails at 73 Groton-Harvard Road Ayer. It was weird, parking was on the opposite side of the road and the kiosk was behind a guard rail and didn’t look like it’d been replaced in yeeeears. I wandered down the trail and when I saw a VERY decrepit sign readin, “pond” with an arrow I followed.
Turned out this was just a series of viewpoints off the main trail but it was GORGEOUS. I took this short video to show you all and then was called home for an emergency so I didn’t get to complete the hike. But I decided to post this anyway because it was still very cool. Video below!
There’s few things more alluring than the chance to see dinosaurs. Add to that the fact this museum was free and we were all on board. To the dinosaurs!!
Of course being a natural history museum there was a lot more than dinosaurs but they were the first thing we saw – specifically a life size triceratops guarding the outside of the building and several pterodactyl fossils just in the lobby. Already I was endeared. From here we wandered into a large room with mostly prehistoric ice age fossils – all the most beloved creatures from the time – a mammoth, a sabre tooth tiger, even a moa which I lovingly call a “12 foot murder bird.” It was a nice display.
This wasn’t the end of the fossils. There was also marine fossils, including a precambrian section with an anomolocarus, a whole dinosaur room, and even a huge sea turtle in a large sitting area near the bathrooms. Also near the bathrooms was a super cool little water bottle refilling station claiming to have saved the world from thousands of plastic bottles. I liked that!
The museum also had a selection of very well done taxidermy of unusual species – my favorite was an aye aye, as well as displays about how taxidermy is done, as well as a living lab with leaf cutter ants and butterflies. For the more technical minds there were displays of the evolution of various technologies, for history buffs there was a very touching display of archeological finds including a Mesopotamian legal document showing a woman selling her own children into slavery to spare them from starvation after losing her husband, and finally there were several rooms dedicated to rocks and minerals that were far more fascinating than I had anticipated. Things I’d never seen – including one that looked like rolls of fabric and another spikey creation that made me itchy looking at it.
All and all we spent a couple hours in this museum and for being free I was quite impressed! I would definitely recommend it to any curious minds looking for something to do in the area.
I can no longer blame covid lockdowns for my increasing poundage. Time to get off my ass and do some hiking! Mild hiking though because it’s already a bajillion degrees out and I have the knees of an old peasant woman.
This particular hike was inspired by a random person on FaceBook who posted photos of some sort of ruins and said they were in the Arcadia State Management Area but failed to say which trail or how to get there, only cryptically remarking this whole area was once used for quarrying and there is still some evidence of such. What kind of evidence?? They did not specify.
And since I didn’t know this place had multiple trails I was left to ask the internet for an address. The address it gave me was to their headquarters, which we’d very quickly learn was nowhere near any goddamn trails. However we didn’t know this because the map on the bulletin board here made it look like the trails were a quick skip down the street. So we tried. Turns out this was literally the worse map I have ever seen, I think a Kindergartener may have made it. There were no trails just at the bend down the road as it seemed to specify, just residential houses. And since we were in almost direct sunlight on the road I was already overheating but worse my ankle froze up, and then my foot, and then I was limping in great pain and suggesting we go back to the car because my memory of passing the pond trail said it was nowhere near here. And I was right. It was past the bend, a good way down the road, after a left turn and a ways down that stretch, all and all probably 1-2 miles from our starting point! And there were three ill-marked parking lots. I ended up in the one meant for kayaks and small boats! But too aggravated at this point to change that we decided it was probably fine as none of the other cars here had boats or boat hitches either. There was however a bathroom so even though the trail (road?) wasn’t really marked we headed in anyway.
That’s how we ended up accidentally sneaking up on a lady on her cell phone who was sitting at one of three picnic tables. Did we just park at a picnic spot or was there an actual trail here?? It wasn’t clear until we were at the pond’s edge. There was indeed a loop trail going all the way around it but again this was a hunch, there was no bulletin board or map here which is seriously odd considering there were walking bridges and picnic tables.
Into the woods we went following the yellow trail markers. Initially this led to a serious of probable fishing spots, would it go farther? Yes, yes, it did. The trail was well travelled and didn’t seem to have any other trails jutting from it so luckily there was no real issue getting lost. The pond was visible for most of the hike to some degree and was picturesque. There was even a Canadian goose and a cormorant on a rock… which is odd considering they’re ocean birds but whatever. Maybe it got sick of the rest of the flock and decided fresh water was where it’s at.
There was indeed one ruin on the trail, not the one I’d seen photos of. I do not know what it was back in the day but it was fairly impressive. Not far from there was a lovely dam. By this time my feet were swollen and on fire so I ambled to the water’s edge, ripped off my shoes and socks, and dunked them into the sweet cold water. BLISS. I stayed in that spot for a few minutes just cooling down before returning to our adventure, still not knowing if this was a loop trail. Turns out it was. We were maybe 2/3rds of the way around when we were at the dam. All Trails seems to think this loop was one and a half miles and should take 30 minutes to walk around. Admittedly it was easy with very few inclines but 30 minutes?! What are you, jogging?! Slow down! Smell the roses! Or in this case blueberries which were starting to come out already! Nature’s a bit mixed up this year. I also keep seeing fall foliage mixed with spring foliage on the same trees. It’s…. distressing.
In any event this place is probably hopping in the summer. It seemed a nice family friendly kind of place. I would suggest it for anyone looking for a nice easy pond hike. Just beware the maps are absolutely useless. Luckily, it’s a loop trail so that didn’t matter!
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the trolls for a long time now- probably since the middle of last winter when there began the murmurings of such creatures coming to our forests. I know, the artist Thomas Dambos, has other trolls in New England – specifically some in Maine I have yet to visit – but if I remember right those were in a botanical garden and required tickets so I never managed to get out there. This was much closer and much cheaper!
I’ve never been to Ninigret and I must say it was an impressive park! There was SO MUCH space for parking and beyond that there were numerous sports fields of all kinds including disc golf?!?! Seriously have never heard of such a thing and was having a real hard time getting my mind around it. There was also a lovely little dog park with two enclosures, I’m guessing one for large dogs and one for small. And on top of all that there were hiking trails through the woods! All this alone was enough to get me going but we came for trolls.
We were not disappointed! Since it’s technically off season no one was really parked in the parking lots, instead there was a string of cars parked aside the road which we took to mean there were trolls there. I managed to parallel park for once and we were on our way. The trolls had only been there a few days at this point and the crowds they were drawing were impressive! We followed said crowd only a few hundred feet until we found the first troll – whose apparently named Erik Rock. People were lining up for selfies. I was shocked to see how big he was! He dwarfs humans! And the very normal size bird house dangling on a necklace around his neck looked TINY.
Erik was beautiful and clearly already well-loved but there was supposed to be two trolls in this park. We were told Erik would give us a clue as to where his lovely wife(?) Greta Granite was but we didn’t really know what that meant. Did the birdhouse mean something? No idea. After playing with him we left and followed the crowd down the path until we hit a road and weren’t quite sure where to go from there. Eventually we’d figure out if we took a left onto the road and wandered down it not too far there was a little path and a little half hazard stick reading “troll” in front of it. So, we crawled into this underbrush and not very far down Greta came into sight. Honestly, I think she delighted me even more than her mate. Her hair was made of local bamboo, she wore lots of jewelry made of seashells, and had the most darling button nose.
People gathered all around her and were taking photos. A woman came by with a baby strapped to her back who babbled, “dada!” when they saw my travel companion. I joked, “Acquiring more children, are you?” “NO, I AM NOT!” You can tell from the lack of contractions in that sentence he was offended but goddamn I found that whole scene hilarious.
But back to the troll – people were being super polite and letting everyone get their chance to check her out. We decided to continue on the trail, which was a short loop, and in doing so found her enormous yet somehow still adorable feet with which she was kneeling on. I was impressed! This was such a lovely sculpture! And it’s made almost completely from reused and recycled materials. Even better these are only the first two of what should eventually be five on The Troll Trail, which will include other parks, all within an easy day’s travel in Rhode Island. I can’t wait. I will absolutely be trying the Troll Trail altogether when they arrive!
I really hadn’t intended to go to any more conventions but when I brought this one up to my usual travel companion he thought it’d be a fun vacation so off we went to the boonies of Maine to see what was up in the big weird world of cryptozoology.
We got the two-day VIP tickets – because if you’re going to make a vacation of it you might as well! We showed up a little early and had to kill some time wandering for a bit while the hosts tried to figure out how to admit people. Some of the vendors were already set up so we tried walking around and looking at their goods first. There was a lovely wire artist at the door with all sorts of really cool pieces. I asked her how long it took to make them and she said about two days on the smaller ones. I wanted to give her encouragement but I knew whatever she was asking for these was too rich for my blood and instead of being insulting I never asked what they were going for. She was the only vendor that I think made no sales because of this and I felt that. I’ve been that table that’s misfitted for the venue and has goods too fine for whatever is going on. It sucks.
Next to her we found a crochet artist with all sorts of cryptid plushies and dear god were they adorable. Ended up with a tiny mothman keychain from this vendor. I figured those would go like hotcakes. Another artist had the center of the room and was doing caricatures – presumably of patrons with their favorite cryptid. The examples he had on display were rather cute, he even included one with a lot of muppets which had Nigel from Farscape hidden on there as well. I had to laugh. The rest of the room contained A LOT of the more usual items – stickers, car decals, DVDs of bigfoot documentaries, and sooo many books. My thing is to be supportive of local authors so I held myself together to say I’d be back tomorrow for some books and whew, did I ever. Came back with a haul! On all sorts of cool topics, some on hauntings and new places to go others on cryptids and weird happenings.
However the most fun was probably the reptile rescue who was letting people pet their animal ambassadors. They had a few decently big snakes, still growing for sure, a grumpy tortoise (who I could really empathize with) a skink, and a tegu. We took turns holding them all. The snakes were CRUISING, the skink was so relaxed he was limp as a ragdoll which kinda freaked me out a little bit, and the tegu, oh my god the tegu… I wanted to steal. She just burrowed into my sweater giving me a huge bear hug and FELL ASLEEP on me. God damn I love giant cuddly lizards. I’ve wanted one since I was a teenager but you know… their enclosure requirements must be enormous! This one was already maybe 1/3rd to half the size she’d be some day and that was plenty big enough! Plus the laws keep changing from state to state. Honestly, I was a bit surprised to see tegus here because of that.
After passing my lizard back to the next person we went on our way. There’d be a pizza dinner with a celebrity in the field at every table. We ended up with a comic book writer. I wish I remembered his name but I guess he did a bunch of Scooby Doos and some other neat things. He seemed very pleasant as did the couple who sat across from us who had come up here all the way from Pennsylvania! They had matching septum piercings which I thought was unique and also bought one of the mothman plushies. So we bonded on that as we ate our pizza. They had ordered 57 boxes and 32 liters of soda. I was accused of counting them but no, I was just eavesdropping when I came across this factoid.
The big event however was a viewing of Big Fur which was a documentary about the creation of the hyper realistic bigfoot sitting in the corner. This is what set the gears off in my head. I had NO IDEA there was a whole subset of taxidermists who are now doing mock mounts of extinct or otherwise undocumented animals like this bigfoot but with real fur from other animals. This particular bigfoot was made with the hair from highland cattle and the artist who created him also did a mock panda bear that looked SO REAL. Like I would think it absolutely was a panda if I didn’t know better. The reason this was inspiring to me is because I have been telling myself for years that I have enough hobbies and I do not need to get into taxidermy and be one of those weirdos lugging off dead raccoons found on the highway…. but the idea of making completely different animals out of those pelts?! You could make a goddamn unicorn! Or a snallygaster…
The rest of the audience seemed more emotionally invested in the surprise romantic aspect of the film which involved a rather messy love… square… Triangle was not the right option. Honestly, I felt that was it’s own thing and felt weird to be included but you know.. you do you. The director talked about it a little bit and we had fun with it.
The next day there was more vendors and a ton of lectures that ranged from the silly to the serious. I had no idea that loggers were… off their nuts. The amount of bizarre cryptids in logger lore is insane. Now I had loggers in my family back in the day and I feel like a lot of these are drunken big fish kinda stories but still – what the hell were these men on?! And the names of these things! I wish I could remmeber them – they would have put Dr Suess to shame.
Another lecture told us all about cougar sightings in Somerset county and how someone in Connecticut had run one over that had wandered here from thousands of miles away. I have heard stories of big cats my entire life and just thought it was a fact cougars lived here. Apparently not. The state of Maine does not recognize a current breeding population and they are therefore cryptids. The department of wildlife states cougars were functionally extinct from hunting in Maine in the late 1800’s with the last being shot in the 1930’s.
By the time the HP Lovecraft guy came up, who I’d seen before, the heat in the room and my lack of sleep previous was conspiring to land me in a coma. I may have nodded off for most of that one despite trying not to — to the point of going cross eyed.
Luckily there was an intermission where we could go out and eat at a taco truck parked outside. I tried their veggie tacos and they were the bomb. And the people were so sweet. I got a lot of compliments on my hair, pants, and purse, and was tracked down twice to see if I was the owner of the sunglasses left were I was sitting on the grass – but the sunglasses were there before me.
As we went back in we were treated to another lecture from the guy hosting the event who was telling us the cryptozoology museum was moving from its current spot to a new much larger home in Bangor and that this was also the last convention to be held in Portland for the same reason.
One of the last speakers was my favorite, it was the woman who runs a blog called Cryptozoology Facts. She seemed delightfully neaurospicy and informed everyone she was nervous but she did a good job telling us about all the bonkers cryptids she had come across and the fact her favorites were all seen only once and included a winged clam. I had to agree with her the sheer weirdness of that one would make it a favorite for me too. We’d talk to her a little bit afterwards as she offered a gift to anyone who liked and reposted her FaceBook post on the event. It was a bigfoot magnet which will now be going on my fridge…
Anyway, we had an awesome time – learned a ton about local folklore and mythology, got to speculate on what’s actually out there, and met some pretty nifty people. All and all it was a great time to be had by all and I came home with sooo many books it’s a bit ridiculous but at least they’re all signed!
Right behind the Bass Pro Shop there was another tiny parking lot attached to a cute little half mile trail. We decided to go see what it was and I must say – for being in Boston, a Metropolitain city, I was impressed! Yes, it was short, but it did amble over a little pond guarded by a 40-pound murder duck, er, swan, and then wound us around a sweet little cranberry bog. They’d only planted it a few weeks ago so these were early days. I’d never been to a cranberry bog in spring so this was fun for me.
I took photos with my camera but summarily lost them so these are all cell phone photos. It’s been that kind of a week for me. But anyway… the trail was short, sweet, and had a bunch of informative plaques around it talking about cranberries, their history and harvest. I actually learned quite a bit reading them!
So yeah, if you happen to have kids as your spouse is wandering the shop looking for something shooty or stabby this is definitely a good way to keep everyone entertained! More shops should have random educational trails behind them.
When we drove into the Berkshires, before we even got to any of our destinations, we ended up driving by the most gorgeous mountain summit and I promised on our way back home I’d stop so we could take a gander, and just by chance we timed it just right. We arrived about 20 minutes before sunset and I asked my companions if they’d be willing to wait to see the sun descend from the sky and continue behind the mountain. Everyone agreed.
So we settled in to wait. As we did so we explored the area – several little look outs, some cabins which weren’t opened yet, a sugar house… and we weren’t the only ones waiting for the sunset as three other cars showed up just for that. Good thing my phone’s weather app told me exactly how long we’d be waiting. We played with the light as it shone through a bunch of fuzzy pussy willows and when the moment came the sun started to hide behind the mountain it was so goddamn pretty. The light just changed over everything and the scenery was so much to behold. We were all really happy to have stayed.
I wish my camera was as impressed as I was but apparently the settings were off and my photos were… unimpressive. I did take a small video but this was even less impressive so I have asked for a few snaps from my companions… because their phones did a better job. In any event even though this was completely unplanned it was SO WORTH THE TRIP!!
After all was said and done we continued down the mountain towards home… and got distracted twice before reaching the bottom, stopping off to check out this memorial to indigenous Americans and the founding of the Elks lodge. My inner twelve-year-old had to point out the elk was anatomically correct. But in all seriousness these two last stops were a lot of fun and the perfect way to end a very full day!
