1/1/29 Charles River Kayaking

Happy new years! I know this is late going up, but I have been busy lately. I’ll do my best to get caught up. For now let’s take a look back at our little new years celebration though.

I would have liked to make the trip up to Franklin New Hampshire for the new years paddle on the Winnipesaukee River, but it wasn’t in the cards. So instead we decided to head to the Charles river with some friends. It is a section we have paddled before, but never in these conditions. There were patches of ice on the side of the river, and the side channels and ponds were completely frozen. It was definitely an interesting view of the area, and a unique way to kick off the year.

The reflections off the water were perfectly clear
The edge of the ice on South End Pond
Looking across South End pond

12/31/20 Charles River Esplanade

What’s the ideal way to celebrate new years in Boston? With a bike ride into the city of course! We actually really lucked out with the weather on this one. Though it wasn’t a terribly sunny day, the temperature was very comfortable. We started in Waltham and made our way all the way into Boston. After a stop for raman in the city it was back on the bike to head back home.

This heron was doing some (very cold) fishing in Cambridge

The ride back certainly felt long as we pushed against the wind, but we continued to make steady progress. We saw a heron doing some finish along the edge of the water in Cambridge, so of course I took a break to capture some photos before we wrapped up our ride. All told this turned out to be about a 30 mile ride. Definitely a good conclusion to the year.

12/20/20 Mt. Moosilauke

Here are a few photos from another hike up in the white mountains, this time a loop on Mt. Moosilauke. Though I have hiked this one in the past, it has been a while. On top of that, I choose a new route this time. I got started at a reasonable time and steadily worked my way up the east ridge following some bare boot tracks almost the whole way. Once I arrived at top of the ridge I hit the Appalachian Trail which, thankfully, had a much more even set of snowshoe tracks.

The junction with the AT

From there it was a straight forward climb to the summit. Once I broke above the treeline I was greeted with a frozen tundra landscape of scrubby grass, a dusting of snow, and a very very icy trail. The wind was gusting pretty hard, and encouraged me to quickly make my way over the summit and down the south slope of the mountain towards the car.

At least the trail is flat here…
The cairns are impossible to miss this early in the season

The rest of the descent was pretty uneventful. All in all it was a fairly typical winter climb, if a little quiet. Definitely not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon!