Friday, June 27, 2014

Around the headwaters of Falulah - sw branch

clockwise:
I managed to see very little on this walk. I hoped to climb the hill at the southwest corner of this map but, in the heat and exhaustion of the moment, focused on getting through the mountain laurel in one piece. The whole area is so full of things, there were regular rock-on-rock spotted at the edge of the swamp all the way around.



To me, these are signs this watershed was significant and that ceremonies were done around the edges. 
The other thing I saw a lot of was "wall bulges", where a mound is built carefully into a wall - or perhaps the wall was added later to incorporate the mound. I do not believe all such remnants are ancient or necessarily ceremonial - cuz clearing rocks and retaining them neatly in the corner of a stone wall is one way rocks were cleared. But here are some that are not in the corners, and you could argue it either way:
closer:
Another:
 Another:
Another. This one looks to me like it had an internal chamber, now collapsed into a hollow [compare to the one before last]:

The highest point was on the eastern fringes of Brown Hill [can't find link to previous report] where the brook comes out of a culvert at the bottom of a field. A few structures right at that point:


Then I walked down and down and down and down. Got back to the car tired out. 
A great walk and I was looking forward to a pork sandwich at "La Reyna" Portuguese Bakery on Rt 12 in Fitchburg (one of the perks of exploring out there) only to find they were out of bread at noon. Last time it was a Sunday and they were closed. Before that it was snowing and slippery. Gotta get one sometime.

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