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!
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