MY last days in Dogtown

Todays Hike-Ku

Nasty, Buggy Swamp
First and Last Day in Dogtown
better things to do

Dogtown Commons is a patch of grown over land that had been settled and later abandoned in the 17th century in what is now the town of Gloucester. Steve and I both read the book, "The Last Days of Dogtown" by Anita Diamant a few years ago but todays hike idea only emerged when I pulled one of the many # hikes book off the shelf. This one is 60 Hikes (within 60 miles) of Boston. Since we have never been able to repeat the success of Fifty Hikes in Massachusetts and the attendant Hike-ku of a few years ago, I keep picking up these books, hoping one will inspire us. This one seemed like a winner and with summer presenting us with an almost perfect day for hiking I was trolling for inspiration after my a.m. conference call. I picked Halibut Point. Steve demurred. I presented Dogtown and it was a sale. Since it was DOGtown we took the dog, got there a little after eleven and found the spot with no trouble. It's within earshot of highways, so it was kind of a shocker when we got lost. I think the half mile to the resevoir was straightforward, but from then on, we fumbled with an unintelligable set of directions, a map that looked great on paper, but none of the many turns and trails were marked so after bushwacking through swamp and brambles on what might have been a trail - oh and did I mention the ravenous mosquitoes? the ones who only blew off when we were moving at 10 miles an hour? - and having a couple of couple moments spatting over directions I did it Steve's way because he insisted he was right. I need to figure out why the girl who grew up in northern Maine WOODS deferred to the guy who grew up in the BRONX. This wasn't the first time - but clearly I have not learned from the past. . .

We ended up in Rockport on some residential lane where we got orientation from a couple who managed to (thinly) veil their amusement. They also offered to start the grill if we came back. I guess they had low expectations of our ability to make it back to the car.

I carried the dog back to Gloucester. On the railroad tracks, because at least they went in a predictable direction. I figure 8 miles for our 4 mile hike. Four hours. Up and Down on a goat track over glacial erratics before and after the tracks. What a nasty little hike. There was this really interesting trail - Babson Boulder trail - where a local nob hired a stoneworker to chisel words of wisdom (of the protestant capitalist sort) on a number of the erratics"Use Your Head" Be On Time" "Work" "Integrity" "Kindness" etc. but the mosquitoes chased us through at a racing clip and the rest of it was just briars and bugs. Dogtown Hike - FAIL.

We have exhasted the dog, which is not easy. She'll be doing tricks to score some ibupropen when she wakes up. And Steve and I are making the appropriate noises every time we move from a sitting position.

We do this because. . . ?????