Spencer

On the first Sunday of the New Year, Evie and Jess made a last-minute decision to cheer on a friend at a gymnastics event in Western MA, and I made a last-minute decision to revisit the Sibley Farm / Burncoat Pond property with the intent of walking a portion of the Midstate Trail. I’d hiked here with Jess twice before (1, 2) and both times we had mostly ignored the Midstate Trail. Looking at the map, I realized I probably had enough time to hike the trail from the parking area up to Route 9 and back. ...

Over the summer, our hikes were tough to manage. Without gymnastics blocking out the time, we either had to hike as a family, or hike when Evie was otherwise occupied, which wasn’t often. Given the heat and the bugs, we didn’t get out nearly as often as we had hoped. But Fall is here, and with it comes cooler temperatures, fewer bugs, and a renewed presence in gymnastics for our little bundle of energy. ...

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. ...

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. ...