Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA

Monet was famous for his water lily paintings.
Two hang in the French Impressionist room

Wednesday I hung out with my son in the first time in a month. We made plans to do something since it was one of his day's off and I could get out of work by 3 pm. I wanted him to decide what we did, that way he was guaranteed to have fun. If whatever he chose turned out to be boring, at least it would be on him. I didn't care what we did, it was just nice to have some father-son time with my 20 year old. 

I thought for sure he would want to do something active outside. I figured he'd plan a hike and possibly some food. To my surprise he suggested the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. The museum is free on Wednesday's after 4 pm ($20/ person normally) however they ask for a donation, which we gladly handed over a few dollars. 

We drove into Quincy and took the Red Line from Quincy Adams parking garage. We switched over to the Orange Line and got off in Chinatown. DJ knew of a little corner store that had delicious cheap pork rolls. I don't know how to describe them. They were warm buns about softball sized stuffed with some kind of pork and a sweet gravy. They were very good and $1.20 each. For both of us we had a total bill of seven dollars including our two drinks. From Chinatown we had a long walk to the MFA. I think part of DJ's master plan was to walk through Boston. It was a solid 2-3 miles to the MFA. We arrived there sometime around 5 pm.

Once we paid our donation we made a beeline to the French Impressionist, most notably Claude

A sculpture of Homer the writer of
the Iliad and Odyssey. Homer was blind and the sculpture
portrays that

Monet. Then we walked around the other European Art. We blew right through the Contemporary Art. Call me an art snob all you want, but when an "artist" throws a bunch of colors together and gives the work a fancy name that my son could have made at five years old, it does nothing for me.

The really cool thing about the art museum, is it is more than just paintings, it is history. There is a lot of Egyptian artifacts from mummies, tombs, hieroglyphics, and pottery. There is a room dedicated to Roman coins. There are shields and helmets from Greek warriors. The list goes on and on. 

My favorite history, however, are the rooms with paintings from Colonial times. There is a special feeling you get from seeing a painting that was in your high school yearbook on a wall. Two of the most famous portrait artists in the world lived in New England. They would be John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Stuart. Between the two of them they probably painted more people in our history books than everyone else combined.

We spent about four hours in the museum. We used the map and went to everything of interest to us. In four hours we saw about 85% of the exhibits. We have been there a few times before so we "skipped" reading a lot of the descriptions. If it had been my first time, I could have easily spent two full days there without being bored. The MFA is my Number 1 place in New England to see "awe inspiring" things. To see a painting from the beginning of the Renaissance or a coin that has Nero's

We have all seen this portrait of Paul Revere in our
history books. The original is at the MFA

face on it blows me away. Seeing sculpture that is 2500 years old or a  page from "The Book of the Dead" placed in Egyptian coffins is something I will always remember. I'd say that my son made a hell of a good choice for the day,.   

Beirstadt Painting of Yosemite Valley

Washington crossing the Delaware

 

Although I am not religious, I like religious themed art.
Religion was such a part of early life. Here
is the Garden of Eden. Eve is about to eat the forbidden
fruit. The snake is slithering away to our left.

Georgia O'Keeffe lived a lot of her life in New Mexico
She painted many southwest themed landscapes. Although she is most famous for painting
flowers that may or may not resemble vaginas, no one would argue her southwest paintings such as
this are breath taking.

Back Birding Plum Island

I went up to Plum Island today to do some birding. I was invited to go on my friend Eric's boat, but I had these plans for a couple weeks. I had been reading the bird reports and was really looking forward to seeing shorebirds on the island.

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is an excellent place to see migrating shorebirds in August. Large numbers of birds stop to refuel on the extensive mudflats and salt marsh. There is always a good chance of seeing a very rare bird also.

 By the time I got to the gate it was 9 am. The ranger told me that Sandy Point (an excellent place to see plovers) was full. There is a small lot and it fills up very early by beach goers. That was going to be my first stop, but I was glad for the heads up. I immediately noticed right away that there were hundreds of tree swallows flocking up and heading south. By the end of the day, I saw what was many thousands of swallows. Sometimes I'd see groups of five hundred or more.

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

The shorebirds did not disappoint. I saw hundreds if not a couple thousand. Mostly I saw Greater Yellowlegs, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, andSemipalmated Plovers. There were also good numbers of Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Bellied Plovers, and Short Billed Dowitchers. There also many egrets including one concentration of over forty snowys. My shorebird highlight was that there were some Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs side by side and I could tell them apart. They are very tricky and experts usually can't tell them apart unless they are side by side (size and bill length).

At the Stage Island area I saw a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron. I was birding with a kid I
met up there. He spotted the Night Heron. It had the right marks for a black   Earlier in the day sixteen  Yellow Crowned Night Herons were reported by a couple of expert birders. They are not particularly common. The whole refuge was buzzing about the sixteen together. I thought my BCNH was a yellow, but it turns out it was not.

I birded for about five hours. I saw thousands of birds but none were considered rare. None the less, I got some really good looks at many species of shorebirds which are my favorite types of birds to see. If your into birding, Plum Island in August is an outstanding place to be.

Eastern Phoebe

Snowy Egrets

Greater Yellowlegs

Rocky Woods

An overlook at Chickering Pond
Catch and Release fishing is allowed

Today Laurie and I went to Rocky Woods in Medfield, MA. Rocky Woods is another of those
properties owned by the Trustees of the Reservation. It is the place I wanted to go to on Friday but ran out of time. There is a five dollar parking fee to hike there. Directions can be found on the Trustees of the Reservation website. However they are simple. The parking area is on Hartford Ave, which is off Route 109 in Medfield.

There are many miles of trail in this over 600 acre property. It is a very pretty place with a lot to see. I would say of the eight or so places I've walked owned by the Trustees it was my favorite.We got to the lot about 3 pm, and pulled out after 6. We probably hiked about 4-5 miles. There are a couple of views, seven ponds, a quarry, and a rock in the shape of a whale. I wanted to see everything so he hiked the shortest amount of trails to see all of the highlights.

After parking, he hiked up the red trail to Cedar Hill where I was surprised to find a view that went on for miles. From there we hiked to another scenic viewpoint. There wasn't much to see, but we found some comfortable sitting stones and enjoyed the cool breeze.

View from Cedar Hill

After we came down from the ridge we walked over to Jane  Pond. You can not get close to the water, so we only stayed there a minute. From there we walked over to Echo Pond. There is a bridge that goes over the pond. It is a lily pad pond filled with tons of frogs. We looked at the frogs and pond lilies for twenty minutes. We were not far from the car at Echo Lake so we went over and got some Gatorade.

When we started back up on our journey we had two more places to go, the quarry and Whale Rock. We headed back up the Red Trail and walked by Chickering Pond. First we came up on the quarry. Rock used to be cut out of it and dragged by horse and oxen. Although cool, there are a lot of trees and vegetation so it is tough to see. Then we continued up the trail to Whale Rock. True to its name Whale Rock looks a breaching whale. It has to be a hundred feet long. It was really impressive. after we went to the rock we headed back to the car for the 45 minute ride home.

I was very impressed with the scenery. There was a lot to see from hillside view to frogs in swampy

No this is not New Hampshire or Maine
It is Echo Lake in Rocky Woods

ponds. I wanted to see everything all in one day and we did without too much effort. I would highly recommend this hike for anyone in the area. The Boston Globe featured Rocky Woods as one of the ten places to see fall foliage. I will probably take another walk there in the fall and if I don't, it's a sure bet I will snowshoe there.

Whale Rock goes on forever

Combining Two Day trips into the same day (then going for a hike)

It is a quarter of the way through August and there are still a few summer daytrips I want to do before

the albies show up and we move into autumn. The last two weeks I have been working six days. Truthfully, even if I was working a five day week, I still wouldn't have done any daytrips because I would have gone to New Hampshire.

I had today off so I made the most of it. I got up fairly early. My plan was to go birding in Ninigret Pond behind Charlestown  Breachway. There is a huge mudflat in the pond that shorebirds congregate on. Believe it or not, some shorebirds are already flying south for the winter. The birds feed here at low tide when the flat is exposed

 I wanted to be at the Breachway before 8 am. The beach is a Rhode Island State each, it would cost me as a nonresident twenty dollars to park there. I am too cheap to pay that much money to park for three hours to look at birds. Unfortunately, I got up a little late to make it there by 8 am. I started looking for any place I could launch a kayak into the pond. Surprisingly, I found a town run free boat ramp. I've been to the breachway fifty times, yet never knew this ramp existed. Even better, the distance from the ramp to the mudflat is about three minutes of paddling.

I dragged my kayak up on the mud and put my anchor out (in case the tide rose, I didn't want my

kayak drifting away. Right in front of me was a flock of gulls. I'm not very good with gulls other than the common Ringbill and Herring gulls. Best as I could tell I saw laughing gulls and young Bonaparte gulls. I walked around for a couple hours. I saw typical shorebirds, but no rare ones. I saw a bunch of semi-palmated plovers,  least sandpipers, and semi-palmated sandpipers. My best bird was a Ruddy Turnstone.

The tide started to rise and I paddled back to my car. I got back about 11 am. I realized that I could go fluke fishing at the East Wall since I had my kayak, saltwater box, and a rod in the car. I enjoy fishing for fluke since I rarely do it. Last year I fished for them a few times in my kayak.I caught a bunch of scup and fluke on squid. Today I decided I wasn't going to buy bait. I've caught a couple fluke on lures before, but always while targeting other species. I hadn't caught a fluke this year, so I was sort of taking a gamble going out without bait. I ended up catching five fluke and four sea robins. I got all the fish on a bucktail jig. None of the fish were very big. I got back to my car at exactly three o'clock. I didn't catch any fish in the last hour of fishing. I don't know if the fish shut off or moved, but none the less I fruitlessly tried for them in vain.

I was hoping to be home early enough to make a late lunch then go for a hike at Rocky Woods in Medfield. As usual, I fished longer than I should have. I still would have had time to go to Rocky Woods but I got stuck in beach traffic. Also I had to replace a headlight when I got home. By the time I got out of traffic, replaced the headlight and ate a couple sandwiches it was 5:30.I still could have gone to Rocky Woods. I chose not to for a few reasons. It costs five dollars to park (yes paying for parking is a pet peeve of mine) so it would have been a waste of money to pay and only have an hour or two. Second, I have never been there, so I didn't want to rush. The place is big and there is over six miles of trail and a lot to see. So I saved Rocky Woods for another day.

I went back to Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary. It is as large and has nine miles of trail. However, I have been there, so it didn't matter to me how much of it I saw. I wanted some exercise so I was hoping to walk at least four miles, but I wasn't going to rush. It was a perfect night. The air was cool and dry. I didn't see very much wildlife though. I saw the tail end of one deer and a few common birds and that was it. I left just before dark to finish up a long productive day.

Gilbert Hills State Forest

I left work today with a migraine. This left me out of commission for a while as I needed a nap. Unfortunately, I had big plans today to either go fishing in Narragansett or go for a long hike at Rocky Narrows. However, when I got up from my nap, it was to late to make the trip to 'gansett worth while. I still wanted to to something since it was really nice out. I decided to go to the Dover/Sherborn area where there are a lot of properties to hike. I knew full well that by the time I got to any of them it would be 6:45 and I'd barely have an hour to walk.

As I was driving up Route 1 thinking of the closest properties to hike, I realized I pass by Gilbert
Hills State Forest on my way to them. Knowing I could have almost two hours if I went there, I chose to pull in. Gilbert Hills is easy to get to. From the north, take a left at the light on Route 1@ Thurston Street. There is a sign for the state forest and Normandy Farms Campground. Follow Thurston St. for about a mile and a half to Mill St, which also has a sign for the state forest. Follow Mill St until you come to a parking area on your right across the street from a Forest Service Fire station.

Once there I walked up the parking lot to a board where I picked up a map. There are miles of trails. It is easy to get lost if you do not pay attention. There are many side trails off the main trails that do not seem to be on the map. However if you stay on the main trails, there is  usually a map with a "you are here" dot at most intersections. For the most part, the forest is white pines with hardwoods mixed in. Even though your never to far from a road, you get a deep woods feel walking through. There are some swampy areas that the trails go by.

Gilbert Hills is locally famous for being an exceptional area for mountain biking. I walked for 1:45

hours and saw two other people walking out of the woods. I did see at least half a dozen mountain bikers though. I certainly understand the appeal of mountain biking there. There are tons of trails. Some are big wide fire roads and some are much more difficult single track mountain bike trails. Although I am not in love with mountain biking, I will probably bring my bike there one night this month. If for no other reason, I can see a lot more of the forest on a bike than by hoofing it.

The only downside to my experience tonight was the entire walk I had bugs buzzing around my ears and bouncing off my skull. I put on but spray before my walk. I didn't get bit by a single mosquito, However the little flies bouncing off my head were making me go bananas. I should have worn my cap as it would have solved that problem, but I'm not sure if it would have stopped the buzzing around my ears. Either way, as the month progresses, I'm sure there will be less and less insects to contend with.  

Green Sunfish and going for thirty again

Remember how I said I would not try to catch thirty fish species caught again this year, well, I
changed my mind.  I'm going to shoot for it again. I'm not sure if I will make it. To be completely honest, I haven't exactly been trying very hard. Between hiking and bird watching, I haven't put in the hours fishing that I normally do.

At the moment I have caught nineteen species this year. I still have half a dozen easy ones left (such as pumpkinseed sunfish, which I no doubt caught ice fishing but didn't mark down). If I get motivated I should have no problem getting to twenty seven or so. It's always those last few that are the toughest for me.

Make no mistake, I understand that catching thirty fish species in a year in some places is a piece of cake. I'm sure the coral reefs by the Florida keys could give up that many species in a day. Closer to home Lake Champlain is said to have one hundred fish species. But for me, living in southeastern MA, catching thirty species seems like a tough enough challenge. I got thirty two species last year, and if I got lucky with a couple of other species (blackfish, bowfin, eel, or a couple of others) thirty five would have been in striking distance.

Today I went off in pursuit of two of the more exotic smaller species; golden shiner and green

sunfish. I started off looking for the sunfish. I went to a spot that I was pretty sure they could be found. It took mere seconds to catch one. I spent about fifteen minutes fishing for them, catching at least ten. The rocks just past the shoreline was infested with them.

From there I drove to Roger Williams Park where I have caught golden shiners in the past. I knew to catch a golden shiner I'd have to weed out a lot of sunfish. Sure enough I was catching one sunfish after another but I never landed a golden shiner. I fished in ninety degree heat under an afternoon sun. I tried four spots in the park, but after ninety minutes I decided to go to an air conditioned movie.

So I went one for two today. After work tomorrow if it's not to hot, I'll probably try for white perch in Norton Reservoir. After that either I'll go for a jog (which I should do) or go see if I can land a brown bullhead.

Saw this guy while fishing for golden shiners
and wanted to see how my zoom worked on my new camera

52 With A View

Me on Jennings Peak last week. Jennings Peak is on the
"52 with a View" list as is the mountain behind me,Sandwich Dome

If you are an avid reader to this blog, you may have noticed that I have been trying to become a member of the 4000 footers club. There are 48 mountains in New Hampshire over four thousand feet. For the last ten years I have been trying to summit them all with my son. It has been tough to make the time to go to New Hampshire exclusively to hike. We obviously wanted to go on other vacations. Sometimes we'd plan a day and it would rain. now that DJ is an adult and has a job, it is almost impossible for us to get time off at the same time.

For that last reason, I hiked Tripyramid by myself three weeks ago. This week I was going to hike Kinsman, but rainy weather foiled that plan. Hiking Trtipyramid, I felt like I was betraying everything we had worked for. We have about ten hikes left to be in the club. However, the only chance either of us have of finishing all forty eight is to start doing them separately.

There are other challenges for New Englanders that have hiked all forty eight. There is a New England 4000 footer club that includes mountains in Maine and Vermont. There is a New England Hundred Highest. This is a tough one, because not all hundred have trails so there is some bushwacking involved. Also the Adirondacks have 46 mountains over 4000 feet.

To be honest none of these clubs interest me. I've told DJ before that once I'm done with the 4000
footers, I just want to hike for fun. If I feel like hiking Franconia Ridge once a year, I'm going to. It is a great hike with amazing views. I'm not going to worry that I'm wasting time not doing a mountain on some list.

Then just last week I found this list called "52 with a View" Some hikers put a list together back in 1990 for people that got bored hiking the same 4000 footers over and again. So they put a list together of fifty two mountains in New Hampshire UNDER 4000 feet that have views. To be honest, I have no idea how I had never heard of this list before. I read a lot of guide books and study maps. I check out hiking blogs, so how the phrase "52 with a View" escaped me for the last fifteen years amazes me. The best analogy I can give is; I listen to classic rock radio. Every day I hear the same songs. When they do the top 500 countdown its just the same songs I've listened to for years but in some order. However once a year or so I'll hear a song that I've never heard before. It will be great and it will blow me away ( the last song I can remember this happening with is "Never Been to Spain" by Three Dog Night) . That is the best way I can explain how I felt when I learned about this club.

Anyway, I got kind of excited when I found the list. To think that there are fifty two mountains with views that are already listed is awesome. No research needs to be done, just find the trailhead and go. I guess one requirement of joining the club, is you have to have hiked all the NH 4000 first AND the fifty two smaller mountains. So I have my work cut out for me, but I'm gonna go for it. It may take another two or three years before I become a member of the NH 4000 footers club, but after that I'm going after this club also. If for no other reason, I like hiking mountains with the reward of a view on top.

Post script: I didn't know it at the time, but I have hiked eleven of the fifty two so far.