Trekking Poles are Boss!

The nerdiest peace of hiking equipment, by far, has to be the Pole. You know the ones, the thin aluminum or, gasp, carbon fiber tubes that resemble nothing more than the ski pole industry's lame and transparent attempt to boos market share and Sewell more crap that people don't need in the "off season" instead of focusing their attention on Mountain Biking, like the ski areas do. Anyway, I guess these things came out in the 80s when every one was too coked out to stand any way, but had LOTS of energy for hiking and stuff. To the people who had money to waste on things like cocaine and summer time ski poles, "Tercking" Poles must have sounded like a fantastic idea. I did most of my hiking back in the 80s with a machine gun in my hands, so they seamed a little gay to me. Of course, I don't mean to insinuate that all Gay people use Trekking poles or that the use of said poles, by default, makes one Gay. Sexual orientation had little, or even nothing, to do with the possession or use of ski poles in the summer time thus the small "g" in gay. 

They do, however, make you a complete and total nerd. They were never cool and were certainly never "combat" so I never even considered them for use. Then, last fathers day my daughter got me a set of cheep, WartMart poles. Honestly, I didn't know what to make of them. I stared at them for a long time. I spent several minuets extending and collapsing them. I pushed the little spring thingies on the bottom. "these thing are SO gay", thought I to myself, and into the closet they went (pun intended). 

Well, the other day was their Coming Out Party. I' m not sure what it was that possessed me to actually try these things out. I am quite sure that it was NOT the YouTube video of the hot blond chick showing us all how to look bigger than a bear by waving ski poles in the air to frighten one off. I think mostly I wanted the satisfaction of knowing how the pole mounts on my backpack worked. For whatever the reason, I dug them out, figured out how to adjust them and dragged them out into the woods.

Now, it's time for me to tell you a secrete. THEASE THINGS ARE FREAKIN' AWSOME!!!! You simply MUST try some, if you have the means. Of course, the cheepo ones, like I have only cost twenty bucks of so. You can't even get a descent snoot-full of blow for that kind of money these days. 

Seriously, they really work as advertised. If you ski at all, as opposed to snowboarding, you will take naturally to the swinging of the poles. They provide that all important Third Point of Contact that really, really, really helps your stability on uneven ground. You can use them to test the firmness of muddy spots and as plows to move pricer bushed out of the way that have overgrown the rail. Most importantly for me, they give my front paws something to DO while hiking other than flopping around at my sides. hiking Poles, while they might still be a gimmick, are not really all that nerdy and are defiantly NOT gay.

Pawtuckaway State Park: North Mountain

I needed to get away. I needed to walk off some stress and calories. I did NOT need to be dodging cars or saying "Hi" to a hundred people walking their dogs. I needed to be alone with my thoughts and work on being a healthier me. I needed a Hike Time was short, so I went local. I went to Pawtuckaway State park.

The walk in, or "approach" was a nice, fast, nearly level walk in the park, literally. Then the "up" started. Not a gentle sort of "up" at all but the kind of "up" that one usually associates with stairs or a ladder. In fact many of the natural features of the ascent resembled stairs. Big stairs. I have been up some "bigger" mountains lately that war not as harden the joints as North Pawtuckaway was! Now, the difference between the "top of the climb" and the "summit of the mountain" is about a hundred feet of elevation that you gain by hiking along a half mile ridge line. The views are at the "top" and not the "summit". I urge you to poke around at the top of the climb as the views are pretty darn stunning for a scant 800 foot investment. Of course, you might not have a choice but to poke around!

I have a motorcycle. It's a dirt bike. It's a KTM. I don't ride it much. You see, when you have a KTM there is a certain expectation that you have to live up to as far as having a certain amount of skill and ability to deserve a KTM. The guy painting the white rectangular blazes on the North Mountain Trail "deserves" his paintbrush LESS that I deserve my KTM. Seriously, if you are going to emulate the Big Dogs, at least try to do it well. The blazes of this trail are old, worn, widely spaced and in-distinct. It is super easy to wander off on the ascent as there are often several ways that the trail "could go" and no clear indication which way that it should go! A minor annoyance once you realize that there are no side trails or any thing and that you can't really get lost up there. On a positive note, the coming down was even less clearly blazed than the going up, but it was daily clear where the trail went on the descent.

The walk back to the Jeep was a little more rushed that I would have liked, as I was late getting home. It wasn't until then that I saw my first Human either, so I knew that my time alone was truly over for the time being. Tomorrow is a day of places that I don't want to be and then bad to work the next day. Then event after event after event. It might be some time before I have any time to go rambling by myself again. I look forward to that opportunity though. It can't come soon enough!

Willowdale Death March

I set out to the lovely town of Ipswich MA to tackle the Willowdale State Forest portion of the BCT. Actually, I don't know if Ipswich is lovely or not. I know next to nothing about the town except that it's NOT Gloucester and there are Wolves there. And the "Forest" which I might clarify more as "woods", like most of the State Forests in Eastern Mass. I parked off of Line Brook Road and set off with my new Deuter ACT Trail 32 pack, which I like very much. The bag is definitely large enough to carry a LOT of stuff, including a can of bug spray. Sadly, I didn't put one in and soon was getting eaten alive by a bazillion mosquitos and other similar insects. I turned back. I made it about two or three miles total. It didn't feel like I went very far. I bought bug spray.

I returned the next day and took to the trail, slathered in DEET. I made it past the point where I had to turn back the day before and quite quick thereafter ran out of Forest. The path of the Bay Circuit Trail seems to consistently take a very wide and direct route through wherever it goes. This was no exception. Basically a dirt road running down the middle of the forest. I passed a couple of quaint ponds and had to find my way around a few muddy puddles and a lot of piles of horse poop! I crossed the road at the end and poked around the northern part of Bradley Palmer where the foot bridge over the Ipswich River is. Turning back, I thought that I would try to go a different, more interesting way. There is a fairly large pond running right down the middle of Willowdale. The BCT runs down the western side of the pond. I took the first trail heading east that I could find after getting back into the forest. It would up and around a pretty god hill. The forest was much thicker here and more interesting to look at with old stone walls, fern-covered glades and babbling brooks. I ran into two girls riding their horses out here. I tried to find a Geocache out there but it was too well hidden. Apparently NOT having people find your cache and getting frustrated and pissed of is WAY better than having them find it and having a fun outing. Whatever. Nerds.  It took a lOT longer than I though it would. The BCT portion was only about three miles (I made it  a LOT further under bug-attack the I thought on day-1). Coming back up the east side of the pond made the hike about 7 miles long and the east side is definitely more challenging, although it's "nothing" compared to a mountain hike! As straight as the west trail is, the east trail is winding and has many branches to explore. I would like to get back in there and go through the rest of the forest, or at least the "interesting" side!

The Tribe Has Spoken!

What? What "Tribe"? The tribe of teenagers in Haverhill.

I feel that there is no group of people more oriented to being outdoors that the average gang of Highschoolers. Wherever they are located they will tend to find an out of the way location in the woods or in the fields, where they can "party". In this case, they have found the Crystal Spring Conservation Area here in Haverhill. I came across this lean-to and this mess when I was out exploring and hiking the other day. It was quite a little camp site that I found out here. What is funny is that this is clearly visible from the homes on the other side of the lake, especially at night when the fire is lit. This a big space that is occupied by a lot of kids. It is pretty far into the woods though, about a half mile, maybe a little less. It's only half the story though. I came across a half dozen more little camp-fire sites in this tinny little preserve that is supposed to be all conservation land (this is the city's drinking water supply!). These woods must be FULL of teenagers on a Friday or Saturday night!








This thing was disturbing though. This was construction. It was right on the main trail and right off the roadway. You can see the rode from here and this is huge. What you can not make out so well in the pictures is the face that this thing appears to be occupied! There are two bags of cloths in there and some other junk. There is some one living in this thing, on conservation land, near where Children Play (ok, ok, teenagers drink and fuck, but close enough for this discussion) and it is within 100 feet and in FULL VIEW of the road. Sorry. This is disturbing.

Well, what can be done about it. I suppose that I could "tell the Police". Sadly, I do not have the greatest respect for the greatest proportion of the cops in this town. To be fair, there are sections of this town that keep them busy. Very busy. I think that that has degraded their "detecting" skills and their "rational thought" skills a little. Bad guys are easy to find, identify and round up. Evan having said that, I don not think that there is ANY shadow of a doubt that the local constabulary knows this place exists. Heck, I am sure that this place was where they hung out when they were kids! But they aren't any more. Regular citizens should be allowed to come here and enjoy this land without having to view the eyesore of the camp or be in fear of whoever created that Hobo House. This is the water that we drink for crying out loud and while I have not met too many 16 year olds who's primary concern is Water Quality, it should be important to a grown, police man who's wife and children drink this water. Honestly, other than that I don't know what to do. Reporting it to the Trails Commission or whoever will get the structures removed (probably) and the area cleaned up so that the kids have a nice clean party site to return to! This should be a beautiful, secluded spot to walk the dog, hike or bring my children to enjoy. Sadly, it is a blight and an eye-sore and potentially, a dangerous place to be. Yea. I love Haverhill!