MA NET Sections 12-14 Quabbin Part 2

Early morning at Quabbin

Good morning and welcome to Day 2 of my Quabbin hike. I hung out in my warm sleeping bag in Shutesbury State Forest until my husband texted that he was about to leave Connecticut, figuring it would take us both about 2.5 hours to get to Lake Wyola. It was cold and I was going to have to put my soaking wet socks and boots back on since I mysteriously left my extra pair at home.

Some nice young forest coming in along the trail. 

The hike was more cheerful than the previous day with the rising sun and the promise of meeting my husband in a few hours. The easy walk along old woods roads continued. All through the north part of Quabbin there were signs of old farmland with old roads lined by stone walls and very old wolf sugar maples.  The trail headed down from the hilltop into another hole where a stream passed through a stone culvert/bridge. This seems to mark the end of Section 13 and the beginning of Section 14.  Four and a half miles to go.

Old drainage works

Eventually the trail headed off the old roads and into the forest. This part was still marked with survey tape, and it was a good thing, because a few spots would have been hard to follow otherwise. The ground was very uneven and hummocky through hemlocks and I began to see why the NET was routed onto old roads. And also began to appreciate how much work must have gone into make those old farm roads.

New trail tread

Before long the trail came out onto another old road and a long narrow pond that was simply gorgeous in the morning light. I looked for a moose but didn't find one.

Pond along New Boston Road (closed to traffic)

Baby fir trees lined the road and I pulled off a branch and crushed it. Smells like Christmas! And also like northern New England. These don't grow where I live except at a tree farm.

Fir saplings along the trail

This old road finally came out to a gate marked WN 1 and continued up a gravel road marked by a sign that said "Rockwell Hill Road." This road was open to traffic. It's not always clear on the various maps which roads are open to traffic and which roads are closed. Google Maps gets confused, too.

Rockwell Hill Road

And then begins a long road walk down Jennison Road to Lake Wyola. Maybe 2.5 miles left.

Junction of Rockwell Hill, Jennison, and yet another Cooleyville Road. 

Walking this road feels like old rural New England without the tourism. Nice. It's mostly woods, a few parts logged, with a scattering of homes and farms.

Sugar shack on the hill

An old farm gone upscale

Not Lake Wyola. 

Jennison Road finally descended down towards civilization and Lake Wyola, where there is a collection of homes and cabins around the lake, and an old town center. 

Lake Wyola

There I met my husband walking up the road to meet me. Yay! He had parked at the main lot at Lake Wyola State Park and tried following the white blazes, so he knew where they left the road. This turned out to be a big help. The blazing at Lake Wyola is a disaster. Sometimes the blazes are in conflict and at other times there just isn't any blazing where you need it.

So which is it? Left or right?

But my husband was able to navigate us back to the big parking lot at Lake Wyola, which was a nice spot and we explored at bit. There was a phone booth. I don't know if it still works or not, but it makes sense to have one there since there doesn't appear to be any cell phone service.

Haven't seen one of these in a while.

There's a big complex of old buildings across from the beach that they seem to be restoring. Impressive.

Historic buildings at the state park. 

I crossed the street to the beach and took off my wet boots and socks to walk in the cold sand barefoot. Nice! Even better were the dry shoes and socks in the car.

Lake Wyola beach

It was almost lunch time, so we had a bit to eat, picked up my car from Shutesbury Road, and stopped at an overlook on MA 202. I think that might be Mt. Monadnack in the distance.

We then headed for our room at the French King Restaurant and Motel next to the Connecticut River and the French King Bridge. It's a classic 1950s motel that was remodeled after a fire in 2015, conveniently located near the NET.

After a nice hot shower we ventured across the river to the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls. Loved it. Saw a stuffed moose.

Diorama at the Great Falls Discovery Center

Behind the Discovery Center was a walkway along a huge old power canal, so we had a nice walk along that and watched the sun set. The area is fascinating with lots of scenery and history. Found a YouTube video that does a nice job of giving an overview of the falls and power dam and history.

Power canal behind the Discovery Center

Then we slipped into Hubies Tavern and had a couple beers and a great meal. Loved it!

Power canal at Turners Falls

MA NET Sections 12-14 Quabbin Part 1

Heading into Quabbin

Three new sections of NET run through the Quabbin "off reservation" land and Shutesbury State Forest.  Sections 12 through 14 start at Shutesbury Road 2 in Pelham and end at Lake Wyola in Shutesbury, for a total length of 14.5 miles.  The sections are so new that I wasn't able to find out much information about them and really didn't know what to expect, other than the trail follows a lot of old roads.  I found a bike map online for the northern part of the area, and my heart sank, thinking this would be heavily used by mountain bikes. It wasn't. 

Sections 12-14, Quabbin "Off-Reservation" Land & Shutesbury S.F.

The original plan was for my husband and I to get a motel room and drive up on Sunday morning and leave on Wednesday, giving me a few days to day hike these sections, but at the last minute my husband wasn't able to go up until Monday morning. So I decided to go up myself on Sunday and backpack all three sections, and he could pick me up at Lake Wyola on Monday morning.

Moose tracks!!

Sunday morning arrived with light showers, but Accuweather claimed these would clear out by noon up in Shutesbury. I drove on up and started walking. No dogs allowed at Quabbin or most hotels, so I was all alone.

It was raining lightly when I arrived, but I knew it would clear out soon, and started hiking. Walking in the rain can be nice. It's moody, and no one else is out.

I saw several newts on the trail.

The rain gradually picked up, but was still light. Section 12 is mostly a newly cut trail that roughly parallels MA 202. Sometimes there is some road noise, but not too bad. It's a beautiful forest. I saw both moose tracks and moose droppings in this section.

Moose droppings

The recent rains brought forth lots of mushrooms up and down the trail, and with the rain they seemed to be growing before my very eyes.

Mushrooms everywhere

Instead of clearing out, the rain picked up. Gah! My supposed "waterproof" boots made by Merrell were leaking through. These used to be a good model boot, but they are crap now. You can walk ten feet through a wet lawn and the water will go right through the boot, even if the boot is fairly new and even though they have a little tab sewn on that says "WATERPROOF." What I'm saying is, don't buy these boots.

Taking a break in a rock cave

I came upon a jumble of huge boulders next to the trail and there was a good sized overhang in the back, just about large enough to stand up under and take a break from the rain. Hopefully it was just about to clear up. Some of the biggest liverworts I've ever seen were growing on that rock and happily soaking up the water. They had a rough summer.

Bridge at the rock cave

After a while I got bored waiting for the rain to end and started walking again. There was a nicely done bridge, the second of the hike so far, crossing a stream that looked like it was just starting to flow again, and then the trail popped out onto MA 202 again before turning back into the woods. Many thanks to the bridge builders.

Beaver dam near Town Farm Road

After a couple hours of very easy hiking the trail joins old woods roads then turns right onto Town Farm Road, which was gravel and pleasant.

Walking down Town Farm Road

The blazes then take you left onto paved Prescott Road, and I followed that in a steady rain and walked right past the sharp right turn onto Cooleyville Road. The problem with a lack of blazes, especially at turns, is that not everyone is walking around with a map in their hand. I don't remember seeing a right turn blaze telling me to turn, and I remember standing at the intersection wondering which way to go. My map was tucked away in plastic so it wouldn't get wet, and my head was down. The sign for the road ahead said Cooleyville Road, and I knew the trail followed Cooleyville Road for a long time, so I just followed it. And there are long stretches without blazes, so it doesn't necessarily mean anything when you don't see them for a stretch.

Paved Prescott Road turns into Cooleyville Road up head at the intersection

So I missed the turn and trudged up the wrong road, but on the plus side, I passed this really neat old Town Pound about 250 feet after the turn I missed. If you get a chance, take a little detour to check it out. There's an oval pen up on a knoll made of stone walls where they would keep any livestock that was wandering around. Just like a dog pound, only for livestock.

Town Pound

Eventually I realized my mistake, and had to pull out my map, gps, and phone in the rain, which was really coming down in that open area. The map was too small for detail, my phone touch screen was wet and wouldn't work, and the gps track I needed to look at wasn't turned on. Technical difficulties! Eventually I figured it out and made my way back to the intersection and walked down the other road, which also turned out to be Cooleyville Road. Once I started walking down it I saw blazes. It's always comforting to see the white blazes.

Cooleyville Road (the correct one)

It was a long wet walk down, down, down on Cooleyville Road. There's no Verizon coverage down in this hole. There was water between my toes, and by now my shorts were getting wet and wicking up water. All the gear in my backpack was nice and dry though, protected inside a heavy duty garbage bag.

Trail parking is located between two bridges

When you get to the bottom of the Cooleyville Road you arrive at a pair of bridges and there is a small hiker parking lot on the right side. The trail takes a left off the road, but there are no blazes indicating which way to go -- they just stop. There is a blaze at the parking area and then nothing. I walked up the road, crossing the second bridge, looking for blazes but finding only a nice view of the beaver pond.

Pond at the bottom of Cooleyville Road

I walked back and forth looking for blazes and finally spied a yellow gate through the overgrowth. It's located about midway between the two bridges.

Gate SH7 was hard to see from the road due to overgrowth along the road

The next section was a little weird to follow since there aren't a lot of blazes and some of them are at right angles to the trail. I did a bit of backtracking just to make sure I was on the correct route, but it wasn't terrible. Before too long the trail joined up with some substantial old farm roads, and then it was smooth sailing. The easy (but wet) hiking continued.

Most of the trail in this part of Quabbin looked just like this

The trail head gradually up, up, up out of the hole, and I got cell phone reception again. Nice to be able to tell the other half I'm OK and where I'm at.  I was surprised to not see any sign of bikes in there. I live in an area where mountain biking is very popular and expected it would be here, too, but these old roads look like they get very little use by anyone. Maybe the trails are just too easy for the "real" mountain bikers and too hard for everyone else.

Shutesbury State Forest

Along with the dog ban, there is no camping allowed in the Quabbin Off-Reservation areas. You should know, however, that parts of the land here are Shutesbury State Forest, and those parts are well marked for you.

It stopped raining!!

It finally stopped raining around 3:30 pm. Thank goodness. I couldn't wait to get those dry wool socks on my feet! I stopped at the top of the hill in the state forest at a turn in the trail. When the trail starts heading west, it goes down into another hole where there is no cell phone reception again. Not a place to spend a long, dark night. The reception was spotty, varying between no service one minute and 3G the next, but it was good enough.

I was happy to find everything nice and dry in my pack. But guess what I forgot? My extra pair of socks. Oh well, I manufactured something with supplies that included duct tape. Thankfully, I didn't have a wet dog in the tiny tent with me, so I guess it turned out to be for the best that no dogs were allowed. A cold front was moving in with the windchill forecast to be in the upper 30's. The wind started howling and the oak trees were whipping acorns all over. Later on the stars came out. The next day promised to be sunny.

MA NET Sections 9b -11 Part 2

Welcome to Section 11 of the NET and Cadwell Memorial Forest. I LOVED this section. It starts on Enfield Road in Pelham, or possibly at the top of Mt. Lincoln, if you are looking at the New England Trail website. There's not really anywhere to park where the trail crosses the road, so if you wanted to start here, you would need to drive west a bit to the Tower Road and walk back.

Trailhead map shows the old M-M

The trail slowly climbs up Mt. Lincoln, which is more like a high point in the terrain than a mountain. Did you know it's a lot harder to go uphill with 25 lbs on your back? Also, it's very hard to tie your boot laces. Or get up from a crouch because you got down low to take a photo.

Now how do I get back up?

Towers on Mt. Lincoln

There's a lookout tower at the top of Mt. Lincoln. I thought briefly of going up it, but noticed an old 'no trespassing' sign on the tower, and I had seen so many vistas while hiking Mt. Tom and the Holyoke Range, I had no burning desire for another one just then.

Mt. Lincoln at lower left, Quabbin Res. at right

The blazes follow Tower Road for a bit, a gravel service road for the towers that is closed to traffic, then takes a right turn and head north into the forest for a spell before briefly joining another gravel road which is called Cemetery Drive on the Cadwell Forest Map.  (Note that on the map, the M-M route they show is the old one. Also, the "streets" are closed to traffic). Here Cemetery Drive crosses a stream that was all dried up as I passed by, although it looks like it gets a pretty good flow based on the size of the culvert under the road, and the trail turns left off the road immediately after. In two days of hike (weekdays), I only saw one person on the trail, and he was on Cemetery Drive.

The big reroute begins about 100 feet north of Cemetery Road. Many thanks go to Rocklun for sending me a photo of the spot so I could find it. There's a big hemlock with a right turn double blaze, and if you look closely, a former left turn blaze was blackened out. Behind it there was a fire ring and a spot that looks like it gets used for camping. The old M-M goes left here down the hill to a ravine.

Junction of the old M-M (left) and new NET (right)

I had plenty of time, so I stashed my pack and went exploring down the old route. The path is easy to follow along the bottom of the deep ravine where water normally flows. It was bone dry while I was there, however. I got all the way down to some dried up falls in an area that looks like maybe it was quarried a long time ago. Hard to say. It was nice walking without a pack and doing more of a mozy than a hike.

Later on I got my pack back on and ventured down the new trail. At one point there's a routered "Queen Street" sign that made me laugh because there didn't seem to be any street. It's an old woods road shown on the Cadwell Forest map.

Queen Street

The forest is lovely. There was no water anywhere until I reached a stream called Dunlop Brook on my Garmin map, which still had a trickling flow. The deep, dark forest made for difficult picture-taking with a cell phone camera. I used to carry a much heavier camera that takes better photos in low light, but I couldn't afford to carry the camera on this trip.

Fern growing in a tree about 6 feet up

Sometimes the trail tread is completely new, and at other times the trail follows old woods roads. After Cadwell, the trail comes out onto Amherst Road, where there were no blazes and I had to pull out a map. The trail turns right onto Amherst Rd and then pretty quickly takes a left onto a quiet street called North Valley Road. It follows this road for a good ways, but the road soon turns to gravel and there are a few homes but no traffic. 

Are they offering hikers a ride? I accept!

A vibrant, healthy forest

I just loved the forest and the trail in through here. It was so refreshing to walk through a healthy forest with trees of differing ages and size, saplings everywhere, and thick herbaceous layer. The forests in Southwest Connecticut where I live have mostly been stripped by too many deer, and people get offended by logging or hunting, so the forest is sadly bare.  The trap rock ridges the NET has been following are naturally pretty sparse because it's so dry and rocky, although there are probably too many deer there as well.  

Wintergreen

Hobblebush Viburnum

The forest is so wonderful I began to slow down intentionally to make the hike last longer, stopping now and then to linger.  The woods along the trail no longer feel like the illusion of wilderness, but actual wilderness. It reminded me of the northern woods of Wisconsin where we had a lake place when I was growing up. The area was surrounded by miles and miles of woods owned by paper companies. There was logging and hunting, but no marked hiking trails. You didn't go for a "hike", you went for a walk, using old logging roads and deer paths, and you didn't have a destination. You just mozied along depending on your mood. The trail here, at least on a weekday, was so quiet, and the woods were so thick. I felt lucky to be able to hike the NET now.  Maybe some day in the future it will become super popular like the Appalachian Trail or the Long Trail, and lose some of that wilderness feeling. But for now, you really do feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, and it's perfect. 

In spite of my slow walk, I popped out onto Shutesbury Road by about 9:30 am on the second day. I didn't expect to be done so early. 

The trail follows Shutesbury Road 2 for over half a mile. It's a wide paved road, but a total of only three cars passed me the entire time I was walking it. The mix of forest, meadow, and a few scattered homes made for pleasant scenery in the morning light, especially with the leaves starting to change color.

And then I was back to my car, which survived the night intact. But the day wasn't over yet. I drove to a couple more old M-M sections to check them out before heading back to Connecticut.