Hingham Harbor camping and Weymouth Back River - April 27-28, 2021

Dan Foster · April 29, 2021

Recent NSPN discussions about camping options in Boston Harbor inspired an early-season camping trip, which was postponed twice until we found a suitable stretch of weather, tides, and people's availability. Finally, four of us set out from Hingham for an overnight on Langlee Island, just a quick 20-minute paddle at the head of Hingham Harbor. Permission to camp on Langlee involves sending a free permit application to the harbormaster, and overnight parking can be arranged with the Hingham police department. Nancy handled all of our paperwork, and we were good to go.

Langlee has two camping areas, both accessible from a protected sandy beach and gravel bar on the east side of the island. Access to the bigger one seems easiest through the smaller one, which might be an issue later in the summer, as there was plentiful evidence of prior partying. Closed-toed shoes are highly recommended, for the broken glass, and for scrambling up "Mount Langlee" for an excellent view of the sunset over Boston. Bring binoculars and plan on washing your tarps and tents when you get home, as the birds are prolific, and we'd often look up to see a night heron or egret perched nearby. There was a small amount of poison ivy (just starting to leaf out), but we had no issues with ticks, bugs, or food-stealing mammals. Hammock campers will find many suitable trees, and there was plenty of downed wood for a low-tide beach fire. There are absolutely no facilities, so bring those wag bags and plan to pack out EVERYTHING.

We enjoyed a leisurely afternoon in camp, cooked dinner, watched a nice sunset over Boston, and then headed down to the gravel bar where Ben got a crackling fire going. The East campsite, landing beach, and gravel bar all face the beautiful wooded drumlins of World's End, and with the right attitude (and a carefully-chosen viewing azimuth), you could convince yourself you were in a totally remote environment somewhere much further removed from the busy world of Boston. We sat and talked for hours by the fire until the rising tide started lapping at our feet, and within five minutes our fire had been smothered as both sides of the bar flooded, leaving us a narrow path to retreat to our tents for the night.

After some light rain overnight and again at breakfast, we lounged in camp until the tide released us, and then paddled toward Boston and up Weymouth's Back River for lunch. The morning's light wind picked up considerably for the return paddle to camp, where we loaded boats and returned back to our cars.

Thanks to fellow paddlers Ben, Jane, and Nancy for a thoroughly-enjoyable, much-needed early-season escape. Throughout the trip, I was struck by how different it was to be paddling on these normally-crowded waters without a boat, wake, paddler, or moored sailboat in sight. I expect to be back again next year to take advantage of the early-season solitude.