Crane Beach 2/10/2013

Working for a Mass. State College, part of my job is snow removal. So this past weekend I spent most of it in a BobCat. I wanted to get up north in the worst way but there was no chance of that. I got home around 1:00 p.m. Sunday and said I can't waste this beautiful day. I decided to head to Crane Beach and hike the dunes which I'd never done in winter. For those who don't know what or where Crane Beach is, here's a link.    Crane Beach


I'm going to keep this blog rather short as there isn't much to say. For some reason I thought I'd be breaking trail because there wouldn't be many casual hikers willing to do this. Boy was I wrong. Everyone with a pair of snowshoes and or XC skis must have been waiting for this storm. Most of what I hiked was packed out by one or the other. Luckily by starting late, I missed the hoards. For the most part I was alone. What I love about this little hike is how the landscape changes throughout. Sand to forest and back to sand again. The trail conditions went from packed out, to deep unbroken, to bare sand, to 4' drifts. First time I've snowshoe'd on sand. :) I love Pitch Pines. There are huge stands of them to just a few dotted though the dunes. Pretty cool. I really loved the way this place looked in winter.

I'm quite glad I decided to do this. It was a beautiful 2.5 hour hike. If you're ever on the north shore of Mass. I highly recommend this.

I know the pictures are a but repetitious but it's hard to narrow it down. I love this place. It reminds of a miniature, sandy, Acadia.

I've included 2 links to photos. The first from Sunday and the other from a beautiful day last November. Hope you enjoy.

ALL THE PHOTOS / FEBRUARY

PHOTOS FROM NOVEMBER