Firefly Camping

Originally this week was going to be our big 10 day road trip to Prince Edward Island and back ... the precursor for a much longer trip across the country and back in the next year or two.  Sadly, it didn't happen as too many thing need our attention right now ... which seems to be the story of 2025.   Anyways, while we weren't able to get away for the 10 day trip, we were able get away for two smaller trips and cram as much as we could into them.  GW State Park and The RI Football Club First up was a trip back to George Washington State park , a place we had visited each of the last two years.  This time we brought Neil's friend Alan with us and stayed a bit closer to the water.   Originally we planned to stay for two nights and drive up to Pawtucket to see the RI Football club play in between, but with lots and lots of rain, we ended up just heading home after the soccer game   Speaking of rain, which only had intermittent showers in the fo...

After having the van for a few years now, we finally made it to Maine.  We spent two nights at Bradbury Mountain State Park and ventured into Portland to see the Red Sox AA affiliate, the Sea Dogs play.   We left Belmont at 3:15 on Friday afternoon and made a stop at Brickyard Brewing for dinner in Ogunquit.   We finally got to our campsite around 7pm.   A bit antsy from the ride, Neil made Amy and his Aunt Laura go for a mountain bike ride shortly after we arrived.  About 30 minutes later they made it back to the site, navigating the dark by cell phone flashlight.  This was Amy's parent's initial voyage with their new RV.  With a 26' length and a bump out, it makes our camper van look tiny.    Saturday morning I got a run in, summitting Bradbury Mountain 3X.  Last time I was here was the fall of 2012 doing my 3rd ultra, when Neil was an infant.  It was a lot of fun to see which parts I remembered and which looked tot...

Harold Parker / May 8th  On May 8th, Amy took Neil and his friends for a night a Harold Parker while they had the day off from school for teacher conferences.  They caught a pickerel and made pizza over the fire.   Pearl Hill / June 28th This past weekend, we camped with few other families at Pearl Hill State Park in West Townsend.  This is our third time at Pearl Hill and really enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.       

Between September 13-15th, Keith and I went up to New Hampshire for me to finish the last two 4000+' peaks within the White Mountains.   On Friday, we drove up and stayed on the edge of our friend Sue's property in Bethlehem.  Saturday after a quick breakfast, we drove up to the Unknown Pond Trail head, about an hour north of where we stayed the night before.   Mnt Horn For Mount Cabot, you can either do an out and back on Bunnel Notch Trail to the Kilkenny Ridge or you can turn it into a loop continuing on Kilkenny Ridge until you intersect Unknown Pond trail.  The out and back is about 9 miles while the loop is closer to 11.   We chose to do the loop as the there isn't a view from the summit of Cabot and their is short spur off the loop that allows for summiting Horn Mountain, which has a beautiful 360 degree view.  After about 3.5 hours, we completed the day and headed out for lunch before working our way to Moose Brook State park for nig...

Our next two trips brought us out of state and back to a few places we have enjoyed in the past.  Trip 16 included two nights along Little River in Bethlehem, NH on the edge of our friend Sue's property.  This trip has turned into an annual trip with our friends Erin and Kevin and their four daughters.   The trip started with Neil and I heading up a little early and hiking Mnt Pemigewasset and then the next day I climbed Mnt Waumbek, my 46th of the NH 48 4000' peaks. Trip 17 brought us back to George Washington State Park in Glocester, RI.  Not only did we camp their last year as well, but we had the exact same camp site (my lucky number 9).   We got down their early Saturday morning and did some fishing and swimming before heading out to meet up with the in laws for an early dinner and trip out to see their boat (they retired to their boat, a 38' Cabo Rico a few years ago). 

Our next two trips brought us to Lake Denison (Winchendon, MA) and Pearl Hill (West Townsend, MA), both state parks in Massachusetts.  We stayed at Lake Denison on July 4th (Thursday) and 5th (Friday).  The campground is divided into a North and South Side with about a mile of road in between them.  There is also a beach at the South End of the lake.  We ended up staying at the north which really wasn't easily accessible to the all the amenities of the park.   Thursday night, we cooked hot dogs on sticks wrapped in dough over the fire.   On Friday, we went for short bike ride on some technical trails and capped the trip off with a stop at the Baldwin Diner with some red velvet pancakes before heading home.   For Pearl Hill, we headed out Saturday morning, July 20th.  We had been to Pearl Hill once before back in 2019 when I was training for the Midstate 100 when I ran there from Wachusett.   Pearl hill is a great little campg...

For our second trip of 2024, we took a few of Neil's friends up to Harold Parker State Park to celebrate his birthday.  We arrived around 6pm on a Friday evening and got setup before we had to wait out an hour of rain.  Post rain we got a fire going, had s'mores, and got a little biking in.  Saturday involved more biking, a little swimming, more fire / s'mores before we headed home around 3pm, when it really started to pour.  - Scot