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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Headwaters Conservation Area (12/28/2008)
Today, we decided to take advantage of this warm, gloomy Sunday. The temperature rose above 60 degrees this last week of December. I Googled "Massachusetts hiking trails" and the Slackpacker website, a site that offers links to different trails in Massachusetts was first on the list. I will have to look into this website more in the future. After sifting through the list, we eventually came across the Headwaters Conservation Area which overlooks Mill Pond in Westborough, MA.
Eric: The directions supplied from Google took us on a very roundabout route to get to this trail from our house. Luckily, Tracy has a friend that lives in the area and was able to direct us back on the right track after we missed the turn on Bridge street. We finally made our way to Old Nourse street, took a left onto Andrews road, and made our way past the McMansions towards the entrance to the park.
Here is the entrance. The sign "No Hunting per order of the board of selectman. This means that you don't have to wear your orange vest, and is good news since I don't remember if we brought those vests with us and my burnt orange jacket blends in to the fallen leaves.
Most of the trail was very level terrain with only a couple spots were the ground sloped, which were not steep. The going was easy and we did not work up a sweat. The trail was mostly dirt without rocks. Some areas of the trail were flooded but were still passable, even if we had to skirt the edge and duck under branches. The view of the reservoir was decent, worth the taking time to snack on a mossy area near the water.
The Headwaters Conservation Area used to be a part of the Westborough Charm Bracelet Trail System, a system of trails that connects several walking trails in Westborough. I don't know why it was excluded, but it appears that it still connects to the rest of the System.
This is a place we would come back to if for when we want a relaxing walk in the woods. We did not see any wildlife, but it was the end of December. Before we come back here though, we will probably check out the rest of the Charm Bracelet system.
Yes, this is an indicator that you will be subjected to self photos. Luckily, we usually only take pictures of each other and the landscape, but we do occasionally try to get a pic with both of us in it. This is me feeling froggy. This trail is not marked by the usual red, blue, white, green, or orange trail markers that you usually find on the New England trails. It has some nice, professionally carved signs at most of the intersections.
Eric: Here it looks like some flapper lost her scarf.
This trail also has some of the wood plank bridges that Tracy loves that are interspersed on the various trails in our area.
Although the temperature was in the high fifties, the snow that was still present on the ground lowered the temperature quite a bit in some areas. Over the snowing areas, there was a slight chill. But we only needed to step off the snow and onto the bare ground to feel the full warmth of this winter Sunday.
Eric: Because the air was so warm and the snow was, well, zero degrees Celsius, we could see the fog created by the snow sublimating into the atmosphere.
Tracy: Oh jeez. We could see fog. Eric's just trying to be fancy. Sublimate? Whatever.
Here are some more pictures of the hike! I am not exactly sure what I am doing in this pic. I think Tracy wanted to get a shot of me walking, but instead this dorky pose was caught.
This picture of Tracy, on the other hand, was expertly taken by me. Unfortunately, I did not notice the branches in front of her face.
And more trail pics.
And then we came across a barrier for a trail. If it was warmer, we might have attempted to cross the water. After searching up and down stream, we could not find a suitable way to cross this stream.
Eric: Here is where I tried to put down a log to make a bridge. It broke as soon as I dropped it and floated down the stream.
Here are some deer tracks.
And here is what I hope are dog tracks.
We stopped for lunch over looking the Mill Pond at Osprey Point.
And we are done.
Eric: The directions supplied from Google took us on a very roundabout route to get to this trail from our house. Luckily, Tracy has a friend that lives in the area and was able to direct us back on the right track after we missed the turn on Bridge street. We finally made our way to Old Nourse street, took a left onto Andrews road, and made our way past the McMansions towards the entrance to the park.
Here is the entrance. The sign "No Hunting per order of the board of selectman. This means that you don't have to wear your orange vest, and is good news since I don't remember if we brought those vests with us and my burnt orange jacket blends in to the fallen leaves.
Most of the trail was very level terrain with only a couple spots were the ground sloped, which were not steep. The going was easy and we did not work up a sweat. The trail was mostly dirt without rocks. Some areas of the trail were flooded but were still passable, even if we had to skirt the edge and duck under branches. The view of the reservoir was decent, worth the taking time to snack on a mossy area near the water.
The Headwaters Conservation Area used to be a part of the Westborough Charm Bracelet Trail System, a system of trails that connects several walking trails in Westborough. I don't know why it was excluded, but it appears that it still connects to the rest of the System.
This is a place we would come back to if for when we want a relaxing walk in the woods. We did not see any wildlife, but it was the end of December. Before we come back here though, we will probably check out the rest of the Charm Bracelet system.
Yes, this is an indicator that you will be subjected to self photos. Luckily, we usually only take pictures of each other and the landscape, but we do occasionally try to get a pic with both of us in it. This is me feeling froggy. This trail is not marked by the usual red, blue, white, green, or orange trail markers that you usually find on the New England trails. It has some nice, professionally carved signs at most of the intersections.
Eric: Here it looks like some flapper lost her scarf.
This trail also has some of the wood plank bridges that Tracy loves that are interspersed on the various trails in our area.
Although the temperature was in the high fifties, the snow that was still present on the ground lowered the temperature quite a bit in some areas. Over the snowing areas, there was a slight chill. But we only needed to step off the snow and onto the bare ground to feel the full warmth of this winter Sunday.
Eric: Because the air was so warm and the snow was, well, zero degrees Celsius, we could see the fog created by the snow sublimating into the atmosphere.
Tracy: Oh jeez. We could see fog. Eric's just trying to be fancy. Sublimate? Whatever.
Here are some more pictures of the hike! I am not exactly sure what I am doing in this pic. I think Tracy wanted to get a shot of me walking, but instead this dorky pose was caught.
This picture of Tracy, on the other hand, was expertly taken by me. Unfortunately, I did not notice the branches in front of her face.
And more trail pics.
And then we came across a barrier for a trail. If it was warmer, we might have attempted to cross the water. After searching up and down stream, we could not find a suitable way to cross this stream.
Eric: Here is where I tried to put down a log to make a bridge. It broke as soon as I dropped it and floated down the stream.
Here are some deer tracks.
And here is what I hope are dog tracks.
We stopped for lunch over looking the Mill Pond at Osprey Point.
And we are done.
It begins!
Welcome to the first post of our outdoors adventure blog! We created this blog for two reasons. First, we love the outdoors and have been all over Rhode Island and surrounding areas looking for places to go and things to do and this blog serves as a record of the places we've been and the things that we've done. Secondly, in our search for places to have fun in, we found that there were very few websites or blogs that offered personal reviews of sites that exist in our area. We're hoping that we created an easy space for people to use for their own outdoor adventures in the RI area.
The format of this blog is going to be from the perspectives of each of us. We will describe the locations together, but give our own opinions as well as our own individual views of the area; and commentary of each other's idiosyncrasies along the way.
Some of the things that we post will be from the past while we back log former fun adventures. We will keep our posts as "real time" as we can, while adding the past fun filled trips in between.
Tracy's disclaimer: We are certainly NOT experts - not even close. Most of the time, we set out with a pair of jeans and three year old boots, although we did upgrade some of our gear during Christmas this year. I have never even been camping, but I do like to spend time on day hikes. Any information on here is amateur at best, so please be advised that you aren't getting info from anyone that is a reliable source about being a survivor in the woods. The info here is purely for the casual hiker.
Eric's disclaimer: I got new boots! ; )
but my pants are still old. I was a Boy Scout until about the age of eleven, so some of my skills are rusty but I have been camping quite a bit. Also, I spent more time outdoors in my fours years in the Marine Infantry and Security Forces than most people do in their entire lives, but I am no Les Stroud. Hopefully as this blog matures, I hope the dust will get brushed off of my old skills and we can get further and further off the beaten path. The last time we got lost, we just put the sun at our backs and we hiked as straight as we could. Eventually we found the trail.
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