Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
Since the beginning of the pandemic this spring, I have seen little of my sweet grands, even though they live in town. We are staying more remote than they have been able to, which has made visits difficult. But outdoor walks alongside Silver Lake work, with all of us wearing masks and walking apart from each other.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
We headed out to Dudley, MA, planning to park at Nichols College to bike a rural route from there on road. The sun shone bright, we found a spot next to the entrance to the college, and saw next to no one around. Everything was a go, bike all set, extra ice packed, bike tools packed, snacks. And then, the cooling vest didn’t quite work right.
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I head outside to pick berries in the early morning light, or after dinner when the sun goes down and the air begins to cool. It has been hard for me to keep active with the summer heat, but as I stretch and twist around the knarled branches that have shared this yard with me for so many years, I laugh. Yes, Blueberry yoga, that’s what I’ve been doing. Bending, stretching, reaching, stepping, pulling the flexible limbs down to where I can pluck ripened fruit from the branches and drop them into the bowl waiting to be filled. Mindfully studying the fruit, searching for the deeply purple berries and allowing the nearly ripe to remain in the sunshine to sweeten some more.
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We are continuing our quest to #avoidcrowds, and after looking at maps, focused on the area around the Burlingame Wildlife Management Area in Charlestown, RI as a place to explore, and perhaps return to visit trails when it is cooler. For now, we are getting me out on our adaptive tandem bike, with cooling gear making it possible for me to enjoy the outdoors, even on these days it has been 90+ degrees out. You who are able to sweat have no idea how much this body function helps in keeping your body temperature regulated. Those of us who cannot sweat either suffer, become terribly ill, or sometimes find ways to manage.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
It was back to road-tripping for us, on an overcast, somewhat cooler week day, to enjoy time on our adaptive tandem bike. We have been putting into practice some of the tips to avoid crowds that we share in our upcoming book, Finding Easy Walks Wherever You Are. 1. Get out on weekdays when you can, rather than weekends; 2. Leave early in the morning; 3. Head out on overcast, rather than bright sunny days.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
We continue to practice what we tell others they can do to #Avoidcrowds. We packed our bike the night before, including everything we’d need for the morning and got up early to head out first thing. It promised to be a hot, muggy day, and we wanted to avoid the worst of the heat. Our destination was Pascoag, RI, (a village in Burrillville) to a very short paved bike path. Our plan was to start at the Burrillville Bike path, and do some road biking from there.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
We are continuing our quest to #avoidcrowds in our outings, with mixed results. We found a trail access to the Nashua River Rail trail as it travels through Groton, MA but the grade crossing had no parking. So we set off to find a safe place to park and set up our adaptive tandem.
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With the start of summer comes the longest days, the most sunlight (and the summer heat, of course). We had an early light dinner and headed out with our adaptive tandem bicycle to one of the closest local trails, the handicapped accessible, stone dust covered, Upper Charles Trail in Holliston, MA. A helpful strategy we have used for avoiding crowded trails is to get out early in the morning, or at supper time, when others are headed home.
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The SNETT as a proposed rail trail travels from Franklin, MA all the way to Douglas, and some progress has been made. An entire section in Blackstone, through Millville and on to Uxbridge, is complete. A portion in Bellingham is finished. But barriers remain. We stopped by Prospect Street in Franklin to see what is happening to build the tunnel (really a large culvert) underneath Prospect Street that will facilitate travel along the SNETT from Franklin to Bellingham.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
While it was difficult to tell from the maps we studied and the trail reports we read, it looked as though the Quinebaug Rail Trail in Dudley, MA might offer a bikeable path for us to explore. If we found this not to be true, we had Plan B at the ready, to travel just a short ways north to join up the Grand Trunk Rail Trail in Southbridge.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman 