Hemlock Trail II

 

The rest of the Hemlock Trail led me back along the shore of the Upper Hemlock Lake . . .

past some lovely mountain laurel . . .

and the remnants of a quintessentially New England-style rock fence.

Hemlock Trail

 

Follow the Highland Lake Trail long enough and you can eventually connect with the Hemlock Trail, which quite understandably leads you through a lovely Hemlock forest.

NEMBA

 

I'll have to admit being a little mystified by these letters I found along the Highland Lake Trail. Turns out, NEMBA stands for the New England Mountain Bike Association, whose members, I presume, help maintain the trail.

Highland Lake Trail III

 

This is not a trail marker we're used to down south. :-)

Highland Lake Trail II

Highland Lake Trail

 

Another day, another trail. This time it's at Highland Lakes, a reservoir located just 4.8 miles from Ashfield, Massachusetts.

Hadley Depot

 

Walked this day on the rail trail from the west side of the Connectictut River east as far as Hadley Depot before turning around and heading back across the river. According to Wikipedia, Hadley was first settled in 1659 and was officially incorporated in 1661. The former Norwottuck was renamed Hadleigh, an ancient market town in Suffolk, England.

Norwottuck Rail Trail Bridge

 

Culverts

 

Each year, as I revisit the Norwottuck Rail Trail Bridge near Northampton, I always stop to take a look at what work has been completed on the nearby culverts. This has been an enormous project! So I'm amazed that I cannot find more information about it online. More work remains to be done above the site shown here, but this lower section now finally appears to be nearing completion.

Robert Francis Bridge

 

Mill River

 

Dragonfly

 

Hilda & Morris Golden Trial, Amherst

Hilda & Morris Golden Trail

 

Weather Observatory

 

The Blue Hill Weather Observatory is only steps away from Eliot Tower and is also receiving some long-awaited renovations.

View

 

That's Boston to your left and the harbor to your right as seen from the top of Eliot Tower.

Tower

 

Eliot Tower, a 35-foot-tall (11 m) stone structure, was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) between 1933 and 1944.  

The tower offers a view of about 270°, including all of Boston, Boston Harbor, and much of the South Shore. 

Eliot Tower

 Built in 1904 as a tribute to Charles Eliot the famous Landscape Architect who was instrumental in preserving the Blue Hills Reservation, little has been done since to maintain the Eliot Tower and Memorial Bridge. A complete restoration, however, is now, finally, in progress.

 

Jute

 

So part of my reason for wanting to hike the Red Dot Loop Trail was to see how some of the mitigation efforts were coming along, in particular the installation of these jute mats intended to control the erosion that had been taking place where the trail meets the so-called Summit Road. Unfortunately, most of the seed that had been sown underneath has failed to produce, probably because this was done late last fall (November:?)--not the ideal time to be sowing seed in Massachusetts. 

Red Dot

 

Once off the plane, I made a bee line toward the Blue Hills Reservation, a 7,000-acre state park in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. I had heard about some work being done on towers there and I wanted to go see it for myself. To get there, I hiked the rather prosaically named Red Dot Loop Trail.

BOS

A view of the coast just prior to landing at Boston Logan International Airport.

I was here over the Fourth of July, among other things, to do some hiking.