{"id":977,"date":"2010-08-19T11:21:45","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T15:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/?p=977"},"modified":"2010-08-19T11:21:45","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T15:21:45","slug":"from-riverbank-under-roadway-to-reservoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/2010\/08\/19\/from-riverbank-under-roadway-to-reservoir\/","title":{"rendered":"From Riverbank, under Roadway, to Reservoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

I previously posted about my bike trip over the July 4th long weekend.\u00a0 On the Monday of that weekend, I went for an extended hike.\u00a0 This was another hike of parts of the Metacomet-Monadnock trail<\/a> – I covered sections 3<\/a> and 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As with other one-way hikes, I brought my bike along on the back of the car, parked at the end of section 4, and then biked around to the beginning of section 3.<\/p>\n

Section 3 begins on the Northern bank of the Westfield River at a point in West Springfield (but very close to the Westfield line).\u00a0 The river flows behind a bunch of businesses on US-20, and I locked up my bike in a parking lot there, then took a very short path down to the river to get some pics.\u00a0 Here’s the view upriver to the West:<\/p>\n

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And downriver to the East:<\/p>\n

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From there, I went back up and crossed Route 20, to begin the hike in earnest.\u00a0 This involved a bit of walking on side streets until I got to the spot where the trail actually goes into the woods.<\/p>\n

Once that happened, I spent nearly half a mile walking near a quarry, partially using its dirt access roads.\u00a0 Then, the trail went off into deeper woods near a marshy area.\u00a0 Just a little ways into those woods, I came across this structure:<\/p>\n

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It was very run-down, so I don’t think it gets used any more.\u00a0 Who knows what it was used for in the past – maybe camping for hunters?\u00a0 (there is a sportsman’s club of some kind near the quarry)<\/p>\n

Just after that, I came across some large and weird fungal growths:<\/p>\n

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There’s nothing in the pictures for size reference, but each of these big ones was a good 8 inches in diameter.<\/p>\n

The trail started skirting the edge of the marsh, so I started getting pestered by mosquitoes.\u00a0 I also got a few more pictures:<\/p>\n

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That lower area wasn’t completely wetland, I think, because there’s a sort-of road there, which is probably for access to the power lines that ran overhead.<\/p>\n

Lots more traipsing through woods followed that area, without much to photograph, but I did come across an open area where a tall tree had split:<\/p>\n

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Not sure what caused it.<\/p>\n

Eventually, section 3 comes out of the woods by the Massachusetts Turnpike.\u00a0 At that point, one has to walk West alongside the pike (and a bit downhill), until you come to an underpass for an old quarry road.\u00a0 Apparently, a number of people have been here – and they’ve left their marks.\u00a0 Here is the underpass before I went through:<\/p>\n

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And inside:<\/p>\n

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At the far end of the tunnel is a gate you have to climb through:<\/p>\n

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Here it is from the other side:<\/p>\n

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On the far side there are railroad tracks coming by at an angle, which also go under the Pike:<\/p>\n

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And a bunch more graffiti – these being focused on flowers!<\/p>\n

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Perhaps someone wanted to help Nature reassert itself on all this concrete in its midst.\u00a0\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Once I crossed the train tracks, I was at the end of section 3.\u00a0 I sat down and ate the lunch I’d brought.\u00a0 It was a very hot day (temp in the 90’s) so I was trying to make my 2 bottles of water last.\u00a0 Fortunately, I’d packed a nice, juicy peach, and didn’t need to drink so much with my food.\u00a0 (a peach has never tasted so good)<\/p>\n

Having eaten, I commenced section 4.\u00a0 It differs from section 3 in being on higher ground, so even though it’s also very wooded, there are views to be seen.\u00a0 Also, there are old communication towers:<\/p>\n

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Those are 2 different towers that I passed.\u00a0 These are on a ridge that runs North-South, and which has a number of views to the West. Here’s a view of Barnes Airport in Westfield:<\/p>\n

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Last Fall, I had taken a picture of that airport from the other side, while biking past<\/a> on Route 202.\u00a0 At the time, I remember seeing the ridge and the towers beyond, and though of that this time.<\/p>\n

I was also high enough up to have birds of prey flying around.\u00a0 Here are 2 that passed almost directly over me:<\/p>\n

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Later in the section, I saw some views of the Western part of Holyoke:<\/p>\n

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Soon after that, I got a little lost.\u00a0 The M-M trail is marked with white paint blazes on tree trunks (and occasionally on rocks).\u00a0 There was a point where I found a double blaze, which indicates a change in trail direction, and then saw a blaze on a tree off to my right.\u00a0 I headed off in that direction, and then had trouble locating another blaze or a well-traveled path.\u00a0 I did find one old, faded blaze, but nothing beyond that.\u00a0 I tied looking in several directions for 15 minutes or so (worrying about my water supply), until finally I made my way back to the double-blaze marker and looked further along that trail.\u00a0 Sure enough the trail continued on what looked like a trail, and then made a slight turn to the left.\u00a0 So, I got underway again.\u00a0 After nearly another hour, I came down to US-202 in Holyoke, near the McLean Reservoir, where I had parked the car (in which I had extra water stashed).<\/p>\n

Total hiking distance was about 8 miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I previously posted about my bike trip over the July 4th long weekend.\u00a0 On the Monday of that weekend, I went for an extended hike.\u00a0 This was another hike of parts of the Metacomet-Monadnock trail – I covered sections 3 and 4. As with other one-way hikes, I brought my bike along on the back … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seakingdom.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}