Hold onto Summer: Enjoy a Local Staycation!

August is a dream. Groggy mornings start out warm, ambling along into lazy humid afternoons. The air lingers on your skin like salt spray, not unwelcome, recalling a satisfying day in the surf. Mid-month, the full Sturgeon Moon rises and sets, and menacing green heads make a hasty retreat.  Visitors to beaches and banks in the Ipswich River watershed breathe a collective sigh of relief and enjoy days with family and friends, interrupted only by the occasional passing thunderstorm. The crickets ring a chorus, “Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!” imploring you get out and play. Time seems endlessly available for more hikes before school starts and long bike rides before work gets hectic. You don’t notice the afternoon shadows slyly creeping across the lawn pulling at the loose threads of summer.  Just as you sense they days getting shorter, Labor Day rudely slams the screen door on your remaining summer plans.

September begs for logic.  School, commutes, deadlines, homework all jockey for starting positions.  Suddenly eyes are on plans for Halloween and Thanksgiving. All at once it’s back to the racetrack. The quiet hum of a finely tuned household is hard won and not carelessly interrupted. In the current “culture of busy,” pit stops passed over time and time again. This year, check in on the comfort of the driver and passengers. Throw logic back in September’s face. Twenty two days of this month are still summer! Pull off the track before the miles start to take their toll.  

Take a look in your garage, or the back of your vehicle. Odds are the accumulated seasonal gear has not made it into the basement.  Perhaps late summer gifted you a fishing rod, or a new bike was barely used. The tent looks lonely, and your toes sure do miss flip flops.  Listen for the inland heart of the Watershed, its beat heard above the sound of suburban sprawl. Nestled amongst the towns Andover, North Andover, North Reading, and Middleton, Harold Palmer State Forest provides a 3,300 acre woodland retreat. Within its boundaries await ponds for fishing and swimming, rolling hills, glacial erratics and rocky outcroppings.  The perfect place to claim your right to September Summer with a staycation. 

Lorraine Park Campground is Harold Parker’s central jewel, with over 300 campsites and 35 miles of backroads and trails. The locations are well spread out, although some offer more privacy than others. Booking a site in advance can be done online, however walk-ins and drive-ups are welcome if space allows. The sites along Frye Pond are most desirable. They overlook the swimming area, and are shaded by tall pines. Sites are basic and provide potable water, a small barbecue grill and a picnic table. The bathrooms receive daily maintenance, and are in excellent condition. The facilities offer flush toilets and hot showers, as well as deep stainless steel sink stations for convenient camp-ware clean up. 

Harold Parker occupies one of the oldest properties in the state, a remnant of commonwealth’s agricultural history.  Visible reminders exists in stone walls that dot the landscape, representing faded outlines of fields cleared by the Osgood family in the 1600s. Subsequent decades saw parcels left fallow, or sold to the Jenkins family for timber. During the Industrialization of the 1800s, sawmills were built to keep up with demand for boards used in the areas rapid construction. Ironically, the harvested product was subject to frequent fires, sparked by the very mills created to profit from the hardwood. Eventually the land was abandoned, and property became one of the state’s earliest acquisitions of logged-over land for purposes of reforestation. 

Officially purchased by the state in 1916, the land was named for the Massachusetts State Forest Commission’s first chairman, Harold Parker, who passed away prior to the acquisition. Upon the creation of the park, enormous stands of White and Red Pine were planted to reforest the area.  These first seedlings shaped Harold Parker’s landscape and vegetation. Within the Lorraine Park campsite, visitors find a nature center, playground, central campfire circle, volleyball and basketball courts, and horseshoe pits. The Jenkins Trails are camper favorites, featuring historic ruins of a sawmill and blue sandstone quarry site. For water based pursuits, Berry Pond and it’s nine siblings offer boating and fishing.  Before planning your staycation to include time on the water, note there are no rentals available on the property. The Golden Rule of camping applies to your toys here as well, pack it in, pack it out. 

The obvious drawback to weekend getaways are they are too short, and only occur once a week.  Sunday morning will dawn on the campsite, and the task of packing up and getting back life’s racetrack awaits. Pulling right back on at full speed is not advised.  Look for the on-ramp paved with ice cream. Richardson’s Dairy in Middleton is just a 15 minute ride away from the campground, located on Route 114. The Dairy has been in operation on the same site since 1695, and is now run by the 9th generation of the Richardson family.  In 1952 Ben and Hazel Richardson introduced the Ice Cream Stand setting out to make “One Perfect Ice Cream” and ended up creating 50 flavors. Today their creations are served up in cones, sundaes, floats and frappes. In addition to the working dairy, the adjacent property boasts an expansive driving range.  The mini-golf course is the Augusta National of Massachusetts put put courses, with beautiful plantings and surrounding lovingly restored antique farm equipment. Hit a few balls off the practice tees, or challenge your companions to a round of mini-golf. The clear headed camping vibes, coupled with light competition with golf clubs will have you perfectly sharpened for the season.  Be forewarned, by squeezing the last drops of fun from this September Staycation, you may find your goals focused more on who can jump in the biggest pile of leaves, and less on the work it takes to rake them up. I doubt anyone will mind. 

Guest blog by Ipswich River volunteer and member Lauren Fitzgerald

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