Enfield Look Out

Yeah, okay. I know it doesn't look like that much. But that's because the town of Enfield was flooded to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir. It used to occupy the land just below that hill (Mt. Ram?) in the center background. A branch of the reservoir actually stretches between those trees in the foreground and the hill beyond. This map does a great job at explaining what you're seeing.

Hairy Parchment?

I'm still not able to positively identify more than probably a handful of mushrooms, if even that many.

What I have learned to do, however, is to pay close--well, closer--attention to the details surrounding said mushrooms. In the case of the mushroom shown above, I 'm pretty sure that it's attached to the what remains of a deciduous tree. That alone, I understand, whittles down the possibilities. Now, as to whether it is actually a Hairy Parchment mushroom, who knows? It certainly share a number of its characteristics. Spotted along the Enfield Lookout Trail near Ware, Massachusetts.

DCR

No matter how long or short the trail, I find that I am almost always relieved to know that I'm still on the right path because there have been times when, unbeknownst to myself, I have somehow managed to go astray, either because there was no sign or--God forbid!--the sign's directions were not entirely clear or, in fact, in some cases, even misleading. All of which is to say, my hat's off to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and its good works!

Ferns

Enfield Lookout Trail

Ware, Massachusetts

???

Enfield Lookout Trail, Ware, Massachusetts

I'm always curious about the stuff I find lying on forest floors. In this case, I couldn't quite figure out what this was. I found it on the trail along with almost countless fallen acorns. Any guesses as to what it might be?

Enfield Lookout Trail

After hiking the length of Winsor Dam and back, I decided to hike the Enfield Lookout Trail. Enfield was one of the towns flooded to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir. 

Winsor Dam

 

Nothing quite prepares you for the size of Winsor Dam. 2640 ft (805 m) long, 35 feet wide (10.7 m), with a maximum bottom width of 1100 ft (335 m), it's breathtaking. 

 

 

Built to help create one of the largest unfiltered water supplies in the United States, the 412 billion gallon reservoir covers 39 square miles with 181 miles of shoreline.

 

Nothing I did with my iPhone camera could adequately capture it's vast dimensions. But in this last photo, if you expand it, you might just be able to make out the form of someone hiking in the shadow of the trees along the trail in the center right.