Rock Climbing at MetroRock

This place is awesome, certain to become a frequent spot for the Jasons.

Exploring Saugus Ironworks

Always been curious about this place. A great guided tour of America's first Ironworks put on by the NPS.  Interesting and the price was right at $Free 99.

Hiking at the Middlesex Fells

Headed over to the fells and went on about a 3 mile hike. Nice easy hiking, although a very busy place, I guess wet are not used to seeing so many "people" on our hikes. I've been wanting to check this place out as I've heard that the "skyline" trail can be a nice 7 plus mile run. Another pretty summer day. We managed to find the fire tower and hiked to the top of the graffiti filled tower for a nice view of the Boston Skyline.

Hiking and Bouldering at Agassiz Rock

Been wanting to check this place out for a while. There are perfectly kept bouldering spots here, along with a bolted route and chalk marked boulder routes. We bouldered and explored the area, including an awesome boardwalk across the street at the Millstone Conservation area. A really nice day.

Camping Trip 2014-Crawford Notch

8/1-8/12 The Longest camping trip yet was a great success. Weather held out and we had a ton of fun. This really was an epic trip and something I hope the kids will always remember. Completing this trip gives me confidence that we can tackle even more crazy adventures.

Day 1-Making Camp: Took about 4 hours to get there, bank stop, lunch and groceries on the way up. Arrived around 2 and went to work, setup by 6, dinner and bed. Kids painted rocks while setting up.

Day 2-Kedron Flume: nice hike from the Wiley House up about a 500' elevation gain/.75 mile  to a cool cascade. Took some pictures and explored, had lunch, placed some painted rocks. A Heavy storm came through, raining hard and we headed back. Rain made for some fun on the way back as some parts of the trail turned to river. Had ice cream at the country store at the bottom as the storm passed and heavy steam rose through the mountain notch. Headed back for "independent time" and dinner/fire.

Day 3-Saco River: Hiked up the Saco from our campsite, explored, had lunch, got back in the afternoon, just in time for some extreme tubing in front of our campsite.

Day 4- Conway RR and downtown : We dropped off Z at the dog sitter Jim's house and had a scheduled Rock Climbing outing with the International Mountain Climbing School in North Conway, however the weather looked threatening and we rescheduled for Friday. Instead, we gunk holed around North Conway and rode the scenic railroad (also picked up "Rat a Tat Cat"- the card game) and did a much needed large grocery trip.

Day 5-Storyland: Dropped Z off at Jim's and headed for the annual "Storyland Excursion"-I hate to think it but this might have been the last trip for these grown up kids.

Day 6- Arethusa Falls: A perfect day for this hike, about a mile each way-absolutely beautiful.

Day 7- Camp Day: After an action filled week-today was a day for rest, playing in the river, "finding something to do" and chilling out. 

Day 8: Rock Climbing: Had a great time with "Todd" from IMCS in North Conway. He took us down Passaconoway Rd about 30 minutes from North Conway-near the Cover Bridge Campground. We hiked about 30 minutes on the Boulder Loop Path until we reached an outcropping of 100' ledges (Boulder Loop Ledges-Moat Range) we belayed and climbed for a solid 5 hours. A great Day.

Day 9-Camp Day: Another day of hanging out at the campsite, Allison painted, I went for a run up Mt Crawford, and the kids spent most of the day catching tadpoles. It was a gorgeous hot day in the Mountains. 

Day 10-Deluge: Day started off with beautiful weather, but then went a little off track when we tried to go for a hike in Bartlett at "Cave Mt" I found this short hike in the White Mtn guide, supposedly an impressive Cave awaits at the end of a short 1.5 mile hike. Unfortunately, the mosquitos and an unkept trail turned us around after about 15 minutes. We decided to go food shopping and get ready for our friends the Goodwins to arrive later that day. Goodwins arrived and we had a great afternoon in the river at the campground. Allison and I were getting ready for the big meal we had planned for them and it started to rain-absolute deluge-digging a trench around the tent-hail-the whole nine yards. Anyways, we gave up on the meal and just decided to hang tight in the tent and play rat a tat cat with the kids-this turned out to be one of my favorite nights this vacation. 

Day 11-Attitash: All the rain and wetness was gone by morning and the day was  forecasting sunshine and heat. We had a great breakfast with the Goodwins, dropped Z off at Jim's and headed to Attitash with the Goodwins. What a perfect day for waterslides and fun. We spent most of the day on the waterslides, mostly because of the line at the alpine slide and it was "hot". At 3pm we decided to do a run on the alpine slide-the kids are now tall enough that they have to ride alone. I started with Ethan behind me, Allison and then Fiona. I stopped around a corner and waited for Ethan to appear-it didn't take long he appeared and shouted "Come on Dad!!!!" I probably shouldn't have taken the encouragement but we set of down the mountain like two fighter pilots. Suddenly, not sure how it happened but, I spun around saw Ethan fly out of the luge and suddenly was sliding down the track as his luge went skidding off to the side. I ran up and he was standing there daised with road rash on his elbow, leg and forehead. Allison and Fiona came by with a look of horror. I checked out Ethan and he saddled up his luge and we headed down the mountain. We all took a trip to the first aid station, were Ethan got bandaged up, and that ended our day at Attitash. I've been going there for years and have always seen people bandaged up, but now I actually know a victim. Next year I think we'll be a little more careful. We ended the night with a great dinner and marshmallows etc by the campfire with the Goodwins.

Day 12-Breaking Camp: Two days of rain were forecast so we decided to leave two days early. After dealing with the deluge a couple nights before-we decided taking our time and packing out on a nice day was the best course of action. We were running low on clothes and food so the time was right and we were ready to head home. We had a great morning breakfast with the Goodwins, packed out the camp and departed a little after noon. We stopped in North Conway for lunch (met the Goodwins) and hit the road. We were unpacked, showered  and in bed by 8. I checked the weather in Crawford Notch and saw that it had Severe Flash Flood warnings for the next 24 hours-we made the right call.