Misery Islands with your dog: by boat, on a leash

The Trustees' regulations for the Misery Islands put it in one line: dogs are permitted but must be kept on a leash at all times. The islands are not on the Trustees' list of reservations that allow off-leash dog walking, and the organization's guidelines for dog walkers ask that dogs not chase or harass wildlife or damage vegetation, and that waste be bagged and carried out. On an island, carried out means back into the boat with you.

The same regulations bar hunting, mountain biking and camping, the last for public health reasons, and allow fires only on the beaches, with coals and ashes put out afterward. The Trustees also post a tick advisory: deer ticks here carry Lyme disease, so use repellent, wear long pants and check yourself after you leave the island. Check the dog as well, on the beach before it climbs aboard, and again when you get home.

The Trustees describe about two and a half miles of trails through groves of aspen, open meadows, overlooks and rugged, rocky shoreline, with stony beaches and grassy fields on Great Misery. The islands were once a summer resort and then a cottage colony, and the trails pass the remains. The name, the Trustees say, comes from the shipbuilder Robert Moulton, stranded here in a winter storm in the 1620s, who called the ordeal three miserable days.

Little Misery is reached from Great Misery by wading a narrow, shallow channel at very low tide, and on its beach lie the remains of the steamship City of Rockland, wrecked off Maine and later scuttled here. With a dog, time the wade for the bottom of the tide, keep the leash short on wet rock, and turn back early so the channel is still shallow on the way back. The Trustees suggest allowing at least an hour and a half, and a dog that stops at every rock will want more.

A day on the islands leaves salt in the coat, sand in the feathering and a damp dog in the boat on the way home. A bath and brush at 210 Eastern Ave in Gloucester is priced by size: $55 for a dog up to 25 pounds, $65 to 50 pounds, $75 to 90 pounds, $85 over 90 and $95 for an extra-large long-haired dog. Shed Release adds $10 in a heavy shedding season, and nail clipping adds $16.

There is no evaluation for grooming, and the bath books online or in the Dogtown app. From Beverly Farms, Route 127 runs on through Manchester-by-the-Sea toward Gloucester, and Manchester is one of the four Pup Van towns, where the van collects for daycare at $10 each way. Daycare, overnight stays and walks start with a free weekday evaluation between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, with Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella records and a current license.