Walden Pond

Walden Pond Reservation is one of my favorite parks in central Massachusetts. It is perfect for a summer beach day, if you don't mind the crowds, it is beautiful and quiet for a quick swim on a fall morning, and it is beautiful for a walk when the weather is too cold for swimming. It's easily accessible from Route 2, and parking is $5 per car.

It turns out it is also amazing in the fall. Walking trails wrap all the way around the pond.

Walden Pond also has the unique opportunity to see a replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin, the place where he wrote Walden. 

The original cabin site is there too, further into the woods on the other side of the pond.

Anyway, Kevin and I went west along the pond from the main beach and then went up to the Esker trail when we reached the boat launch area. There were tons of families with young kids, couples, teens and other, larger groups all around the pond, but once we got up to the Esker trial, people were more spread out and it was a very nice walk. The leaves remaining on the trees were beautiful, and so were the golden leaves all over the trails. 

Two roads diverge in a wood...I know, wrong New England writer.

I really like this shrub, so much that I wanted to see the pond through it. Don't judge me.

Wyman Meadow is a little damper than I usually like my meadows, but it is supposed to be top notch for wildlife viewing.

We got to the MBTA railroad tracks that border the north edge of the pond.

Then we followed the pond around to Thoreau's Cove and the site of his original cabin. Apparently people bring rocks to the site to commemorate...something... This is where they thought the original house was, until they found the remains of the chimney in 1945.

                                      

These stones mark the boundaries of the original cabin. 

From there we crossed a cute little boardwalk, then accidentally ended up back at Route 126. We ducked back into the woods and took the Ridge Path and the Sherwood Trail (maybe?) back to the beach.

See how happy we were about it?

Back at the main beach, I lost my ever-loving mind, took off my shoes and socks and waded into the pond. Confidentially, that was my plan all along, and if it hadn't been quite so leafy, and if I had remembered my towel , I would have waded in a little further. It was beautiful! And it made a passerby say "Hot diggity!" People are strange.

Moderately chilly.

The pond itself is a glacial kettle-hole, 102 feet deep at its deepest point. That's one reason swimming across it is forbidden, which, um, I didn't know...on my last visit. I am bummed that I missed the chance for an October swim this year. Maybe I can get back in the early spring, before the crowds of sane people dust off their beach towels.

This is right after Kevin said "Be careful or you will get your pants wet." It is clearly too late.

Once my feet dried a little, we went back to the cabin replica, and I checked out the signage while Thoreau looked confused about Kevin's phone. 

Oh, I always wondered what my pond looked like from the air!

Here is a really cool post describing the construction of the house and giving some stats. The cabin is cozy and it makes me want to buy a Kindle and retreat from real life for the winter. Which, I'm pretty sure, is the modern equivalent of what Thoreau did. He was all, "You guys, stop being so commercial! It's way lame! Hey, Emerson, can I borrow some money and land so I can be Transcendental for a while? BRB and I'll dedicate my book to you, I swear!" 

Excuse me while I fantasize for a moment about ditching all my belongings and moving in here. 

Anyway, I highly recommend this as a day trip. In the summer, DCR recommends that you call ahead and make sure they haven't hit their cap of 1,000 visitors at a time. I've never had this problem, but I avoid going when it's super hot. The main beach features a building with bathrooms and changing areas. There is often an ice cream truck on site when you're all heated up from swimming or hiking. I get why Thoreau picked it, even if I think he might have been a selfish tool. A great writer, don't get me wrong, but a tool.


Total time: 2 hours
Distance: Nearly 1 mile along the Esker Trail, about 1 mile around the east side of the pond. Total: A bit less than 2 miles.
Cost: $5 for parking
Words of Wisdom: Bring a map because the trails are not clearly marked. It's very difficult to get lost, but we had a lot of questions and uncertainty along the way.

10 Best Things to Do Now that Daylight Savings Time is Over

I always get so excited when it's time to "fall back" in November. An extra hour of sleep? Yes, please! And then 4:30 pm comes and the sun is low in the sky and I think, "Wait, I take it back. I would rather have the daylight." It turns out I'm not the only one with mixed feelings. Nationally, daylight savings time was first established in 1918 in the U.S., but that law was repealed. The practice was popular again during World War II as an energy saving measure. It was finally standardized in 1966, but states can choose whether to play along. Study all this, because there will be a quiz.

It feels like the real start of winter for me. It's the beginning of dark, cold afternoons and limited hours to get yard work and errands done. But it's also the beginning of long, cozy evenings. To celebrate, try:

1. Building a fire: Bundle up and make s'mores around a campfire or fire pit on your patio. Or if you are really lucky and have a fireplace or a wood stove, it's time to get it cranking.
2. Making mulled cider: Whether you heat a whole gallon in your slow cooker or fancy it up on the grill like Bobby Flay, it's a perfect way to warm up a cold evening. This fancy Betty Crocker version is delicious for a fall party. 
3. Simmering some soup: No, not all my ways to celebrate the end of daylight savings time involve food, I swear. But a bowl of hot soup is the perfect dinner for a chilly, dark evening.
4. Baking homemade bread: To go with the soup! Try this one that does all the work on its own while you enjoy the precious hours of daylight.
5. Getting up early: If you're like me, you've been getting up in the dark for weeks now and you survived. Try setting your alarm a little earlier now that the sun is coming up earlier. Drink that coffee in an honest-to-goodness ceramic mug and get a jump on the day. Among other factors, increasing exposure to sunlight can help to improve mood during the grim winter months.
6. Going outside: Make the most of your daylight hours by taking a walk somewhere pretty before it gets too cold.  
7. Star-gazing: Go out and check out some fall constellations without staying up past your bedtime. Download an iPad app if you are as clueless as I am. Or go out and see the Leonid meteor shower on November 17th.
8. Playing Manhunt: Manhunt is a variation of hide-and-seek played in the dark. If your neighborhood is safe or you have a campus or park to play in, gather a bunch of friends. One person is "it," the Manhunter, and all the other players hide. Pick clear boundaries and keep it safe with rules about legit hiding spots. Pick an ending time so the champion isn't left hiding all night long. 
9. Making a night of it: Have a fall party combining several of the suggestions above. Or check out these other fall party ideas for kids or adults
10. Going to bed early: Round up your loved one or someone friendly and warm and enjoy some early evenings. The busy holiday season is coming, and soon spring will be here. Before you know it, you'll be busy with all kinds of parties and engagements. Take this opportunity to hibernate a little while you have the chance.

Cross-Country Skiing in Massachusetts

As I've said before, I go through phases where I berate myself for never doing anything and decide I need a hobby or a skill or a membership or a cause. Since this often happens in the middle of the night, I am usually more or less fully recovered by morning. (The exception is The Couch-to-5K Debacle of January 2010. But I will spare you the heartbreak and awkwardness of that adventure.)

Anyway, it snowed last night and I feel like winter has started without me. My lawn furniture is still in the yard and we never even pulled the tomato plants from the garden, or mowed the lawn one last time. So here I am with my Lazy Person's Mocha (instant cocoa and instant coffee) listening to Josh Ritter and thinking it's time to do something fun this winter.

My friends have tried to get me to try downhill skiing, but I took a few lessons in middle school and I've fallen down in the snow enough since then that I know having slippery feet on purpose is not my thing. I prefer much more control over my momentum, especially in cold conditions. Which leaves me with cross-country skiing. I have loved it the times I tried it, but never seem to have the time/money/transportation/company I need often enough to make it a habit.

These are some of the best places for cross-country skiing that I have found in central/eastern Massachusetts:

• Weston Ski Track off Rte 30 in Weston. They have 15 km of trails (how metric of them!) and sell trail passes and rental packages for $15 each for adults. The 3-day pass (any 3 days, not 3 in a row) for $39 looks like a good deal, as does evening skiing for $12.75. 
• Great Brook Ski Touring Center in Carlisle is a little more out of the way, but is accessible from 495 or Route 2. It might be worth it though because their trail pass is $12 on weekends and $10 weekdays and evenings. Their adult ski rental package is $13. The season pass is only $60, but I'm not sure I could get up there at least 5 times to make it worthwhile.
• Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation lists lots of state parks and forests with trails open for cross-country skiing, which works if you have your own equipment. Five dollars for parking, at most, gets you into any of these parks. 

Everything else was too far from Worcester, and not a good choice for snowy weather or exhausting activities. I guess this year I am limited to Great Brook or Weston, and maybe I'll find out I'm a skier and buy equipment for next year. Maybe. 

Playing Tourist in Your Hometown

Gather 'round, children, and I will tell you the story of my youthful naivete. When I was 17, I chose a college in Boston because, hey, it's Boston. I looked at other New England schools and the selling point on each tour was that it was "only X hours to Boston." So if that's where everyone is headed, why not go there? I had been to a Red Sox game as a kid, and to the Museum of Science, the Public Gardens, and the Common, and I loved it all.

So I packed up all my worldly possessions (everything was purple - picture it) and my parents moved me into an old apartment building cum dorm (I've always wanted to use "cum" that way in a sentence) in Boston. And then I got busy. I had new friends, lots of homework, and a job or two. I spent most of my meager income on pizza and bus tickets home to New Jersey. (Oh, and laundry. Never have quarters seemed so precious.)

Sure, we took walks and occasionally saw a show or had dinner, but I pretty much stuck to my campus and neighborhood. I loved Boston, but I rarely ventured further than Downtown Crossing because, heck, we had cable in the dorm. And after about two years of that, I was burned out on school so I quit and joined the circus took a year off and got accepted into AmeriCorps.

I spent a year in various towns and cities in the Southeast U.S. We worked hard for room, board and a stipend (but at least we didn't have to come up with laundry quarters, I think they covered that for us) and spent weekends looking for cheap entertainment. We hiked and visited historic sites. We called our families from beaches in November and I, personally, read a lot of books and wrote a lot of letters. But I came out of that year vowing to look at my home city in a new way and take advantage of all it had to offer. I made lists (lists are a big thing with me).

Then (you're hoping I learned my lesson by now) I moved back to Boston and (lather, rinse, repeat) I got busy. I graduated, moved to Montana, hiked a little and drank a lot of beer, moved back to Massachusetts to be closer to my family and any hope of a full-time job in my field, and pretty much stayed busy.

I rarely go into Boston anymore, unless I have company in town. I am about an hour away, but there is always something to do in the house, or kittens on the internet! But I'm still trying to enjoy my local area when I can.

Let's band together, put on our sandals, hike our black socks up to our Bermuda shorts, smear zinc oxide on our noses and shuffle aimlessly through our hometowns noticing things and taking pictures of them. For effect, it helps if you stop and ask directions to the place you are standing in front of. It's charming, I assure you.

Halloween Sight-Seeing - Salem, MA

This historic fright site gets extremely crowded around Halloween, because of its reputation as the site of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. It is currently home to the Salem Witch Museum, The New England Pirate Museum, Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables and countless other museums and tourist sites that capitalize on Salem's haunted history. The Haunted Happenings website offers detailed information on Salem's attractions, so in lieu of reinventing the wheel, I will suggest that if you must go during October, you avoid Halloween and the weekends surrounding it, take public transportation and skip the wax museum, which is cheesy at best.

If you (or your out-of-town guests) insist on visiting Salem during October, your best bet is the Peabody Essex Museum, which is a beautiful art museum featuring the incredible 200-year-old home of a Chinese merchant, relocated to the museum. Like everything else, it is probably mobbed during the Halloween season, but it should be a relative oasis of calm in a sea of costumed teens.

Wachusett Mountain BBQFest

This weekend was BBQ Fest up at Wachusett Mountain. The mountain is an easy day trip from Boston or anywhere in central Massachusetts. There were awesome barbecue vendors, lots of booths selling food and crafts, and a beer tent with Shocktop, Sam Adams and Woodchuck Cider. I had a 1/2-pound hot dog with melted cheddar and pulled pork from Firefly's Barbecue. (I swear I shared it with Kevin!) My brother and sister-in-law said it was very similar to the layout and vendor assortment of Applefest last weekend, so I am glad I didn't get tickets for both. Later in the afternoon I had fried dough and a Woodchuck cider. Why is it that in Connecticut, you can get fried dough with marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese, and in Massachusetts it only comes with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar? What is this world coming to?

Kevin and I rode to the top of the mountain on the Skyride (ski lift). The views from the top of the mountain were fantastic. I went to the top once before, during Taste of Wachusett a few weeks ago and that was a little better because the skies were clear.  But even on a cloudy day with intermittent rain showers, we could see the Boston skylilne, Mount Monadnock, Worcester, Springfield, and probably the Presidential Range of the White Mountains. We saw Mount Greylock to the northeast and identified the windmills in Winchendon that we kept passing on our camping trip in July.

Basically, the view from the top of Mount Wachusett is a to-do list for other trips I want to take in Massachusetts. Seeing them from 2000' up makes them seem so close! There was also a terrific view of the foliage. Kevin and I agreed that we need to climb Mount Wachusett sometime soon, too, instead of taking the slightly alarming trip up in the chair lift.

On the way out, I bought an assortment of dip mixes from one of the vendors: a super-garlicky one, pumpkin dip and gingerbread dip. I'm thinking ahead to holiday parties this year, for a change. We got a shuttle bus from the parking area to the event, which made parking painless. Overall, I wish BBQFest had a few more BBQ  vendors and a few fewer miscellaneous vendors, but the quality of the food was excellent and the setting is unbeatable. Music from The Volunteers (whose website lists them as the "premier touring show band" of the U.S. Army) made the long lines for lunch at each food vendor less monotonous. This is a great event for families, couples and friends, and I hope they do it again next year.

Foliage vs. Raking Leaves

I love fall...mostly. I love the cooler air and the fact that it is neither too hot nor too cool for most outdoor activities. As a teacher and life-long nerd, I love the beginning of the school year and all its sharp pencils and new shoes. I love leaf-peeping and apple-picking and cider donuts and hay rides and Halloween costumes.

But all of that comes with a price. I hate raking leaves. I get blisters from the rake; I finish the day tired and usually sweaty. And then, to add insult to injury, the leaves on my locust trees fall about 3 weeks later than all the other leaves in the yard. And then the neighbor's red maple drops its leaves after that. And then the locust drops its long, thin seed pods. Is it all worth it?

One October, a long time ago, I was in Charleston, South Carolina. Although the mornings were chilly, the days warmed up to the 80s and we spent the whole afternoon stripping off layers as we worked. I was in Miami by Thanksgiving and we had a campfire after our turkey and stuffing and roasted marshmallows on stripped palm fronds.

Another year, I was in Montana, which gets plenty of cool fall weather (it dropped to about 15 degrees on Halloween night that year) but has few deciduous trees up in the mountains. I took this right around this time in October, at Hyalite Reservoir near Bozeman, MT.

In both places, I missed the leaves changing colors. I missed stomping the crunchy ones on the street, and nesting in the piles. Driving through New Hampshire last weekend, and cruising up I-84 this weekend, I loved seeing the leaves start to change to arresting reds and startling oranges.

I've seen it all, from the disturbingly warm to the dishearteningly cold and rocky, and here I am, dreading the annual leaf drop while I stare out the window all day, watching the world prepare for winter. Well, at least my compost has it pretty good. It will never be starved for brown material this winter.