It was too nice a day to not run, but daylight was fading by the time I left work.  With the time I had it was a trip to Bruce Park, to make a loop of sorts, for 3.1-miles.

Music 2017...

Effort #34, Our Town...

Since I have these old recordings, I thought it would also be fun to include the solo version of "Our Town" as well, recorded the moment I wrote and played it most likely.

Music 2017...

Effort #33, Our Town...

In my hometown, way back when, there was a man running for office who some thought illiterate. I believe he garnered enough votes to get elected. The town on it's own was doing poorly, with corruption seemingly running pretty rampant. I wrote a song, which made sense at the time; the Primitives performed it in Mazziarz' Garage, with the full band including Aldo singing.

It is still cold, roughly 28-degrees in the Barkhamstead / East Hartland Metroplex.  K2 joined me for a couple hours along the Tunxis Trail from Route 219 north.

Along the way we enjoyed:

• Indian Council Caves, 
• Roaring Brook, 
• and Pine Mountain.  

Despite the cold temperature, the sun was out and it wasn't damp at all, so running along the Tunxis Trail was really enjoyable today.

Large boulder at bottom of the Indian Council Caves

Profile Rock halfway up the Indian Council Caves

 Looking down from halfway point climb of the Indian Council Caves

....

Completed week #5 at Master Naturalists Training at Goodwin State Forest.  This week we covered "Leading Walks / Interpretive Progams:  Planning, Techniques & Themes".  We ended up a little early, so I managed a 3.5-mile run through the forest.

Somehow, without being previously aware of it, it was five years ago today that I was first in the vicinity of the Goshen Stone Chamber (November 10, 2012).  The odd thing was, Tips & I jogged right past it, more or less, and we didn't even see it (just didn't know it existed back then).  My GPS_Track from that date is solid proof...

So, it was a bit coincidental that I went back on this day, with the Wuzzam along, to hopefully find the Goshen Stone Chamber for him to experience.

Along the way, we saw some really awesome stones and other features...

• Standing Stone along the NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Association) Trail;
• Small Balanced Rock along the Turkey Trail;
• The Large Balanced Rock that is a draw to this forest;
• Many Stonewalls through the forest, including one massively tall one;
• The Goshen Stone Chamber;
• One more Balanced Rock along the Bobcat Trail;
• and finally, the Fire Tower.

Our day was complete with 8.4-miles, and the Wuzzam appeared to be rebounded from his bout with a nasty Tick Disease (anaplasmosis).  Despite the incredibly sunny blue sky, it was the first really cold day of the fall, with temperatures in Goshen in the high twenties, with strong wind.

Standing Stone along the NEMBA Trail

Balanced Rock off the Turkey Trail

Another View of the Balanced Rock off the Turkey Trail

Main Balanced Rock of DAR State Forest

Main Balanced Rock of DAR State Forest w/ Wuzzam

5-foot high stonewall on private trail to the Stone Chamber

Wolf Tree at top of West Ridge

The Goshen Stone Chamber

The Goshen Stone Chamber, inside looking out

Wuzzam exiting the Goshen Stone Chamber

 Once more, Wuzzam exiting the Goshen Stone Chamber

Beaver activity along the Beaver Trail Loop

 A Balanced Rock along the Bobcat Trail

Goshen DAR State Forest Fire Tower, on a beautiful cold day in November

Ancient American Mysteries... The Secret of the Stones.

It is near impossible to roam through the forest of New England and not notice the abundance of stonewalls lining and breaking up the landscape.  I caught an interesting video on you/tube recently, entitled "Secrets of the Stones".  Some highlights that immediately caught my ear are listed below...

The effort to build the hundreds of thousands of miles of stonewalls would have been the most costly and labor intensive undertaking in colonial history.  Yet there is not even the slightest mention of this massive construction project in the historical records.  Native Americans were not fence builders, they respected the land and did not partition it for any reason, most especially to mark personal possession.

A most interesting point to ponder; when one looks at the sheer length of the stonewalls, 240,000 miles that were estimated in 1939 using the data from the department of agriculture’s report on fences from 1872, it is quite clear that this was an engineering feet of gargantuan proportion.   

Using simple calculations and allowing for one day’s rest out of every week, with a mandatory three-month break when the northeast winters made it impossible for any outdoor work, it would appear that if the early colonists constructed these stonewalls between 1620 and 1872, they would have had to average:

• 4-miles a day, or
• 1/3 of a mile every hour, or
• 1-foot every two seconds.

And they had to average this consistently each and every year for 250 years, regardless of the devastating Revolutionary, Civil and Indian Wars.

Clearly this was not the case, for there are no significant records of any major expanses of walls or other megalithic structures.  Since it would have constituted the largest construction project in world history, It would have been an effort worth recording in some small way.

Music 2017...

Effort #32, When You're Old and Lonely...

A quiet version of the Magnetic Fields's "When You're Old and Lonely", one guitar, loop pedal, and vocals.

On this day in 1999, I completed my 21st marathon at Watery Hill.  It was a 6-hour run, and I completed a total of 30 miles.

Cool and misty on the ridge today, managed the 5.8-mile run from Route 20 to the "Notch" and back.

Completed week #4 at Master Naturalists Training at Goodwin State Forest.  We covered mammals this week, which was interesting.

Also, on November 4th, 2000, I completed 33-miles in 6-hours at Watery Hill.  This was my 22nd completed marathon.

Registered the old Subaru in the morning, and planned on a trip to visit my folks around mid-day.  On the drive up, stopped in Goshen at DAR State Forest for a short run.

Took the Pine Marten, Upper UFO, Lower UFO, Town Trail and the Black Bear Trails.  Managed 3-miles with the trip up to the fire-tower at the end.  It started to rain and the temperature dropped 15 degrees shortly after I was back in my car on the road to Adams.

Large Boulder along the Pine Marten Trail

Ceremonial Rock Circle along Upper UFO Trail

 

Feeder Stream to Rodgers Brook

DAR/Goshen Fire Tower (5-State View)

I went out to Mt Tom in Easthampton, Massachusetts to run some of the Metacomet-Monadnock (or New England Trail as it is now called I believe).  Completed a run from the road crossing at Route 141 to the intersection with the DOC Trail, which I explored along with the Tote Road Trail for a total out-and-back of 6.7-miles.

On this day in 1997, the Old Goat, the Gullivers, and a few others rambled out to Bash Bish Falls to participate in a marathon along the South Taconic Trail.  I managed 26-miles in 6:28:00, and I can recall the last few miles being in a driving rain.  This was my 16th marathon.

It was on the "dreary side" of weather, with a temperature of 40-degrees and damp, and I had STCC class again this evening (began again on Monday), so I thought that Penwood would be a good option since I hadn't been there to do the 6.5-mile loop in a while.

View off the Pinnacle

Penwood's Rock-Garden, perfect for reflection