The area is every bit as bleak as the photos indicate. There was quite a bit of trash back here, old mattress springs and car parts, and plastic barrels that I had no intention of looking into. Clothing, toys, just a mess. Even the trees look angry here.

I’m not a mountain-biker, but boy, do I love those guys. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, and for state parks and forests in my area there are often just a small number of marked trails, mainly loops that cater to casual hikers and dog-walkers. When the bikers move in, they create intricate meshes […]

Wa! Wa! WaaaaaCHUsett! If you lived in New England in the 1990s you knew the jingle of central Massachusetts' biggest ski area by heart. It was heavily advertised during the season and if you didn't know quite exactly where it was situated, you knew the name.

Mt. Tom was the first place I revisited after hitting 100 unique parks, which should tell you something about its appeal. The major attraction at Mt. Tom is classic Holyoke basalt. And dinosaur tracks.

Once you get in, this isn't a bad spot to operate from. But oh, getting in!

I’ve hiked Gilbert Hills for many years, long before I became active with POTA. One reason is that it’s close to my QTH, and Gilbert Hills and nearby US-8383 Wrentham State Forest (it’s right across the street from Gilbert Hills) are my ‘home’ parks for all sorts of POTA experiments and casual activations. Another is […]

I’d overnighted in South Hadley, Massachusetts after spending the previous day, the 31st of October, hiking and activating US-5636 Mt. Greylock. I mention the specific day because in Massachusetts the state parks shut down quite a few of the roads on their properties on October 30th. At Greylock this meant that what I’d intended to […]

I was completely unprepared for what was around the corner...

Near the end of the last ice age quite a bit of North America was covered in a thick layer of ice, in some place reaching a thickness of two miles. Around 12,500 years ago the planet began to warm rapidly, and the ice began to melt. Vast ice water lakes formed behind enormous dams, […]