Halibut Point State Park and the Beginning of Summer

Other than my Lake Willoughby post (which gets billions of hits), my next most popular post is the one on Halibut Point State Park. When my old roommate Joe graced Massachusetts with a random visit a few weeks ago (he moved to Colorado), we were trying to figure out where to meet for a relaxed hang session. He wanted to show his new lady friend Mariko a nice spot in Mass. I figured, although I wasn't planning on going until much later in the summer, a visit to Halibut Point made a lot of sense to someone who doesn't see a lot of ocean. I drove the hour and a half (the afternoon after I drove to Cambridge and back for a Receiving End of Sirens reunion show) to Rockport, MA and met up with them. 

It looked pretty much the same: glorious. 

If you never read my first post (get on it), Halibut Point State Park is pretty much this: you walk like 1/8 of a mile into the woods and are met with a giant rock quarry surrounded by rocks and a small section of woods, and then the ocean. It's at the most north point of the north shore, so when you stand on the edge, you're at the very tip of Mass, looking towards Maine. You first look at the beauty of a rock quarry with the ocean behind it, then walk to the next view point looking over the ocean from huge rocks, then walk along the ocean. It's awesome and beautiful. 

Joe and Mariko dug it.

Look at this hipster poet scumbag!

Here's Joe taking a picture of Mariko in the quarry- it's fun to walk around/climb around in it.

Unlike my first time here, we walked along the coast a lot too, looking for ocean friends. I've always enjoyed wandering around on rocks, so this ruled.

This is my artsy shot of seaweed.

The ocean was raging too, and splashed us nicely at this spot:

Mariko slipped and slid like 8 feet into a rock crack at one point. Pretty hardcore. Here's the view looking towards the huge pile of rocks you stand on:

Here's a nicely cleaned up shot of the left side of the quarry:

Here's the visitor's center/awesome lighthouse-esque building on the property from the ocean side of the quarry (this is kind of the opposite view from the above picture). I love this shot:

And here's looking west towards most likely the Plum Island area of Newbury. The light reflection freaked out a little bit, but hey, what can you do. I'm pretty psyched all of these shots were taken with my iphone. Yea iphoneography!

We left and drove around a little, trying to find a place Joe said his dad took him when he was a kid. We never really found it, but hung out on a pier with this view for a bit. I really like this area. Growing up on a lake, it's both oddly familiar and interestingly alien to me to drive around ocean towns.

Before we even went to Halibut Point, we walked around Rockport in search of ice cream. It was the first day that really felt like summer, and it felt niiice. 

After, we met up with Naro and Sara at the Amesbury Ale House. They have a lot of weird beers and some pretty awesome food. I hadn't seen Naro and Sara in way too long either, so this was the perfect cap to a great day with old (and new) friends.

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Just a few days before this visit, I was in Maine, playing golf with my parents for Mother's Day. My mom suddenly loves golf, so visiting home is pretty much a guarantee of golf. 

It poured the night before though, and I nearly got a par (of course blew it and got a bogey) on this hole, barefoot. This hole is always wet and I was sick of having my shoes get wetter and wetter, so, after I hit it right in the wettest part (as I always do), I said fuck it and took my shoes off. I've never played golf barefoot, but my chip shot was perfect and I had a nice 2-putt, so maybe I should stick with it. Certainly felt weird though...

I sucked as always, got furious sporadically and was generally extremely inconsistent, but it was nice to be out on the course swinging a stupid club at a stupid ball.

the rents

It started to get real sketchy out there on Mother's Day though- rumbles of thunder and doomclouds on the horizon. Here's a completely ridiculous shot of the clouds through the wonderful world of iphone editing (HDR + Snapseed):

Nice to see the parents, nice to get out on the course in May. Thanks for global warming Al Gore, it's working out nicely for me.

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And lastly, on this tri-post of mostly photography: after a huge 3 peak hike, then a visit to the parents for golf, then seeing Joe at gorgeous Halibut Point State Park, just 2 days later, I had a day of double barbeques. 

Newer friends Rick and Lisa invited a bunch of people over to their relatively new house for a graduation party for Lisa graduating nursing school. They also got a new dog on the same day. We showed up at about 1 and I stayed until about 7.

Lisa and Mouse the dog

Rick the fireman setting fire to things nobody should set fire to

It was nice- there was a lot of family there that I didn't really speak to at all (except for super offending someone's grandmother), but we hung out outside for 6 hours with solid people, had some freshly grilled food, drank some brewskies, and threw the B. This was the first real B of the year as well as my first BBQ, and it felt fantastic. Winter never really showed this year, but my winter doldrums certainly did. I've been coming out of it nicely by trying to embrace spring with some hiking, but spending the whole day outside just hanging out in beautiful weather felt fantastic. It felt like summer. At last.

soooo green

And what better reason to leave a BBQ then to go to another one? I literally came home, changed my shirt, grabbed some more beers, and headed south to Naro's house for an entirely different BBQ with an entirely different group of friends. It was AWESOME. I recommend this to everyone I know- if you ever have a chance to go to 2 different BBQs in one day, do it. 

I knew everyone here and have for a loooong time, so this BBQ won for the day. Pog and Simone showed up at like 11:30, Mysterio and Masha drove up from CT for it, everyone got to see (and see off) Joe and Mariko (they were leaving the next day), there were like 5 dogs running around, I finally got to see Naro's new house (which is very awesome), and we sat around the fire and ate a 5 pound bag of hotdogs Primus Dan brought while drinking beers, throwing a glow in the dark frisbee, playing Naro's emo collection, and generally having an awesome time until like 3 in the morning.

Bud Light Lime + douchebag mustaches= summer

I ended up literally BBQing/hanging outside with friends for nearly 13 hours that day. I went to bed EXHAUSTED, and I loved it. Not only did I get to see a ton of awesome people, but I really finally felt like summer was here. And my god, that's a wonderful feeling. I hope I can have a lot more days and feelings like this over the next few months. Here's to summer!

currently listening to: We Are The Storm- "To The North Pole"

PS. I know I need to change my layout to a summery one- it will be updated soon.

Wagon Hill, Durham, NH

A solid month ago, the roomies and I headed out for a nice Sunday afternoon stroll through Wagon Hill. I'm pretty much posting about this solely to have a place to put Irwin pictures and to showcase a fairly cool little spot that people from around here may not know about. 

It's pretty much a gigantic field, with a wagon on top of a hill, which eventually leades down to the ocean.

This is the best picture Irwin would give me when Josh put him on the wagon.

"stop looking at me mike"

Rich, on the other hand, got one of the most majestic pictures of Irwin ever, instagrammed with his ear flying in the wind. Amazing. 

We went down the left side, through some woods, and to the ocean. Irwin went crazy, running through the mud and getting flat out filthy.

I tried to go out and get a huge horseshoe crab, but just as Irwin had clearly demonstrated, it was MUDDY. 

I found another one and instantly said to myself, "what the hell do I need with a horseshoe crab?" It smelled pretty horrible.

I found what I'm guessing are raccoon tracks in the mud, which I thought were pretty photogenic.

We eventually sat down by the most picturesque spot, where there are picnic tables and this view. Not bad. 

We headed around the circle, through a trail in the woods and headed back up the hill. I like this shot of the Weez sucking in wind smells next to a tiny mud river:

He gets most of his smells from his ears: 

he's trying to fly away

When we went back up the hill to head out, Irwin was exhausted- just muddy, slobbering and panting, tongue almost completely out of his head. But he still had the energy to freak out some more. Here is Josh fighting him: 

And then him coming after me:

AHHH!!!!!!

turns ON A DIME

I think if I ever buy that nice DSLR camera I keep threatening to buy, I'm gonna go here and take pictures of Irwin running.

That night, this was the Weez. He didn't move for several hours. A truly tuckered out hound.

That's pretty much it. Wagon Hill is a nice spot to go with some friends and throw a frisbee or have a picnic down by the ocean. Based on who I've always seen there though, it's mostly a place to go with a date and wander around, or take the kids/family to, or take a dog to. There are dogs everywhere, and Irwin even tried to reel some chick in for Josh. What a wing man!

An epic wilderness with glorious views it's not, but it's still a nice little spot. And Irwin sure loves it.

currently listening to: Raein- The title is in Italian and I don't want to write it out

The Best Place Ever (Georgiana Falls, Lincoln, NH)

I took a backpacking class as part of my phys ed requirements back in college. It was pretty awesome- people just took us on a different hike each week. One week, we were taken to Georgiana Falls in Lincoln, and my life forever changed. Pretty much everyone who knows me knows about this place, and knows that I refer to it as "the best place ever," because it is absolutely one of my favorite places I've ever been to.

The last time I went there was on "National Dirty Mike Day" as I nicknamed it. Last year, I decided to take 1 day and do 4 of my favorite things. I hiked here, biked at Gyroscope (a favorite place to mountain bike in Plymouth), ate my favorite food (a bbq chicken calzone from Ashland House of Pizza), and saw one of my favorite bands and certainly my favorite live band, Caspian. I did them all in 1 day, and drove 280 miles (Winchester, MA to Lincoln, NH back to Boston for Caspian), and it was glorious. I included a picture from it in the original video post announcing my new life. It was from the top of the best waterfall at the best place ever. 

It's kind of neat looking back on that day, since it was basically a sneak preview of my summer. Obviously, I took it a lot easier this summer, since I wasn't trying to cram everything into 1 day, but still- just the very idea of trying to do a bunch of my favorite things in 1 day just to do them and be happy- to name a day after myself and do whatever I wanted, etc. It was great, and I definitely think we should all do stuff like that more often. 

After Dan and I went to the Flume, we drove the few miles down the road to this glorious place and headed up. I really love this place (and may go again before winter is officially here). Here's a whole bunch of pictures, including some sweet HDRs taken with my iPhone. 

For those who don't know about this place, you basically walk down a very big trail/road towards the sound of a river, then follow the trail along the river, and finally end up (if you are like me) hiking up the river itself on all of the rocks. The goal is to spend as little time as possible on the actual trail, but it's pretty impossible at times to stay off it as some of the rocks aren't exactly hike-able. I usually go off trail a little after the "Calendar Tree," pictured below. I call it that, because the first time I saw it, it was perfectly covered in red leaves, and just seemed to glow in that "this should be in a calendar" way. Actually, here, I have a picture from that time:

Sadly, much like a metaphor for the lack of leaves changing and speed of fall before all the leaves were knocked off the trees by rain, the calendar tree has definitely lost some of its beauty (and limbs). I guess nothing is forever.

still nice though, especially in HDR

Here is why I love this place so much. You get to hike up this:

and then hike around several waterfalls, like this one: 

It can be tiring though. I think it's a mile to the top of the biggest waterfall, but it takes forever from having to chose paths through and eventually jump from rock to rock.

Primus Dan, dead.

Here's Dan, lost in the rocks, trying to find a path. I went far left (right in this picture) and found a nice path, but couldn't get back to him until about where I took this picture. He clearly was having some trouble.

Dan started a pit while I took an HDR:

I could have taken 100 pictures, but I already did that the last time I came here (friends on facebook: go find my album for National Dirty Mike Day if you want to see them all), and you can really only have so many pictures of the same place, even though I still take the same pictures every year. We decided part way up that we were only going to get to the top of the biggest waterfall, where the best view is. Here is that waterfall:

Dan, tired from the big climb through the woods and its wandering non-trail, staring at the pure awesomeness of the waterfall.

And here he is at the top.

I love this view so much. I think I skipped one year, but other than that, I've climbed up to this view every year for probably the last 7 or 8 years now. It's a tradition I plan to keep. 

And now, through the beauty of iphone technology, I was finally able to capture what I never could before- both the forefront of the waterfall and trees, and the background of 93 and the mountains far in the distance. Of course, I added some effect to it, but this is pretty much what it looks like, just with texture and lots of color:

Fantastic.

We headed back down through the woods, which is always a rough trip. There really isn't much of a set trail, and certainly nothing that's maintained, so you just wander around losing trails. But we got out, and the moon came out early.

And by the time we hit up AHOP (ashland house of pizza), the sky was gorgeous (especially with some photo editing).

We sat down by the river, in the area next to where Kevin used to live (and Squamtoberfest started) and took in some views. This has always been a great spot to get some foliage/water mirror shots, and even though it was dark, I was able to get some good ones, which again, got much better once I played with them a little. 

I forgot to take pictures of our calzones, but here is the one from last year's visit to the best place ever. AHOP is really consistent, so this is a pretty accurate representation. Except honestly, I think ours had even more cheese this year. So good. 

We then headed back to where the party had already started. Everyone had done different things that day (mountain biking, hiking, staying by the house and hanging out with kids), and it was great to reconvene, sit by the fire in 60 degree temperatures, have some pumpkin beers and, once I took over the music, blast some classic emo favorites (another staple of a successful Squamtoberfest). It was great- all too often our parties end up having techno and joke music playing. This is fine, as it's weird to play sad rock hits at parties, but I always thought it was kind of weird and also special that when this group got together, we'd often listen to much more serious and meaningful music, and I think if we don't do that anymore, we should at least embrace it on the time when meaningful emo songs we can all sing along to sound their best- fall. It was great to play some classics and some new ones that made people go "oh my god nobody talk during this song" (Naro during Bon Iver's "Holocene"). I had forgotten how perfect it felt to sit around a fire with some of my best friends and sing along to stuff like The Anniversary, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids. I love Squamtoberfest more than any other holiday. 

Mysterio freaking out on the fire

currently listening to- Into It. Over It.: Proper