Mark your calendar for Sunday March 1!
Plan to leave the Church about noon. Bring a picnic lunch, which you can eat in
the dining room before leaving, in your car on the way (the drive is about 25
minutes), or around the fire after you arrive.
This is an intergenerational event! Bring your own sleds, toboggans, snowshoes, and
skis. There are lots of slopes – some
steep and some gentle – all kinds of fields and lanes through the woods for
cross-country skiing, and lots of walks through the woods for those on
snowshoes. You can stand on top of a
beaver lodge, follow animal tracks through the snow (moose tracks if you’re
really lucky), scout for places where the deer have bedded down, and just enjoy
an afternoon outdoors. If you get
chilly, you can warm up at the lean-to or around the bonfire.
Of course, dress for winter weather: layers of clothing, boots, hats, and gloves.
Consider a small backpack for lunch, snacks, and odds and ends. And if you have little ones who may get wet
when playing in the snow or along the brook, put a change of clothes for them in
your car.
Princeton is just 17 miles north of Worcester. The quickest route from the Church is I-290
to I-190 north to Route 140 and then Route 62, but Route 31 through Holden is
also an option. We will pass out maps
and “Can’t Miss” directions on February 22.
If you were on the Mt Wachusett climb in October, the route will look
familiar: Mirick Road is parallel to
Mountain Road, where we started on the trail up the mountain. The Mirick farm has a large red barn on the west
side of the road, and a white colonial house and other outbuildings on the east
side of the road. For those who use a
GPS, plug in “160 Mirick Road, Princeton MA
01541”
Park in front of the barn – head-in parking, please! If you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle, you can
also park in the field to the right of the barn. And if everything else is filled up, then parallel
park along the edge of the road, but leave room for cars to get through. The bonfire and lean-to are a couple of
hundred yards down the lane to the right of the barn, past the pond, and over
the brook (there’s a bridge!) to the right when you come into the meadow.
Join us for as much of the afternoon as fits in your
schedule and your energy level!
Bad Weather Date: If
February 22 is terrible, we’ll move to the following Sunday, March 1.
Questions? Call
John or Diane Mirick 978-464-2313
Emails: jmirick@mirickoconnell.com or
dkmirick@verizon.net
