Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Red Lining Adventures


Jim Pawlicki and I met up for an interesting adventure that featured running, kayaking and (unfortunately) a fair amount of portaging our kaykas.  The goal was to “red line” (run every trail) on two of the Trustees of the reservations island properties.  We met at 7am at West Beach in Beverly Farms where we found the beach closed until 8am.  So a short drive to the T-stop and a ½ mile run back got us to the beach launch.
                    1 mile kayak to Misery Island

The water was calm and the 1 mile kayak took us a little over 15 minutes.  A quick change to running shoes and we were off for a jaunt around the island.  It took us a little less than an hour to cover the nearly 4 miles of trail (with a bunch of out & backs to ensure we got every step of every trail).

3.9 miles getting every trail

The paddle back was a bit rougher as the wind had picked up.  We both had frozen hands by the time we landed at West Beach.  We dumped the kayaks and ran back to the T-station then returned and loaded up for the drive to Essex for part two.
   
1 mile kayak back to West Beach 
We parked at the end of Island road (ignore the “sticker only” parking) and launched into the Castle Neck River.  We paddled 1.9 miles to the old remnants of a dock near the barn (one of the few buildings on the island).  Low tide was approaching and there were some shallow parts on the paddle.


Kayak 1.9 miles from Island st to Choate Island

The trails on Choate island (Crane Wildlife) were fairly tame.  The southwest side of the island had a trail but although marked it was not on the map and there were a lot of trees down.  There was an excellent view from the summit of Choate hill.  We could see Agementicus nearly 40 miles to the north.

Ran 3.6 miles getting all of the trails in the Crane Wildlife Refuge (Choate Island)

After the run we arrived at the kayaks at absolutely lowest of low tide.  There was little chance we could go back the way we came but I thought we had a shot at heading around the North end of the island then heading West on the Castle Neck River.   First we had to carry the kayaks ½ mile to a deeper stretch of water.  Once in the water we got part of the way (and spotted a deer on one of the minor tufts of grass) before realizing it was a “no go”.  The bail-out was the Trustee’s dock at Crane Beach.  We made our way over and then came the tough part.  ANOTHER ½ mile of portage to get the kayaks to the end of the road.  We stowed them in the bushes then headed on down the road for a 5 mile run back to our cars.


                      1 mile kayak to the Crane beach dock
   

                5 mile run back to the cars

Not exactly the day we planned but fun nonetheless.  13+ miles of running, 1 mile of arm stretching portaging, 5 miles of kayaking, and two reservations red-lined!

No comments: