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DESTINATIONS
Cure for Cabin Fever
Tracking Hot Spots
The beauty of tracking is that a naturalist can find a challenge in
even the most mundane surroundings; figuring out the amblings of a
raccoon in a suburban park, or even of a tunneling shrew in the backyard,
can be as fascinating as tracking a bobcat in the mountains.
New York Hot Spots
Still, there is a thrill in covering new ground, or tracking animals you
rarely see. National wildlife refuges are terrific starting points, and
many have particular attractions. The huge impoundments, streams, and marshes
of Montezuma and
Iroquois NWRs
in New York, though frozen most of the winter, still attract foxes, raccoons,
and mink, and the runs, latrines, and feeding stations of muskrats can
be found near open water.
Directions to Montezuma: Take I-90 to Exit 41 (Waterloo). Turn
right onto Route 414 South and drive 0.4 miles to the intersection with
Routes 20/5 East. Turn left. Refuge headquarters is on the left, 1.7
miles down the road.
Directions to Iroquois: From I-90, take Route 77 North to the village
of Alabama, then north on Route 63 for 0.9 miles to Casey Road. Turn left
and drive 0.8 miles to the headquarters building, which is open on weekends
in the spring.
Massachusetts
Hot Spots
Wetlands and upland mammals are also common at Great
Meadows NWR in eastern Massachusetts, both at the Concord and
Sudbury units. Directions to Great Meadows: From the Boston area, take Route 2
West from I-95 approximately 5 miles, turning right (north) at the sign
for Concord Center. Go 1.2 miles, bearing right at the yield sign onto
Main Street, and turn left onto Route 62 East. Go another 1.5 miles and
turn left onto Monsen Road, then left again 0.3 miles farther at the sign
for the refuge. Maine Hot Spots
At Moosehorn NWR
in Down East Maine, a tracking snow may reveal the signs of snowshoe hares,
porcupines, mink, and otters (although, ironically, few moose). Directions to Moosehorn: Take I-95 to Bangor, then Route 9 East
to the junction of Route 1 South just west of Calais. Go 3.7 miles and
turn right at the refuge sign onto Charlotte Road; the turn into the refuge
is another 2.6 miles. For a real wilderness tracking adventure, consider Baxter
State Park in north-central Maine. Moose are more common here than
virtually anywhere else in New England, and the variety of other mammals
— deer, otter, coyote, red fox, fisher, pine marten, bobcat, lynx, porcupine,
and snowshoe hare among them — makes this an exciting place to visit.
It is also remote and challenging in winter, requiring cold-weather experience
and the proper equipment. For information on winter visits, including regulations (which differ
from many state parks) and cabin or bunkhouse reservations, write to the
Baxter State Park administration office: 64 Balsam Dr., Millinocket, ME
04462; (207) 723-5140. Directions to Baxter: There are two entrances to the park — the
Togue Pond gatehouse in the south, 16 miles from Millinocket, and the
Matagamon gatehouse in the north, accessible from Patten, 24 miles away.
| Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year: New England & New York
is available from
the Adventurous Traveler Bookstore.
Click here to order!
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