Ascending at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary

I love the Mass Audubon organization and its quaint nature centers and hiking trails. One of the main reasons for the Mass Audubon's existence is protecting and promoting the array of bird life in our state, especially all that can be found in the numerous wildlife sanctuaries under its auspices. I'm no birdwatcher, but I could easily see getting into this as a hobby in my retirement years, perhaps. For now, I'm content to catch the occasional falcon or hawk or roadside turkey when the opportunity arises, and get a glimpse of whatever flies near me while I'm on hikes.

We've visited the Broad Meadow Brook nature center and sanctuary that's virtually around the corner from our house here in Worcester on many occasions. It's a wonderfully peaceful way to spend a Sunday morning, especially when there's hardly anyone else on the trail. Recently I got to do the same on a solo stroll through Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton. After stumbling up on a sign for it while driving on Route 10 out of Northampton, I followed the winding roads to the entrance, which features a great visitor/nature center complete with stuffed animals along the walls -- well, not the stuffed animals of Jordyn's bedroom variety, but full-on taxidermy specimens. There's also a whiteboard in the center citing the sanctuaries latest sitings in the 723-acre sanctuary.

As with Broad Meadow Brook, the hiking is easy and relaxed along Arcadia's many trails, of which I walked several. Some lead out to fields, others into the forest and others along the Mill River, which feeds into the nearby Connecticut River. There are several ponds as well as a vernal pool to check out -- I made my way to the Wood Duck Pond, whose namesake is also the image of the stamp that you can mark in your Mass Audubon "passport" that you can fill every time you visit a Mass Audubon locale. And yes, I did catch a few mallards minding their business in the pond.

A couple of features at Arcadia deliver interesting reminders of the past. There's a path called the Old Trolley Line Trail that bisects the sanctuary, which obviously played a traffic role back in the day, and there's also an observation tower. The tower is kind of like a tree house, and presents views of the marsh and swampland. You take a spiral staircase to reach it, and the most fascinating part is that you pass a pair of signs on the neighboring tree that mark how high two historic floods reached in 1984 and 1936 -- you can only shake your head at just how monstrous those floods were when you see how high up the signs are. I made my way back along the well-marked trails, whose blazes are conveniently color-coded to let you know if you're heading toward or away from the nature center (why can't every place do that!). I didn't see any wildlife out of the ordinary on this day, but that certainly gives even more reason to return at different times of the year. (Arlen)

Waterside Walking in Newport & Whitehall

There are plenty of reasons why Newport, R.I., is a hot tourist destination during the summer -- beaches, sailboats, mansions -- which is why we waited until the end of summer to head down there. It's a short ride from Worcester (thanks for being so small, Rhode Island!) and I really wanted to hike the famed Cliff Walk that runs along its eastern shore. Sometimes I'm not the greatest planner, though, and aside from heading there over Labor Day weekend it also happened to be move-in time for students at Salve Regina.

That didn't phase me, but unfortunately Jordyn was already a bit mentally exhausted from the car ride (thought we didn't hit any traffic until we actually reached town). For most of the cliff walk portion we did accomplish, she was perched on my shoulders as you can see above. Still, my pained shoulders couldn't take away from the awe-inspiring views that this hike yields. Sara and I both enjoy hikes that come across water in whatever form -- streams, rivers, cascades, falls, ponds, lakes -- and Newport serves up ocean views with the best of 'em.

Every now and then the trail offers some steep pathways down near the water, but we took some nearby steps -- an area called Forty Steps (yes, that's how many there are) -- down for a closer view on the ledges. The one drawback to the trail is that there's no cover from the sun, and on our walk there were few clouds to provide a break and little ocean breeze; we just couldn't last too long. Eventually I'd like to head back and walk more of the 3.5-mile trail, because it's certainly an East Coast treasure, with hiking riches befitting the enormous wealth on which Newport made its reputation.

The following weekend we kept things closer to home for more trekking along the water's edge. This time it was Whitehall State Park in Hopkinton, Mass. The views were not as majestic, and those darn trees got in the way a lot, but the quiet, peaceful morning by Whitehall Reservoir was refreshing -- and provided a nice taste of the coolness that quickly arrives when the calendar turns from August to September.

I have no idea how many miles the entire circumnavigation of the reservoir is, but I'm pretty sure it would entail an entire day of hiking. We probably did about a mile and a half round trip, turning around after getting a good view of the Whitehall Dam in the distance. After a hot summer, during which our hiking schedule is interrupted by things like heat and birthday parties, it felt good to be back in the woods. (Arlen)