Massachusetts - Section Hiking a Nature Trail

Some people “section hike” trails like the Appalachian Trial or the Long Trail rather than doing it start to finish. They do one section at one time and come back and do another section some other time until they complete the whole trail.  Well Barbara “section hiked” the trail from the campground to the day use area to Otter River State Forest.

HIKE 1 was that hike that Barbara took along the lake from the campground to the day use area watching the ducks. (See previous post.)

Both of us did HIKE 2 (most of the 2 mile part) when we followed letterbox clues from Otter River State Forest. We hiked a long ways following the clues, getting all the boxes, but when we were done getting boxes we turned around to go back to the car.

HIKE 3 put the two hikes together by hiking from the day use area to where we left off after letterboxing. We found out that we were about 10 minutes away from completing the hike when we turned around. Total, it was probably close to 5 miles since we did it in both directions and added trails to the campground and parking lot.

It was a great time to spot wildflowers. Here are just a few.

And wildlife.

snake

toad

With the campground emptying after the Memorial Day weekend we were able to move to a campsite near the water.

Lake Dennison, Winchendon MA

Massachusetts - Doane’s Falls

Our campground at Lake Dennison is in the northern part of the middle of Massachusetts. Barbara noticed that it was near Doane’s Falls, a series of cascading falls in Royalston.

Doane’s Falls, Royalston MA

For Bill, it was new territory to explore. For Barbara, it brought back a fond memory of the long trip there six years ago with her parents – the lovely fall day and negotiating the steep trail with trekking poles.

Al & Miriam on bridge over falls

Things change – now there is a handicapped accessible trail to one of the falls, but it’s still a gorgeous gorge and a fun hike.

Bill photographing one of the falls

We also went to nearby Tully Dam, which created the recreational Tully Lake:

Tully Dam, Royalston MA

Sometimes letterbox clues take us to new and different places. Today a letterbox clue brought us to the mascot for the town of Winchendon, a 4x replica of a toy horse that a Winchendon company used to sell. The box was supposed to be hidden in the right bush. If you look closely at the picture, you might see Bill’s foot as he checked for a box in the bush. We didn’t find the box, but we got to see a unique spot.

mascot, Winchendon MA

Barbara also hiked around Lake Dennison. She saw many yellow butterflies (they didn’t pose for a picture) and watched a family of ducks.

Mark your calendars. Bill actually just sat on this bench watching the sun set over the lake.

Downsizing

Five months ago a couple contacted us who heard we were planning to move. They offered to buy our house at a reasonable price and give us a long time till closing. We thought that would be great as it gave us time to figure out where to buy.

We spent months looking online and touring houses, but just couldn’t find a place we wanted to call home. Certainly there were houses, but none really matched the way we would like to live – a small nice home with one-story living on a lot that would accommodate our trailer. As the closing date drew near, we decided to put our possessions in storage and live in our trailer until something came up. 

Well, we wanted to downsize, so here we go. It will be nice not to have to worry about a house and a yard and to have free time to hike and explore. We will continue to look at real estate and hope something comes up. In the meantime, we are hoping we will have more adventures to share with you as we travel around in our trailer.

We closed on our Sudbury house yesterday, saying good-bye to a very nice home, neighborhood and town, and we especially think about special times there. We lived there almost 20 years – the place where our girls grew up – and a house we fixed up just the way we wanted. It’s a bittersweet good-bye, but now we are on to the next adventure.

First stop is Lake Dennison in Winchendon MA. We arrived to a nearly empty campground, but expect things to fill up today – the start of the Memorial Day weekend. We walked along the lake yesterday and look forward to hiking, letterboxing, and resting.

Here is our home du jour.