urbpan | Back to Dogtown (Reply)

I hadn't been back to Dogtown since November. For Alexis the last time going there was last April. One of the reasons for that is that there's a shooting range nearby, and the sound of gunshots scares Maggie into immobility. She can't hike very far because of her leg surgery anyway, so we left her at home with Alex, and took Charlie and Jim.

With no leaves on the trees, the giant boulders everywhere become the main feature.

Charlie likes it when he finds water.

We didn't seek out the Babson Boulders, but found a few by accident. They are easier to see from the main path with the trees so bare.

Some of the last people to live in Dogtown kept sheep. Clearing a pasture meant moving hundreds of rocks and making stone fences from them. They slowly crumble, but many are mostly intact.

Wintergreen, one of the very few green plants I found. (I ate the berry.)

The last of the Babson Boulders we found. Notice any themes?

The reservoirs for both Gloucester and Rockport are at Dogtown. I'm not sure which one this is.

At the far edge of the water you can see it's still icy.

Charlie thought it was good to swim in.

If you're wondering what the heck Dogtown or Babson are, please click the dogtown tag and look at my older posts on it. I explain a little bit, and there are other links to the history of the place. I did learn recently from my friend Bil: "Marsden Hartley, an important American modern painter [and] a favorite artist of mine painted in the area during the early 20th C." Hartley painted a series of paintings of Dogtown, from 1930-1937. Alexis' pictures from the same trip are here. Mostly they are different because I am in them instead of her. Also they're a bit better than mine.