Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Southern Upton State Forest

The southern end of Upton State Forest, across the road from Pratt Pond, is too far away from the entrance at the northern end, so I parked at the Church (with permission) and walked in under the power lines. I meant to head north but followed the power lines too diligently and ended up on the flanks of Pratt Hill - a place made famous by Mavor and Dix in discussing the stone mounds on the summit that you can see out the entrance of the Upton Chamber. Well, there are rock piles in other parts of the hill - but old, smaller, decrepit, covered with forest debris.

So here is an assemblage of three piles, almost impossible to see, from he location indicated by the smaller blue outline above.The pile hidden under the dead log is reasonably big, under the debris.

Here is a small structure from beside the brook in the same valley. I should have continued up that valley - something to do on another weekend. See the outline of the rocks?
Here is a view up the power lines towards Pratt Hill:Some colorful fungus:Some odds and ends:[A familiar shape, from what I called "twins".]

Then, on the far side of the first main rise (I think in about the position of the larger blue outline but it could be one shoulder over) I found another rock pile, under the power lines:
Pretty damaged:I looked high and low on the slope near this pile and could not see any other rock piles. So I looked carefully in the woods behind the power lines and did find another; then a short stretch of wall; then one more. Later when I crossed back (westward) under the power lines, and climbed the hill, there were signs that this site continued on both sides of the power lines.

Here is the second pile I found. I felt quite smug finding it after persisting with the search. It would have been a good sized pile some time ago.
Another view hints at some structure:I do not much understand this site. Why are there a few piles at this one spot on the hill? If this second pile had a small hollow (I did not see one), that would make some sense. There was a nearby stone wall, so low to the ground as to be almost invisible. It has a short perpendicular side wall ending in a rock pile and a rock. I tried to video it but it remains invisible in the dappled light. So there are no pictures of this feature.

Then I looked around some more and found one more rock pile, completely buried like the piles on Cape Cod. I decided to groom it slightly:After that I headed back out to the power lines and uphill. There were a couple of other piles in the woods on the other side of the power lines. This one has a bit of shape to it, like an effigy:
From above:Another one nearby, also has some shape to it.After that, back across and down. Out to the power lines and back to my car:I'll have to go back to this area again. There are plenty more woods to explore there.

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