Took a drive out to Williamsburg / Conway for an attempt at locating a plaque set in a large stone commemorating The High Street Walking Club and Edward C. Gere, circa 1926.
I've made minimal attempts at locating this monument in the past, but haven't succeeded. Today, I was armed with some added data from a geocaching site, and felt pretty confident regarding the available directions.
The parking area is along Nash Hill Road in Williamsburg. In the psat it had been possible to come up from the east on Williamsburg Road, but the bridge has been out the past few years so no go.
This is active watershed land managed by the City of Northampton, and the old country road named "the Henhawk Trail" connects to Conway State Forest. The main trail/route, as well as several side-paths, are utilized by local snowmobile clubs during winter. There are numerous, lengthy stonewalls crisscrossing the forest - often climbing steeply uphill. There are also some hard to locate single-track trails such as the route leading to the Williamsburg Wonder (balanced rock, see my post from May 19th, 2017).
Roughly 1.2-miles north on the Henhawk, where the trail finally changes to "downhill", I began a bushwhack along a stonewall heading west. It was a easy to follow the stonewall, but it is pretty steep hiking. Finally, I arrived up at the top, and was surprised to find the memorial plaque set in a large stone at the convergence of three stonewalls. This feels like a really strong spot.
From the plaque, a single-track trail headed north, but after a quarter to a half-mile it seemed gone. There was a decent amount of blow-down, and obviously this hasn't been a regularly used trail in many years. After the first light snowfall would be a helpful time to re-explore to see if the trail could be more easily followed.
I bushwhacked north, passed by a really nice vernal pool (or actual small pond), and finally re-entered on one of the forest roads I was familiar with. Managed to ramble my way back with 4.7-miles on my legs.
Finding the plaque was a goal for 2018, and the array of stonewalls meeting up with the location is something I need to take a look at with some LiDar data. The undulating wall heading south is of interest to me.
Excellent day, even with the bugs being brutal and the humidity a burden. I hope to be back in early winter to this location - to revisit the balanced rock and hopefully bushwhack from that trail to the marker following the undulating wall.
High Street Hiking Club dedicated to Edward C. Gere, 1926
This stone is the meeting place for three stonewalls
The stonewall heading south, downhill, is an undulating network
The Henhawk Trail includes an abundance of stonewall & interesting stacks
An interesting "kneeling tree"
From the archives department... I completed my 11th marathon on this day in 1996 at Nipmuck. I ran a 3:56:50 in the race, which was good for 15th place.