A problem with summery weather

[urbpan]

Just as the weather demands that I take Charlie swimming, or be guilty of animal abuse, I find the opportunities for doing so drying up, if you'll pardon the expression.

First of all, the beaches are verboten for dogs from May to September. Fine, keep your poisonous salt water, you bums.

Charlie's favorite place to swim is Ward's Pond, which is walking distance from the house, relatively clean and conveniently close to where Maggie has dog school. Unfortunately, the past two Saturday's it's been infested with weirdos holding sticks with string on them in the water. They take up all the good Charlie launch pads, and the ends of their strings have sharp metal hooks which have a worrying tendency to embed themselves in animal flesh. So this week, instead of going there in vain hope, dashing Charlie's expectations, I decided to take him on a field trip.

The obvious place is Callahan State Park, but on a day like today it will be so full of dogs that the chance for Charlie to be involved in a dog aggression incident is raised from vanishingly slight up to near certainty, and I'd rather not risk it. Then there's the Charles River, but it's not always safe to let him swim there, and it's never legal. It's not even legal for him to be unmuzzled, never mind unleashed, in Boston, because he resembles a pit bull so much. (When will the prejudice against Yorkshire terrier/German shepherd mixes end?)

So I looked on a 'Boston dog friendly park' website which had a little googlemap with markers on it, and found Centennial park in the wealthy suburb of Wellesley. It seemed to have some woods, some fields, and a pond--perfect! Plus I figured any locals would be on Nantucket or in traffic on the way to the Cape. Alexis offered the use of Ken, her gps robot, but I had my directions written in pen on an envelope, so I took my own car without any robots.

Then I wasted a couple gallons of gas driving in crazy spirals around Wellesley. Twice I was on streets that ran parallel to the park, but I never saw a sign for the park, a parking area, or even a place to pull over. I found a series of ballfields elsewhere in the town, and took Charlie for a short walk, but no swimming.

Feeling dejected, and like I had disappointed my dog, I decided to go back to the park where Alexis and Maggie were. But there was some huge event going on, with booths and cops directing traffic, and all the parking lots and on-street parking completely taken up. This is the problem with summery weather: other people are out there enjoying it too. I hate that. Where were all these people in the dead of winter, watching tv? The outside exists year-round, and since I'm a dog owner, I have to go out in it.

This is why I especially hate the cold--I can't avoid it. We also wonder where all the dog owners are in bad weather, when we're out in it. True, the only people we see are other dog owners and mentally deranged joggers, but on a nice day, suddenly there are ten times as many dog owners? What do they do in snowstorms, let them shit inside?

Ah, well, the lessons to be learned are: Do better research; Have a plan B and C ready to go; if possible, bring a directions-finding robot; be prepared to drive more.

Comments

[roaming.livejournal.com]

Check out Menotomy Rocks Park here in Arlington. It's not as big as any of those, but less "public" in that only locals use it, and they walk their dogs. There's also an area where they tend to let their dogs off leash to cavort. There's trails up hills into the trees. (Caution: in one area at the very top the teenagers like to build fires and drink illegal beers, and then they smash the bottles. A local volunteer group regularly cleans up, but sometimes misses the glass shards.) Gee, suddenly doesn't sound so good, huh? But it's lovely, and enough for me, and it's got a pond, and so far I haven't seen it crowed. But then maybe I don't go during times when it's like to be, i.e., noon-4 on a weekend, I tend to do my walking just before dusk.

Rt 2 past Alewife in Cambridge, to Exit 58 in Arlington, take a Right on Highland Avenue (my street!); next set of lights take a right on Gray Street; go to the next STOP sign at Jason Street, Take a right, park's on the right, you can't miss it.

Or just come all the way up Massachusetts Avenue from Cambridge to Arlington -- a straight shot, but menotonous and full of traffic and stop lights -- past Arlington Center, and when you see the High School on the right, the next left at the lights will be Jason Street. Just go all the way up Jason until you reach the park on your right. You'll see a clear area behind a fence, and a pond.

[belen1974.livejournal.com]

i hope to to there this evening with jim! do you know where the off leash dog cavorting area is?

[roaming.livejournal.com]

It's officially not allowed by the "Friends of Menotomy" organizers. And I suppose there is a legal lease law in general. But people do it anyway, and unless someone raises a ruckus, so far so good.

It's to the left and the back. You go in the front, walk past the pond, and if you look to the left there are swings and grills. It's generally there. (It used to be in the ver front to the right, but now they've cordoned it off to let the grass regrow.)