Nature & The Outdoors

Every so often I go through these fairly stubborn insomnia phases. Well seeing that I was up at 3am again today (with no chance of falling back asleep), I got a little bored moping around the house while everyone was asleep. To that end, I packed up and headed out for a drive before work. I stopped at Dunks for the obligatory large regular, and headed down to the Salisbury Reservation to chill for a bit and catch the sunrise.

I went Kayaking today with a friend of mine. We didn’t have a ton of time, so we decided on someplace close to both of us – The Powow River. I’ve lived in Amesbury for a few years, and lived in the area (Newburyport) for something like 25 years. When Justin (friend I went with) said we should try the Powow, and put in near the center of downtown Amesbury, I was a little less than excited.

This past weekend my wife, daughter and I met up with some friends (Analise, Derrek and Tristan) and decided to do something “family’ish” for the afternoon. I’ve been so busy with band stuff, home projects and freelance work lately, that a day out of the house sounded great. To this end, we piled into the car and drove down to the Franklin Park Zoo. I wanted to spend the day with everyone, but would probably have picked a different venue…

I took last Friday off with the intent of going camping in Pawtuckaway. Well, let’s just say it didn’t go quite as I planned.

I woke up early (normal work morning ritual), did some things around the house, and then called Pawtuckaway to see if they had any spots available. This very friendly girl said she had three spots left, but they are “first come, first serve,” so I better get there fast if I wanted one.

Missed band practice last night. At like five o’clock I got dumped on with work that needed to be done. I couldn’t really bail on work, so I bailed on practice at the last moment. Yeah, I’m dick… I get it. Oh well, I was pretty much cranky anyways and didn’t feel like driving 50 minutes to practice for an hour, then drive 50 minutes home. No thanks…

Twice this week I have been walking in Maudslay after work, and twice I’ve seen Coyote while on the trail. The first time was at a bit of a distance, but tonight I came head-to-head with two animals not 50 feet away. I was walking down a trail deep in the park that runs along the farm, near Castle Hill. I glanced down a side trail as I past and there they were – two Coyote were standing in the path, motionless and watching me.

Someone recently asked me “What’s the most terrifying thing has happened while hiking?” I thought about that for a bit and there is one instance that clearly stands out as the most frightening, but I was camping, not hiking. I thought I’d share.

Five or so years ago I drove down to Pocono Pennsylvania to watch the NASCAR Pocono 500. We had camped about six or seven miles from the track at a little campground that seemed to cater to race fans. (Actually, everything within ten miles of the track, or any track for that matter, caters to race fans)

I have been a fairly avid hiker/ outdoorsy person for years. Unfortunately, living where I do (New England Seacoast) presents challenges when it comes to getting out on the trail with any regularity. It seems like I need to drive a couple hours north before I can really get out into the fresh air, on decent terrain, away from roads and crowds of people to do some hiking. Right?

Well, not so much…

Well, I went to the Tripoli Road camp ground this weekend with a couple friends. We left after work on Friday and pulled in around 9:30pm. After finding the people we were looking for, we found a decent spot near everyone and set up camp.

I lived in Newburyport for twenty years, and spent a good portion of my teenage years working on a farm in the north-end of town (Arrowhead). Having access to the farm was great because it abutted the 400′ish acre Maudslay State Park on like three sides, far at the back-end of the park – away from the main entrance and most of the foot traffic. This allowed my buddies and me to ride our bikes around the park almost every day, getting more and more familiar with the trail system from the inside out. In fact, I even used to drive hay rides in the park during the late 80′s and early 90′s.