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Spending All Next Week with The Trustees of Reservations
While Crane Beach is still the best-known Trustees of Reservations site in Massachusetts, the group maintains more than 112 locales in the state, from Field Farm in Williamstown to the recently acquired Dunes Edge Campground in Provincetown. The William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Cummington is a pastoral landscape of pastures and fields of wildflowers, largely unchanged for more than 150 years. Slocum’s River Reserve in Dartmouth is a 47-acre coastal farm on the shores of Buzzards Bay, an ideal place to view warblers during the spring and fall migration. All next week, I’ll be traveling around the state introducing readers to at least 20 Trustees sites—research for a story I’m writing for The Boston Globe on my personal favorites. So please check back!
Ecuador, So Much More Than the Galapagos! A Stop at Cotopaxi
Guest Post and Photos by Amy Perry Basseches
- Inside the Park, near the Tambopaxi Lodge, we got our horses and rode for a few hours across grassy and rocky terrain, with our guide. Unforgettable!
- Also inside the Park, we walked around the Laguna Limpiopungo, watching a herd of wild horses, and newborn colt, graze nearby.
- Stargazing in Ecuador is purported to be amazing — not only are you away from light pollution in many of these natural areas, but you are at a high altitude, and, the closer you are to the equator, you can see both Northern and Southern Hemisphere constellations, perfect for the growing field of Astrotourism. It was too cloudy for us.
- Unfortunately, we did not get to trek to the base camp on Cotopaxi, an outlook at an elevation of 4,864 metres (almost 16,000 feet). Our guide had worked for 7 years at the base camp, the José F. Ribas Refuge, which is a 40 to 80 minute uphill hike from the car park. Here, climbers can spend the night and begin their summit bid. Mountain biking is also available from the Refuge.

Not a Good Time to Be a Rhino in South Africa
South Africa officials said 333 rhinos were poached in 2010, nearly three times as many that were lost in 2009. Another five rhinos were killed in the first several weeks of 2011. The increased demand for the rhino horn as a cure for impotence in Asian countries or as a ceremonial dagger in Middle Eastern countries has fueled the latest killings. In neighboring Zimbabwe, another seven rhinos have been murdered in the past month. This is not some random shooting by locals. Zimbabwean park rangers said the poaching is so sophisticated now that the villains are using helicopters and light aircraft to land, get their treasured horn, and fly away. They are well organized and funded by big money syndicates. Equipped with night vision goggles and a slew of artillery, this new breed of poacher will be hard to stop. Expect the 21,000 rhinos in South Africa, the most of any country, to dwindle quickly if the government can’t provide the resources to do battle with these criminals.
Bike the 50-Mile Tour de Picayune
Located in southwestern Florida, Picayune Strand State Forest is best known as the place in the 60s where gullible northerners bought 5 acres of choice Florida real estate only to find out it was mostly swampland. Roads were built and subdivisions created, but few people came. Lately, the paved roads have been removed in a massive restoration project to enhance the proper flow of water in the Everglades. So far, it’s been working with indigenous plants and birdlife returning to this vast acreage. This desolate stretch of the Everglades is where my brother and I went mountain biking in early December with our guide, Wes Wilkins, owner of Everglades Edge. We saw no other humans driving or biking as we headed out on dirt roads, surrounded by swamp waters. In their place were snapping turtles, tall wood storks, and alligators sunning on the banks of the streams. An avid biker, Wilkins also chairs the 50-mile Tour de Picayune, which takes place this year on February 4th. Even if you have no desire to race and win the cherished Durrwalker Cup, you can still sign up at Tour de Picayune to bike 50 miles of dirt roads lost in time, while spotting a wide selection of birdlife.
The Catskills, An Ideal Retreat From Manhattan
A mere 90 minutes north of Manhattan is New Paltz, New York, and the Catskill Mountains. Avid adventurers know the area for the Gunks, one of the most popular rock climbing destinations in the East. Families venture here in October to take in the fall foliage. Start with a walk around Lake Mohonk and then book a room overlooking that same body of water at one of the finest family resorts in the country, the Mohonk Mountain House. Opened in 1869, this sprawling resort has the perfect vantage point to take in the changing colors. Not to mention, you get to slow down and appreciate the natural splendor on a hike, horseback ride, or paddle. All meals are included in the full American plan.
The Linehouse is the Latest Addition to Stowe Mountain Lodge
Travel writers adore properties like Stowe Mountain Lodge, the wonderful upscale resort at the base of Stowe Mountain. I started writing about this hotel in 2006, two years before it even opened. There was such a buzz that even then you knew it was going to be the best ski-in/ski-out resort in the northeast. It seems like every year since its opening in 2008, I’ve been back to report on some update as Stowe Mountain Lodge continues to expand, be it a new spa, theater, or indoor climbing wall. This week, I was back in town to pen a story on the exceptional craft brew and cocktail scene in Stowe. On Monday, I had the good fortune to meet master mixologist Dan Hatheway, who tends bar at the Linehouse, an invitation-only speakeasy found just outside the premises (sorry, I’ve been sworn to secrecy to not tell the exact whereabouts). Inside the cozy space of stained Vermont maple wood and lined pickle jars, we sat at the bar as Dan placed retro glassware (from Vermont estate sales) in front of us. Soon he was breaking out an eyedropper to place the bitters atop my rum-saturated Smugglers Barrel and firing up the rye in a devilishly good concoction of bourbon and blended scotch he coined the Kashki. The presentation of all his drinks were drop dead gorgeous, especially the drink he made, Lisa, the aptly named Fancy Lady. Needless to say, if you get an invite to the Linehouse, run, don’t walk.