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!

Bay Circuit Trail, just keep walking....

Earlier this year my doctor told me that I was fat. Fair enough. I am. She told me to loose weight. OK. I took a walk. A hike actually. I had recently read about an ambitious greenways project here in The Commonwealth called the Bay Circuit Trail. Like any ambitious project there are real and theoretical ideas about it, most importantly to me, where it starts. Theoretically, it starts on Plum Island in Newburyport. As far as I can tell, you have to walk along the roadway for quite some time before getting on a "trail". There are a lot of "proposed" and "temporary" sections up there until you get to the Rowley area, where the trail goes into the woods and stays there until Boxford.

It was an easy jump for me to choose "Section Hiking the Bay Circuit Trail" as a goal for this spring. I did so for numerous reasons including:

• Health and Fitness (loose some of the weight)
• More Outdoor activity
• Train like you fight: I wanted to do more mountain hiking and even some backpacking this fall)

I set out from the doctor's office to the trail that very same day. It hurt but I did several sections of trail over the next two weeks. Each section was about three miles. What I did was park at a trail entrance and hike until the next major road crossing, where I could later park and continue on. My leg and food really hurt doing this, but that was not unexpected as I was recovering from a minor motorcycle crash ( the reason that I went to the doctor to begin with). What I DIDN'T expect was to find out that the reason it hurt so badly was that I was in fact, hiking on a broken leg!!

So I took a couple months off to do physical therapy and let my leg heal up some. 

This week, I decided that I would fill in some of the gaps of trails that I missed on the north-easter portion of the trail before I had to do the portion that is a Road March between Boxford and North Andover.  

Pre-ride GRSF

In the "old days" I rode dual sport bikes in the Georgetown-Rowley State Forest. Then they banned them. I have been back to the forest infrequently since then. Doing map recon though, it seems that there are trails that lead all the way through the GRSF and into Willowdale State Forest and into the Ipswitch Wildlife Sanctuary. I have wanted to try this out as a hike, but that never happened. So, I got the bright idea that I would try it as a ride. I went out to pre-ride some of it today and I was appalled. The forest has received almost no trail maintenance at all, unless you count countless pile of horse crap as maintenance! The trails that were there, for the most part, are gone. The main road is overgrown and no longer a road. It's a trail, The trails that were there before are mostly gone and grown over or swamped out. It's a shame really. With all that you hear about how ATVs and dirt bike destroy the land, it turns out that the only things keeping the land open for the other users were the ATVs and dirt bikes!

Deep Sea Fishing!

I went out for the first time ever today! Out of 30 or so people we scored 8-9 keeper Scup, Hadoc, Poluck and Cod. And two dozen or more Dogfish! A LOT of them. A couple of beers and some Sunburn and call it a day. Pretty proud of my Little Girl who was "doing it all on her own".

Legs Hurt today

Guess 8 miles with an extra 30 pounds is a good start.

Just me and the Boy

We expanded on yesterday's ride. 7.7 miles in 90 degree heat and humidity. We saw two beavers, on in the water one out of  the water. We also saw a weasel, two bunnies and a whole bunch of birds. We watched the Newburport bridge open up for a big sailboat to go through. At the end of it all, he was fighting to keep his helmet on! He LOVED the ride.

The Longest Ride

 So, after a Winter of sitting in the garage, untouched, I attempted to take the 820 out for a spin only to realize that it wouldn't shift right, the back wheel wouldn't turn and the chain was off. This is the only bike that I have set up for general purpose duty and child carrying. With the trout stocked and stripers running as well as work all my other hobbies clamoring for my time, the bike never got fixed. Finally, this last week, I took a wrench and some chain lube to the trusty 820 and got her in running shape again. It just so happens that this is the kick off for The Tour , so of course all I want to ride is the road bike! The baby seat is attached to the 820 though so it was that that I took out, with baby, on Friday evening. The Boy loved it.

It was his first time in the seat this year, and the second ever I think. We had, and still have, a little trailer for him last year. I love pulling that thing along and he loves riding in it. However, despite "knowing" better, I "feel" that it is a little wide for dragging behind me on city streets and wanted to try the baby seat this year. To make a long story short, the Boy loves that seat. I had to fight with him to get him off the bike at the end of the ride! And I was exhausted by then too! In those few miles it was clear to me that i have NOT been cycling enough this year. So we went out again today. Only this time I thought that I'd have my 11 year old peddling along as well.

We went over to the Eastern Marsh Trail  in Salisbury and set off. I could tell right away that her seat was too low, and I had to pump her tires up from nearly flat but she took off like a bat out of hell! After going up and back, she was exhausted and even gave me the "I'm going to die" speech. She made it though! About three miles: the longest bike ride she's even been on. I am quite proud of her for it. I think she did well and am anxious to see how she hangs now that her seat is adjusted better. I hope she lets me take her on another ride tomorrow! The Boy, on the other hand was not peddling, so he had quite the nice time, other than when we were stopped for some thing or other. He got a little antsy then and was eager to be back underway. I am pleasantly surprised at how well he transitioned from trailer to seat and that Trek 820 is the BEST $60 that I ever spent (other than my sixty dollar P-Bass). It was a great family cycle outing and I can not wait to do it again!