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Trustees Sites Not To Be Missed, Tully Lake Campground

This coming Saturday, May 21st, the Trustees of Reservations will kick off their 125th anniversary celebration with a “Home Sweet Home” Historic Open House Day. The Great House on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, the Old Manse in Concord, and seven other historic homes will be open to the public for free. To get the festivities rolling, all this week I’m going to divulge 5 unheralded Trustees sites that might not be on your radar. The non-profit conservation organization maintains over 100 sites in Massachusetts including their crown jewel, Crane Beach. Others, like Tully Lake Campground in Royalston, should be on your list. 

 
Come to this tranquil Tully Lake where there is little or no motorized boat traffic and tents-only campsites and you’ll understand why campers return year after year. Many bring their own kayaks to paddle to the sandy isles and within sinuous Tully River. The Trustees offers kayak rentals and stand-up paddleboarding lessons on Sundays in season. Hiking trails lead to stunning Doane’s Falls, where Lawrence Brook tumbles over a series of ledges before it reaches Tully Lake. Rangers lead paddlers to see beavers and teach kids how to fish. You may want to bring your mountain bike, since there’s a 7-mile loop around nearby Long Pond. 
 

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Undiscovered Labrador

Cruise North Expeditions, the Inuit-owned cruise company that brings travelers to the remote Canadian outposts of Baffin Island, Hudson Bay, and the High Arctic, has just announced their first land-based safari. This summer, the company is offering 4 and 7-night packages to Canada’s newest national park, Torngat Mountains. Located at the northern tip of Labrador, this large chunk of wilderness has no amenities, no roads, and no accommodations, thus the necessity to head here with a reputable outfitter like Cruise North. You’ll hike with Inuit and Park City wardens to spot moose, caribou, and polar bear, sea kayak amidst the whales and icebergs, and spend the night at safari-style tent camps dining on traditional Inuit cuisine. Prices start at $3190 per person, including lodging, food, and all amenities.
 

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Kids Fly Free to Fiji

If you ever wanted to snorkel or scuba with the kids on Fiji’s legendary rainbow colored reef, or feel like venturing on a sea kayaking jaunt through the islands, now would be a good time. Air Pacific has just announced a “Kids Fly Free” program for travel from September 1, 2010 to February 28, 2011, with blackout dates over Christmas. One child flies free for each adult. I’ve been working as a travel writer for more than two decades and I have to say that Fiji is definitely in my Top 5 list of countries. The terrain is spectacular, but it’s the incredibly friendly and genuine people who really make the place. I’ve written about the islands extensively. Try these for starters.
 

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ActiveTravels, Home to the New England Dream Day Itinerary

Travel and Leisure just came out with their 50 Best Places to Travel in 2020, and much to our delight, Boston popped up at Number 10 and Maine at Number 29. If you’re thinking of a Boston and New England trip in 2020, we’ll happily design a route and point you in the right direction. Since ActiveTravels made its debut in 2012, we have designed more than 100 itineraries for clients headed to New England from all over America and the world (including New Zealand, the UK, Switzerland, and Israel). We send clients all over the globe, but New England is our area of expertise. I wrote more than 400 travel stories on New England for The Boston Globe and Yankee Magazine, and authored Outside Magazine’s Adventure Guide to New England. Depending on your passions, we can customize our Dream Day Itineraries for wildlife lovers (moose, whales, seals, beavers, and loons), active travelers (biking past 5 lighthouses in Portland, hiking to waterfalls in the White Mountains, paddling the Allagash River), foodies (James Beard award winning restaurants and favorite lobster-in-the-rough joints in Boston, Portsmouth, Portland, and the Maine coast), or art lovers (MFA, the Clark, Mass MoCA, the Farnsworth). We’ll divulge all of our secrets, especially the most scenic off-the-beaten-path driving routes. 

 
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Ontario Lakes Week: Final Stop, Killarney Mountain Lodge, Killarney Provincial Park

After spending 3 days on an island in a remote Ontario lake with very few people, it was an adjustment to get back to civilization. This was clearly evident when we arrived at Killarney Mountain Lodge, a busy Georgian Bay summer outpost, especially during the 3-day August Holiday Ontario celebrates. The front desk seemed ill-equipped to handle the many demands of the multi-generational families staying here and gave us bracelets to wear and a stack of cards to hand out every meal (neither were necessary during the stay). It felt far too touristy at the time. But I have to say that after spending 2 nights here, the place really grew on us and I’m glad Amy added it to the itinerary. I really enjoyed the food, especially the blueberry pancakes with regional maple syrup each morning, and the waitstaff were far superior to the front desk. I loved having our cocktail hour behind a beautiful new building they designed, made from massive logs. The patio overlooked a scenic inlet to Georgian Bay and we could spot otters gathering reeds from the water. From the resort, you can take an easy walk over a bridge to the town of Killarney, which will be commemorating its bicentennial in 2020. For lunch, we stopped at Herbert Fisheries for its award-winning fish and chips, made from local whitefish. We also took a sunset sail our last night into the many coves and anchorages in this section of the immense Georgian Bay.

The highlight of our time here were the two walks we took in Killarney Provincial Park. We started in the morning on the Granite Ridge Trail, a short climb that rewarded us with vistas of the water and the surrounding hillside. Near the top, we stopped to pick sweet wild blueberries. The Chikanishing Trail was dreamy, along the rocky shoreline to inlets and pools of the water on the bay. We slid from the rocks into the coolest water of our trip, then lied down in the sun on a perfect slab of rock under a cloudless sky. It would be our last dip of the vacation.
 
 
I want to thank Amy for designing a fantastic 8-day itinerary to the Ontario Cabin Country, visiting Algonquin and Killarney Provincial Parks and Lake Temagami. If you would like a similar rejuvenating jaunt in the region, please contact ActiveTravels and we’ll help with all the planning. 
 
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Clark Art Institute Launches Free Snowshoe Program

Located in Williamstown in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, Clark Art Institute is a treasure trove of Impressionist paintings by Monet, Degas, and no fewer than 30 works by Renoir. American artists are well represented by rooms of Homers, Sargents, and Remingtons. The grounds are also exquisite, set on 140 acres of rolling hills and forest. And now the museum wants you to venture outside as well as inside, offering visitors a chance to borrow a pair of snowshoes for free. The Clark has installed a snowshoe rack and benches adjacent to the west side of its Manton Research Center building. Snowshoes are available in three sizes for both adults and children to borrow. While there, see the Turner and Constable show, on view through March 10th, along with a show on Thomas Gainsborough’s drawings, on view through March 17th. 

 
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When a Bore is Not a Bore, Tidal Bore Rafting in Nova Scotia

I just spent the morning writing about a tidal bore rafting adventure I took this past September in Nova Scotia. What’s tidal bore rafting, you ask? When the Bay of Fundy, home to the highest recorded tides in the world, floods one of the rivers that feeds the mighty bay with billions of tons of seawater, it creates a massive wave. Yet, on the Shubenacadie River, where I sampled the sport with Rafing Canada, the tidal bore is merely the start of the adventure. The surge of water causes the flow of the river to reverse directions and create standing waves. The motorized raft slams into a succession of waves, often in excess of 8 feet, as you’re trying hard to hang on to a rope in this waterlogged version of a rodeo. Completely drenched, you can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. If you do get tossed, you simply land on soft mud, a cushiony welcome mat for the brackish water. It’s great fun for the whole family. Minimum age is 12.
 

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