Composer | Pianist | Music Informatics
I spent an absolutely lovely week camping at Algonquin Park in southeastern Ontario. Canada is so incredibly beautiful and Algonquin is one of Ontario’s many highlights.
While I barely scratched the surface of all that there is to see and do, I did manage to take in a few scenic hikes including: Bat Lake, Lookout Trail, Big Pines Trail, Track & Tower Trail, and I enjoyed a refreshing bike ride from the Lake of Two Rivers down to Whitefish Lake.
I enjoyed a brief visit to Wellesley Island, one of the largest of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. Wellesley Island State Park has a fantastic visitor center complete with 8 miles of easy, well-marked trails and a butterfly house!
The Madame Sherri Forest is named after Madame Antoinette Sherri, a Paris-born theatrical costume designer who worked in New York City during the early 1900s. She and her husband built an elaborate French-inspired chateau summer house just outside Keene, NH where they lavishly entertained their New York City friends at parties during the Roaring 1920s.
All that’s left are the stone ruins, but it’s a pilgrimage every good Keener (or Keenite?) must make.
I would never call myself a hiker, but for some reason, I decided to push myself a little bit on the trails recently.
Specifically, I headed over to Grafton Notch and hit a couple of the “moderate” loop trails around Old Spec Mountain. Both trails I took joined forces with the Appalachian Trail at certain points.
Table Rock Trail is a 7.2 mile round trip that climbs 1,964 feet to the 3,124 foot summit of Table Rock Mountain. The trail ends 700 feet past the summit with spectacular views of Raven Cliff Falls, the Table Rock Reservoir, and the Caesars Head escarpment.
The Eyebrow Loop Trail is considered more difficult than Table Rock and rises steeply to a 2,900-foot shelf-overlook on Old Speck Mountain.
These were quite challenging trails for me, so I was glad to have a nice fire and good food at the end of each day.
We spent an early fall weekend camping on the nearby coast of Maine.
With more than 3,478 miles of coastline, we always find something new when we visit. This trip we camped at Bradbury Mountain State Park and spent a long day hiking the Oven Mouth Preserves.
The fall color was just starting to hit in places so even a casual drive to the sample the local brew was full of interest.
This weekend a number of MetaFilter folks came up to the White Mountains for a lovely time on Welch and Dickey Loop Trail.
Be prepared. Prepared for what? Why, for any old thing…
When you travel out into the unknown as much as we do, it’s wise to know how to get back home. Our digital devices are great for this, but as we learned in Newfoundland, you can’t always depend on the availability of power or a signal. So Alison asked an experienced hiker-friend for advice and she graciously invited us to join a map and compass workshop she was planning with her husband.
We started the morning with some group training and soon moved on to a full day of field work.
Our task was to bushwhack our way to the summit of Bald Knob. No phones allowed.
After several hours of hiking, we arrived at the summit where training continued.
It was an incredible group. Regardless of everyone’s level of hiking experience, fun was had by all!
And the views weren’t half bad either…
