The weather was incredible this weekend, and we had to choose from hiking or canoeing. I hadn’t gotten Jess out on the water yet and so I pushed for a canoe trip. Fortunately, she was game. We decided to stay close to home and simple; we put in on Quaboag Pond, in Brookfield, less than a half mile from our house. Jess hadn’t been in a canoe since she was a child, so she was a bit nervous at first but it didn’t take long for her to realize how stable of a platform it was as long as the water was calm. ...

This past weekend, I took ownership of a genuine “beater” pick-up truck. This truck is old enough to drive, and it looks it. But it can do one thing our family SUV can’t — handle a canoe atop it. The white sections are metal trim my father-in-law and I fastened to the body to make it pass inspection. The truck used to be his, and when he took it off the road I gave it a new home. I don’t know how long it will last, but a summer of canoe trips will be worth the cost of insuring it. ...

Spring fever is in full swing, and when I found myself with a free afternoon I knew I had to spend some of it in the woods. I debated my options for a while but ended up returning to Opacum Woods, a site I’d been to a few times before (last time, with Jess, was in the fall). ...

No big hikes this weekend, but there was plenty of the outdoors. Saturday, my in-laws came to visit, and my father-in-law and I got out our dusty fishing equipment and decided to try and hit the Quinebaug River to see if we could land any freshly stocked trout. We fished two separate sections near Old Sturbridge Village, exploring the shore and trying from a dozen different spots. We got a few hookups but landed no fish. It was a beautiful day with highs in the low 70s, and regardless of what the fish were doing we couldn’t have been more content. The water was clear, we saw fish and birds, enjoyed the warm air, and enjoyed some good company. ...

Last time we hiked in Brimfield, it was December and fresh snow was on the ground. Now, it’s April, and on a beautiful sunny day we wanted a hike without too much mud (it rained all week, and snow is still melting) and without too much strain on the legs. Brimfield seemed to fit the bill again. As you can see, it was a beautiful early Spring day. The sky was rich blue with a bright warm sun, and giant puffy clouds drifted overhead. ...

So, it’s been a while since my last post, because it’s been a while since my last hike! February was basically a wash — so much snow. We had snow on 9 consecutive weekends, from January through March. We had a month of frigid temps. It was just too nasty to hike, and we were too busy clearing snow off our own property to think about hiking out in the wild. ...

This is our second trip to the Sibley Farm property. The first trip is described in a previous post. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors yesterday, as far as winter days go. The cold temperatures didn’t seem too bitter since the skies were clear and the air was calm. With errands to run we only had a short window to enjoy the outdoors, so we returned to Sibley Farm to explore some of the trails we missed two weeks ago. ...

For the second day in a row, we were able to get out for a hike. Today was our usual Saturday, with a couple hour break while Evie was in gymnastics. We were forced to leave a bit later than usual due to a delivery (my snowblower has been repaired; you can all thank me later when we get no snow this year) so we picked a spot close to home which was new to us. ...

Our first hike of 2015 was a spur-of-the-moment excursion in Northboro, a town we once called home and where my mother still lives. We were already in town and ended up able to drop our daughter off with Grandma for a couple hours. I pulled up the Northboro Trails Committee website and looked for something close by. We ended up starting at the Coyote Trail, which meanders through the Yellick Conservation Area. You can read more about the area in this news article I found later, which pointed me nicely to this updated map. ...

Two Saturdays in a row, holiday activities kept Jess and I from our now-weekly outdoor explorations. When on the third Saturday, the last before Christmas, she departed for a family shopping excursion, I decided to get out into the woods, even if only for an hour or so. Trying to stay close to home and not lose the whole day, I picked the South Spencer Rail Trail (read about it briefly at the Spencer Parks and Recreation web page), also called the Depot Trail. It is a two-mile, mostly-flat trail connecting South Spencer Rd. and Chestnut St. in the center of Spencer, built along the abandoned South Spencer Railway (built in 1878 to connect two rail stations in Spencer). We’d been here once before as a family to explore some geocaches, though we only covered half the trail that day. ...