Mere Point Sunsets – Week 1 – 6/6/20

One of my favorite things to do as we spend time at Mere Point is to watch the sun set. Because the end of the point, just a short walk away, offers such an expansive view of the bay and the surrounding islands it almost always looks great. During our extended stay in Maine in June I tried to get out to see that sunset almost every night. And now, after an unacceptably long delay, I’m sharing my experiences on those evenings.

First up, we have the evening of June 6th. This sunset was initially somewhat disappointing with thick clouds near the horizon keeping the glow to a minimum. However, as you can see, it came through in the end.

The next evening offered another set of mixed results. The clouds were again thicker than would be ideal, but just as the sun dipped down to the horizon it lit up the underside of the clouds with a soft pink glow that reflected down to the water. I really liked how the perfectly smooth tide pool gave a view of the cool gray clouds overhead as well.

The next evening the clouds looked much better, and I decided to return to that same tide pool to see if I could catch it with better lighting. In the end I’m not sure if it’s a better or worse picture, but it is certainly interesting as well.

The more time I spent at the end of the point the more I tried to mix up the angles I was capturing. After all, no matter how interesting the sunsets, they will all start to look boring if they keep repeating the same shot. Given that, I spent some time the next evening capturing this view looking at the dock to the north west. I love the way the setting sun was lighting up the seaweed and rocks.

The next couple nights were spent with other activities including everyone’s favorite: the zoom calls. However given how the first few days of sunset hunting came out, I was hooked.

6/13/20 Whaleboat Island

By this time we had been in Maine for nearly two weeks, but had not yet gotten the motor boat, so I was looking for ways to get out and explore a little further. I decided to up the kayaking ante again and make the trip out to Whaleboat Island. Given how often I have passed this one by I have wanted to explore it for quite a while.

I set our on a beautiful Saturday morning with very little in the way of wind or waves and made my way out. I took my first break at the goslings, a pair of small islands a little over half way out to Whaleboat. You can see Whaleboat on the horizon at the left edge of the image.

Though it was the longest crossing, the next stretch went quickly, and I pulled up near the campground at the north end of the island and got out. My original plan was to explore the woods a bit and see what the interior of the island looked like. As it turns out though, the interior of the island is an impenetrable tangle of downed trees and brush. It would have been a tough bushwhack in the best of conditions, but my shorts and flip flops definitely did not help.

I decided instead to walk down the shore of the island along the high tide line. Though much more passable, it was still slow going. I took my time and enjoyed the varied rocks and occasional glimpse of the resident herons.

Once I made it about half way down the island where the vegetation opens up a bit I decided I should make may way across to the other side and head back. Once again, I was surprised to see just how dense things were. Though I eventually found a way, it took quite a while to get across. In the process I came across a couple glimpses of the handiwork of people who once lived on the island. Not much is left of their farms at this point though.

Once I had finally gotten to the other side, I headed back north along the shore. Surprisingly, the shore was actually quite different on this side, with much more gravel and mud. After passing a family of geese and a flock of seagulls at the northern tip of the island I quickly made it back to my boat.

With a final snack and a drink of water I pushed off and made my way back. On the return trip I paddled around the other side of the goslings and Goose Island. In the end it was a 9.5 mile paddle and a 1.9 mile walk. Definitely a highlight of our stay in Maine for me.

6/6/20 Upper Goose Island

I’ll start today’s entry off by apologizing that there has been a bit of a lull in new photos to share. Don’t worry though, it’s the lack of organization and editing rather than the lack of pictures that is causing this. We actually just returned from our stay in Maine, so I should now have more time to get some of the many photos I took uploaded.

First up is a little kayaking adventure we had around Upper Goose Island. The island is not far from where we were staying, and it’s only a four mile trip to go all the way around. We took a stop on one of the many tiny gravel beaches along the side of the island near a stand of trees on the edge of the water. It was a beautiful spot to relax, take some photos, and put our feet in the water before continuing around to the other side.

6/4/20 Mere Point

We were fortunate a couple weeks ago to be able to pack up all of our stuff, including our office setups, and travel up to Maine for a change of scenery. We have been working from our temporary home for a while now, and are enjoying the variety of outdoor fun that can be had here.

To start things off I have a collection of photos from around Mere Point taken on our walks. With the late spring flowers blooming, tide pools teeming with life, and a beautiful sunset there was no shortage of subjects.

5/27/20 Nobscot Reservation

Another quick set of photos for today, this time from Nobscot Reservation. I was biking through the woods there recently when I saw that a stream I had visited a month earlier had changed quite a bit with the ferns now out in full force and the leaves on the trees. I decided to come back and grab a couple of photos. I’m also throwing in one shot of the irises in our back yard as a bonus!

5/18/20 Sudbury Reservoir

As usual for these quarantine times, I was itching to get out and move around. I could tell there were some thin clouds, so I headed over to the trails along the Sudbury Reservoir in hopes that I could catch a view of a good sunset. Boy did it live up to expectations. After a few minutes walk I made my way down to the edge of the water and watched the sun sink below the horizon.

The sunset itself was nice, but just afterwards it got even better as the light softened and the clouds overhead all began to glow in shades of pink and purple. I had a great time capturing various angles of it, then headed down along the shore as the last light faded away.

Because the trail was so wide and easy to follow I never ended up pulling out my headlamp. As I was walking back along the path, I stopped to have a drink of water and saw a dark shape moving around in front of me. I quietly pulled out the camera to take a picture to see if it could see things any better than I could.

After taking one look at the skunk on the back of the camera, I decided it was best to make a little more noise to be sure it knew I was there. Fortunately, it quickly decided it wanted as little to do with me as I did with it, and scurried off into the woods.

5/14/20 Sudbury River

Today I have a short one, a few photos from a recent kayaking trip on the Sudbury River. I went out in the evening to catch the sunset and get away from the house for a little while. Though the sunset didn’t turn out to be anything special, it was still a beautifully peaceful evening.

5/8/20 Hop Brook Sunset Walk

After our experience with the Hop Brook Marsh Conservation Area the week before, I decided to set out for a sunset walk near another portion of the local creek. This time I entered through the Gray Reservation trailhead. Much like the week before, it was a nice little parking lot with some beautifully maintained trails.

After a short section through fairly dense woods, I came across the brook itself, with beautiful views of the setting sun. It was a fun place to take some pictures given that everywhere I pointed the camera it looked great. The little bridge over the brook added an extra touch to the pictures as well.

As I continued along the brook there were a few more overlooks, some more perfect trails, and also very few people. I was pleasantly surprised that I only ran into a couple people with their dogs on the entire walk, and had no trouble at all with social distancing. I ended up stopping at a viewpoint looking out over one of the marsh sections. Though the trail kept going, I decided to simply watch the sunset from there, and then made my way back to the car as it started to get dark.

4/19/20 Nobscot Reservation Hike

To complete the crazy New England weather cycle, our snowfall from the day before was immediately followed by a warm sunny day. I jumped on the opportunity and headed out to check out the Nobscot Scout Reservation and the adjoining preservation land. The walk turned out to be the most solitary outing I have had since the start of the epidemic. I spent a couple hours wandering along the beautifully maintained trails and what I thought were some nice images, including another curious looking spider (click to view) .

I also returned later in the week on my mountain bike to explore some of the single track here, and it delivered some wonderfully smooth and flowy descents mixed in with some challenging but manageable climbs. I’ll definitely back more often.

2/15/20 Wachusett Reservoir

A couple weeks ago I decided to get out and go for a little photo hike nearby. After driving by Wachusett Reservoir a couple of times recently, I have been thinking that it would be a good spot to watch the sun set, so I decided to give it a go.

I actually started off with a stop at the Sudbury Reservoir and Southborough Rural Cemetery on my way out there. The cemetery was pretty and well maintained, but didn’t provide a lot of excitement. On the other hand, the strange ice formations all around the edges of the reservoir were fascinating. I probably looked quite strange kneeling at the edge of a lake taking pictures of these things, but I think it was worth it.

Once at Wachusett Reservoir, I spent some time exploring the dam and the surrounding trails. The spillway was particularly scenic, cut right out of the natural rock. Though a nice spot, the dam did not seem like the best location to watch the sunset, so I continued down the shore to Sawer Bluff.

This turned out to be just the kind of spot I was hoping for. I spent quite a bit of time at the little beach at the end of the point watching the sun sink below the horizon, lighting up all of the frozen waves, sand, and rocks on the shore.

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