Winding Down the Road at Wells

Sometimes hikes don't turn out as planned. That was the case last weekend when we went to Wells State Park in Sturbridge. Oh, it seemed like a pleasant place to go hiking ... only we tired ourselves out before we got there.

It started out good enough. We met up with my parents and had breakfast at a nearby cafe, and they were ready to join us for our latest Weekends in the Woods outing. I'm very fortunate to have parents who are still in great shape -- and exuberant -- at their age.

And they probably got in a little more walking than they bargained for. You see, when we pulled onto the road that leads to the park entrance, it was blocked off by some cones and a "road closed" sign. It was beautiful out, though, so I figured we could walk to the park. Unfortunately I hadn't checked the map too well -- it was at least a mile, maybe more, down a windy road to get there. We saw a couple of cars pass by, too, which was slightly annoying because 1) obviously some people were just dismissing the closed sign and pressing on and 2) there were a couple of other roads off Route 49 (the major road to get there) that also led to the park entrance, more indirectly.

Still, we were all in good spirits following our version of the yellow brick road. Jordyn posed with Grandma and Papa for an action shot (above). But when we got to the entrance we were pretty pooped. Jordyn was not about to head into the woods for a loop trail. In fact, my dad, Sara and Jordyn stayed behind while my mom and I trekked back up the road and got the car -- the little girl was begging to be carried up the hilly way back, and that wasn't gonna happen.

So the paved road turned into our hike for the day. We did manage to do some frog-spotting just past the entrance, in the marshy area of one of the ponds, a celebratory occasion for Sara since she'd been keeping her eye out for them since we started our outdoors initiative, only to come up empty on every previous outing. We'll head back at some point for the real trails, but for this trip we'll settle for being grateful of the guest appearances, both human and amphibian. (Arlen)