A Long Walk

Maura’s school year came to an end with a half day on Monday. We have no ambitious plans for her first week of freedom but we took the first full day of her vacation to take a hike in the nearby towns of Hingham and Cohasset. The weather was perfect. It was overcast but not rainy and warm without being hot.

After a few morning errands, including a stop at our local library, we drove to Wompatuck State Park in Hingham were we planned to hike. We parked at Mount Blue Spring, which is near the center of the park. From there we set out on what proved to be a four hour hike that took us out of Hingham and out of Wompatuck. At first we hiked on old roads through the park. We passed through quiet woodlands and damp swamps. Our route took us past ponds where frogs croaked and by the graffiti covered ruins of old military buildings.

Eventually we shifted to unpaved trails and headed over the park boundary into the Whitney and Thayer Woods Reservation, owned by the Trustees of Reservations. We struck a trail along an old rail line and followed that to the Cohasset train station. From there we walked along the shoulder of Route 3A until we came to the main entrance of the Whitney and Thayer Woods Reservation and from there back to Wompatuck State Park and eventually to our car. We made one stop along 3A, at JJ’s Dairy Hut where we took our only extended break of the day and enjoyed some ice cream. Maura had a big cone of Maine Black Bear ice cream and I had a root beer float. The rest of that leg of the trip was a bit nerve wracking. Route 3A is not a good road for pedestrians to follow. The shoulders are narrow and there are no sidewalks. Many of the drivers seemed not to be paying attention and sometimes Maura didn’t seem to be paying much either. I would not take that route again. The woods were certainly safer and more pleasant.

We didn’t have many wildlife sightings during the day. We heard frogs but didn’t see them and mammals were only in evidence from their scat. We did see two turtles sunning themselves on a log in one of the many ponds we passed. When I pointed them out to Maura she moved quickly and then they slipped into the water with a startled splash as they dove from sight.

Maura was exhausted by the time we made it back to our car but she had done a great job. I’m not sure how far we had walked but it was certainly more than a couple of miles. We walked for nearly four hours with few breaks and most of the time we kept a good pace. Maura did complain at the end of the hike but she had walked far enough without any whining that a little at the end of a long day on the trail didn’t upset me. I was glad to get back to the car myself.

The First Hike of the Season

Last Sunday afternoon we finally had the set of favorable circumstances I had been hoping for since the beginning of March. The weather was fair, everyone was healthy and we had no plans for our afternoon. We packed the expedition bag with binoculars and guidebook, filled our water bottles, put on our boots and headed for the woods.
Our destination was Wampatuck State Park, in the nearby town of Hingham. Our objective was to scout for likely southern bog lemming habitat that Maura and I might revisit later on the Great Lemming Hunt. We didn’t find any place that seemed very promising, though there were a few spots we might visit again.

Despite not finding lemmings we had a wonderful hike and saw plenty of wildlife considering that Wampatuck is heavily traveled and hardly a pristine wilderness. From World War I until after World War II it was part of an ammunition depot where the Navy stored ammunition for large guns and the park is crisscrossed with roads from that time, some crumbling, some well maintained and popular with bicyclists. Between the roads are footpaths and bridle paths that cross the hummocky terrain. Most of the park land is gently rolling hills with swampy valleys between. In places there are open ponds. Everything is covered with brushy, second growth forest and there are occasional old buildings, stone walls and rusting chainlink fences.

The forest attracts many animals as well as people. Even in the early spring there are animals to be seen and heard. Along one sunny stretch of bridle path we spotted a pair of brown and yellow morning cloak butterflies. Further along on our hike we encountered a vernal pool filled with wood frogs. They could barely be seen in the shallow water through our binoculars but they could be clearly heard. They sounded more like a flock of ducks than a pond full of frogs. As we climbed up a bank to get closer to the pool of frogs we startled a barred owl and spotted it as it flew to a perch in a tree a bit further away from the annoying people. We weren’t sure what we’d seen, only that it was a large reddish-brown bird flying away but when it called “who-cooks-for-you” we knew what it was and we spotted it through our binoculars watching us from its perch.

We walked perhaps two miles on our expedition, hiking at an easy pace with many stops. I could have happily kept going, and I think Jennifer felt the same but Maura wasn't in the mood for a long hike so we headed for home. On another day we'll revisit the most likely spots to look for evidence of lemmings. This may be a year of frequent hikes. Everyone in the family enjoys them and hiking in local woodlands is an inexpensive pastime.