Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 2

Wednesday, July 10

Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park

My feeling about this place are kind of mixed. Bird watching--superb. Seen or heard (mostly heard) Acadian Flycatcher, Northern Parula, Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Peewee, Mississippi Kite, and who knows what all else. Merlin Bird ID heard a couple that I didn't, but I haven't listed those here.

Facilities, decent. The water spigot at the dump station wasn't threaded, so we could only dump and not clean the tank. The roads were narrow and a little crumbly at the edges, but the trees are trimmed back properly so we didn't scratch up Magnus' top too badly. The power was 50-amp, but it glitched twice during the evening.  The first time, around 4pm, it stayed off about fifteen minutes; the second time at 6-ish only five or so. But it was disturbing, not knowing if the power was going to shut off at any minute.

The guy at the gate was really nice but he didn't give me a trails map and I forgot to ask.  Molly and I tried to walk the trail beside site 12, but we only got a little way along when I started hearing human racket--popguns or firecrackers--off to my right. When the trail seemed to bend in that direction, we went back. It turned out that most likely the noise was coming from the primitive camping area over there and the trail would have been fine.

We went back and walked on the park road to the intersection where the road went right toward the exit but left toward the 'river ramp'. We started walking that way and the road was going downhill for a long ways...the trees were getting taller and taller and the landscape wilder and the bird sounds more unusual....

But we had to turn back because Ed was fixing supper and I was expected back by six. I so very much wanted to take that road on to the Mississippi River!  According to google GPS we were less than halfway when we turned around.  Darn the luck!

But our biggest issue was lack of cell phone service, pretty much anywhere in the park. Which would be bearable, I guess, except that the starlink couldn't get a decent view of the sky. After three shifts of position, it was able to lock on well enough but still not good. Streaming was bearable, barely, but interrupted during the most exciting scenes.  I tried to use WiFi calling, but it wouldn't initialize.

So...I'd love to come back for the birds, but we need to scout out a better campsite.  And be prepared to use Wifi calling for phone calls.