Ninigret NWR
Posted By auntie on January 1, 2013
3.04 miles 2.7 mph
first day of the new year. it snowed over the past weekend, and put down close to a foot at my house, and i wasn’t too keen on trying the woods without snowshoes or gaiters, so i thought i’d take a quick jaunt on the ninigret wildlife refuge in charlestown. it was pretty cold and windy, and there was some snow there, too—the trail was icy in spots, so it was still a bit of a challenge. also, just out of curiosity, i tried the first part of the walk without my tunes. i always solo hike to a playlist of songs with 115-120 beats per minute (bpm). i feel this keeps me moving pretty quickly. imagine my surprise, then, when i realized that without the motivating tunes, i moved faster. hm. i tried a faster playlist, one of 120-126 bpm. that really upped my walking speed. and hey, it’s nice, after a year, to listen to a whole new bunch of songs!
icy footprints
part of this trail is an asphalt paved path, and you can see where the snow compacted down under people’s feet to make a funny-looking icy footprint path.
snowy paw prints
i thought these might be wild animal tracks, but from what i can gather, they’re just domestic dog. it was a pretty small dog, but not a fox or a coyote.
beautiful landscape
the refuge is really beautiful in this weather. the infinite variety in the browns and tans is fascinating. it reminds me very much of my late father’s paintings. he loved to paint in the wintertime.
UPDATE: just wanted to show you what i meant by how this landscape reminded me of my dad’s work…
rutland marsh by john loughlin
[…] went much better, and i was able to get into a rhythm, which was nice. i think tomorrow i might try ninigret, at least the 1-mile foster cove loop, assuming they’ve plowed the parking […]