On the Fells reservation

The Fells is a nature reserve that's quite close to us, almost walking distance but not quite. It's a large walking park in the middle of an urban jungle, with many small ponds and two reservoirs that are quite large. I go there an average of couple of times every year, some years I won't go at all and others it'll be on multiple occasions.

Back in college days, we made a nice old walking trip up there every few weeks even in the middle of the winter. In the middle of the winter exactly, there wasn't much to do, so we'd clothe up and walk, try to break the ice on the ponds, skate around a bit, tease the dogs that enjoyed the snow so much and take pictures. Oh so many pictures. Fun times. We'd come back down in the evening, go to a restaurant have a heckuva large dinner, and fall down to sleep aching and tired.

The problem with walking to the Fells was, and is still, that it's quite far away so most of the trip was spent walking on city streets, which wasn't too great. Cars and you know what not. But in Medford, you got to see the nice houses, expensive cars and huge backyards, and a community we didn't usually see around the college area. It was a sight to behold. Often there'd be other groups of students we'd chat up with.

I biked there once, twice maybe at this point. The first time, I almost passed out due to heat and exhaustion, so unprepared for it. We put our bikes on those iron bars separating the street from the park, and got a notice from the rangers, warning us not to do it again or else we're be ticketed and our bikes confiscated.

Last year we went with RD, in her car, and walked. Thank god for me thinking ahead and bringing in headlamps because somehow the whole thing got delayed and it was quite dark before we were able to make our way out. They made fun of me when we began our trip, it ended with me gaining their grudging admiration and respect for thinking ahead.

The last time I was there four months ago, perhaps a little more, with AG, we hadn't in over a year, and decided to chill over there. Great catching up, cool conversations, and a heckuva tiring walk. And we had to walk on the highway to get to her car, which I hadn't accounted for. It was really nice for her to have offered to drive me back, because I'm not sure if I'd have made it on my own, it was so tiring really.

I went there twice with HK, who is now in DC, he's moved from Seattle to Boston to DC in the past three years, and those were quite fun as well, we explored the tower, and the houses over there, made big plans for hiking in NH, those never worked out, but it was fun there.

Last week during the holidays celebrations we wanted to go to the Fells, had been a long time and the Brookline gang hadn't gone there besides JD. Unfortunately for us it rained the entire day we'd planned to hike during, so the plan was shelved in favor of watching movies and pigging out with food. That wasn't too bad either, but the Fells, how it beckons us.

My coworkers went to the reserve once or twice to do rock climbing, hoping for nice spots to set their ropes and guides and whatever it is that they do. Apparently it's not a very good rock climbing spot and didn't work out. They invited me for their trips, but I was not into it, didn't know anything about climbing, my upper body's not strong enough.

I'm writing this because I'm thinking about going there this afternoon, the day's quite gloomy but I'll be well-dressed, and a nice stroll never hurt anybody. You can control your pace there and the terrain's not too rocky, so it wouldn't be a hassle. But the trip's quite long, just an hour and half to get there and back, and a few hours in there too, so it'd end up eating a large part of the day, as it does. Unclear if I want to commit to that, but lets keep all options on the table!