Cape Cod New Year 2015

I enjoyed a little more Cape Cod winter time with Mom, Pop, Mersin, Jenny and the incredible weather. It is supposed to start snowing and then turn to rain tonight. I leave the day after tomorrow.

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New Year's Day - I got up "early" and snuck out for a quick morning walk. I didn't have my camera - only my iphone and it died after 1 picture. However, I think that one picture was a good start to my 2015. This is the public landing on Long Pond in Brewster. Later in the day Mersin, Jenny and I headed to Capeprovidencetown for some lunch and a little window shopping.
 

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Pilgrim Heights - Mom and I went for a little beach walk here the day after New Year's Day. The weather was a little chilly, but the sky at the beach was perfect. Still managed to find a little trash. If you litter, you should slowly and agonizingly end yourself.

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Wood End (Capeprovidencetown, MA) - I have renamed P-town aka Province Town, MA. You are going to need adjust your vocabulary and deal with it. To commemorate the name change Mom, Dad and I walked out to the jetty Wood End Light House and took some pics.

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Island Light Links (Capeprovidencetown, MA) - On the way up to Capeprovidencetown we stopped off at the Island Light Links to annoy the one group actually playing golf by walking the course, taking pictures and collecting lost golf balls. We found over 30. Got a few pics too.

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Last Year - Two days after New Year's Day last year we had enough for Akiko and I to go out for some snow shoeing. 

Winter on the Cod

Every year Akiko and I come out to Cape Cod for Christmas. Akiko flies back to Japan to spend New Years with her family and I stay in Brewster to enjoy New Years with family and friends here. I like winter in Cape Cod better than any other season. The place is empty, the air is fresh and whether it is snowy or sunny the scenery is great.

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Sandy Neck - I did a walk with Akiko and Pop here a couple of days after Christmas. Passed this hunting shack that made for some pretty neat pictures. I will hopefully go back again to get some more pics of the other hunting camps.

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Truro Coast (Atlantic Side) - I did a walk here with Pop the day before New Year's Eve. Didn't take any pictures while walking in the dunes - mostly because we were concentrating on finding and staying on the trail. Did snap a couple of pics of the so called Bog House and Pop horsing around. As Pop said, "Mind the top step." N. Pamet Rd.

Perfect Day for a Walk

Now that harvest is over we have some time on the weekends to get out and stretch our legs. Today we went for a walk in one of the tree farms above town. It was drizzly, but warm and the sun tried its best to break through the clouds, but by the end the clouds had dropped to our elevation and the sun lost out.

The sun fought a good fight:

But it was a losing battle. However, even rain clouds and clear cuts can make for impressive scenery: 

Along the way we some fauna (are sally-manders considered fauna?):

Then we saw some flora that I could not focus on (mushrooms are flora, right?):

 

We also some signs of the local two-legged trash who just just happened to leave some of the other kind of trash behind. Yay for sugar and caffeine:

 

Bleach anyone:

  

Disturbingly picturesque for trash, but it still makes me angry. If you litter you should eat some razor blades and chase them with a little bleach:

Oh, man. I was wondering where I lost my speakers and the chopped up pieces of my old frame pack:

In spite of the trash we were able to enjoy more clear-cut views:

Again with the pinhole filter:

Franny ready for action:

Kaibu doing her side-eye-kaibu thing:

Almost back at the car. The moss is crazy, but it helps keep things looking green all year long:

I wanted to add this quickly. We have done a couple of camping trips this summer. We don't really do anything special when we camp. We just go up to the mountains and find a national forest service roads that are as remote and unused as possible and search them until we find one with a view. So far we have found a couple of great spots to camp.

At camp we laze around, cook, drink, laze around some more. Occasionally we even hike or bike.

Last weekend I took the bikes along. Akiko didn't join me on the rides, but she very graciously played shuttle driver for the weekend. We were supposed to do a ride together on the last day, but the dogs were so worn out, we just did a couple of easy water fall hikes instead. Yeah, that's right. The dogs were too tired to do much more than lazy hiking to beautiful PNW waterfalls.

Just arrived at Camp:

A few minutes later, the dogs and I snuck out for our first shuttle run of the weekend. Great way to start off. 10 miles of downhill single track.

View the next morning without sun:

View once the sun started coming up:

Looking back up at Camp:

Later that day the dogs and I did the Alpine Trail from top to bottom. Great single track ride. 14 miles of mostly downhill through old growth. I will try to add a picture of that later. Below is a shot of a meadow that we crossed about halfway down. It is not exciting or spectacular, but it was cool to just bomb through!.

Handlebar point of view later on down the trail:

The next morning we took things even slower, but eventually I got some of this brewed up to get us moving.

Then we went waterfalling. The first stop was Pinnard Falls. Kaibu seems to have a little Lab in her afterall.

Overview of the falls:

There were also cool old trees to play on:

Then it was on to Spirit Falls:

Franny was pretty wiped out. She usually does not sit still this long.

The moss was so green and lush.

Then we headed home with a side stop for an OK BBQ sandwich in Cottage Grove.