Had some time to visit Dubuque State Forest in Hawley, Massachusetts for an ongoing trail monitoring project.  Explored from South Road to the north and east in the forest, covering about 5-miles of trails.  

The area has several cellar holes, at least one capped well that I located, and an incredible network of stone walls.  Photos are mostly of stone wall crossings, which are a true highlight of this trail.  Map of Lumpy Bumpy Trail in the area provided.

A rewarding and educational trip to Mohawk Trail State Forest to learn from the master, Bob L.  As is normally  the case, I arrived early to take a run prior to the interpretive portion of the day.

My goal was to run up Thumper Mountain via the newest trail that popped up a year or two ago, and take some photos of "The Gateway".

Several pictures of "The Gateway", a fine place for meditation... and an ending with a photo of the top of Thumper Mountain.

In the past, this day witnessed me finishing two marathons.  The first was in 2008 and the second was a year later in 2009.

In 2008, Tippi and finished Metacomet II, which began at Phelps Road in Suffield, and covered north to Route 57 and south to Route 20.  Running time of 5:32:00.  This was my 37th and Tippi's 13th completed marathon.

In 2009, Wuzzam joined Tippi and I at Tunxis II (South), which meant we ran from Route 219 to Satan's Kingdom, and also north to Roberts Brook I believe.  Our time was 6:04:44.  This was my 42nd and Tippi's 15th marathon.

The somewhat regular Friday afternoon run at Cowles has been brutally hot and mostly humid.  K2 has been good company along with the flying insects.  Kept short but glad we got 5k on our legs.

Stuck to "Inside Job" to the sign for Shagbark Hickory, and back.  It's a winding, fun route, and I can understand the appeal for mountain bikers.

Another friendly run with Wuzzam and K2;  McCann-Whitiker trails are awesome, and the terrain is hilly enough, with some wonderful happenings in the woods here.  Still very humid in Connecticut, but we managed about 5.5-miles.  The streams are still bone-dry.

Climb toward the top

Stonewalls, magnificent!

Opening in the wall

A look back

Just one more

Another visit to Hawley, to the Dubuque State Forest to work on some of the southern trails.  Did a nice inventory of the bridges, hit the Stone Wall, Root Ball, South Hawley, Gould Connector, Cookstove, Ring and some others not named.  Totaled 11.7-miles in about 3:30, with many stops for pictures.

Spent some time at several cellar holes, thinking I may remember the "old schoolhouse" from Harrison Parker's book.  We shall see.

Stonewalls

Stonewalls

Stonewalls

Bridge over beaver activity on Ring Trail

Pond off Middle Road

 

Hawley to work on the SnoShu and Notch Trail bridge locations.  Ended up with 7.5-miles, beautiful day in the low '70's (at least in Hawley).  Surprised and disappointed to see some illegal trail work being developed along the Notch Trail.

The day gave me a great run and good GPS coordinates for the bridge work.  As a bonus I located the old spring off Notch and Aunt Charity's Chair.

Stonewall through the Notch Trail.

The Notch.

The Notch again.

Oddly positioned Rock along the Notch Trail.

I've been photographing this old Maple since the late '90's.

Aunt Charity's Chair.

Old Stone Foundation along Hunt Road Brook.

Completed the drive from Chicago last night, and took it out to Tunxis this morning.  Route 219 to the Indian Council Caves, 4.4-miles.

It felt great to move again, after three days in a car averaging ~7 hours per day of travel.

Large Boulder at the beginnings of the Indian Council Caves.

The Yellow Mushroom looks like a face to me.

More from the Council Caves.

Again, Caves.

Once more.

Tunxis Trail at the top of the Council Caves.

Beautiful Trail section prior to crossing Washington Hill Road on way back to 219.

Ivy and Moss, together in a pattern.

Large sentinel after stonewall.

Stonewall crossing.

On this day in 2014, Wuzzam and I ran the Mahican Mohawk Marathon in 6:43:30.  We began and ended at Mohawk Trail State Forest in Charlemont, along the bank of the Cold River.  Our turn-around or midpoint was roughly at North Pond at Savoy Mountain State Forest in Savoy / Florida.

This was my 51st completed marathon.  Map of our route is included below

Running through Stafford Meadow

For the direction challenged

Red Pine Plantation, set in 1930's..

Up through the Red Pine.

Wuzzam at the first crossing of the Cold River.

Bog Pond, a long-time favorite area of ours..

Burnett Homestead Cemetery in Florida..

More Burnett

Second crossing of the Cold River.

Flew to Chicago to drive back to Connecticut with JC.  Took the turn toward Ohio, so that we could visit the Serpent Mound in Peebles.  The visit was fascinating, and well worth the travel.  Much to learn still, much to learn.

From the Archives, August 13th, 2006... Pop and his Oliver...