Today began as another spectacular summer day, and again I thought of spending some time hiking in the woods.  I couldn’t travel as far afield as the Cape, so I decided to check out two properties in Petersham, a small community a few miles to the northwest of my town, on the eastern edge of the Quabbin Reservoir.

Shortly before noon, I headed first for the Brooks Woodland Preserve, a property owned and managed by the Trustees of Reservations.  A half-hour’s drive via 67 and then 32-122 brought me to Petersham Center, where I turned right on East Street and then parked by the side of the road, at the entrance to the Roaring Brook tract.  As the name implies, this property, once agricultural, is now heavily forested, with streams and wetlands also prominently featured.

The preserve includes 13 miles of trails, so from the trail map I had downloaded, I picked what looked like a short loop with numbered markers at regular intervals.  The map was misleading: I didn’t even see over half the markers and was never really sure of where I was.  I stumbled through the forest mostly on instinct, and eventually ended up back where I began.  Shortly after I started out, I came upon a wetland where a great blue heron was fishing; I also stopped to photograph these Larger Blue Flags, Iris versicolor, a water-loving plant.

Adjacent to the Preserve is the 1500 acre Rutland Brook Sanctuary owned and managed by the Massachusetts Audubon Society; on my way home I stopped for a visit.  Just off Route 122 in Petersham is Connor Pond, a prominent landmark that points to the Sanctuary entrance. The Audubon trail map was a bit more detailed, and fortunately, the trails were clearly marked.  I decided to hike to Porcupine Ledge and then loop back: I followed the John Woolsey Trail to the Rutland Brook Loop, picked up the Ridge Trail to the Sherman Hill Loop, then went around Porcupine Ledge Loop back to the Ridge Trail, where I picked up the House Pond Trail, followed that back to the Rutland Brook Trail, then walked back to the entrance. The Sanctuary includes woodlands, wetlands, brooks, and ledges, and I passed through most of these landscapes.

I took a photo of Rutland Brook, as this is the Sanctuary’s namesake:

The trail up to Porcupine Ledge is fairly steep (I saw no porcupines, though):

This may be an Aurora Damsel, Chromagrion conditum. According to my field guide, this species perches on vegetation, wings partially spread; frequents small vegetated streams and swamps; flies in spring to early summer. But I’m terrible at insect identification so don’t take my word for it; this could also be a Skimming Bluet or possibly a Blue-fronted Dancer:

A Shagbark Hickory, Carya ovata, is noted on the trail map, and I did see it.  This large deciduous tree is common in the eastern United States.  Shaggy bark is characteristic of mature trees, not the younger specimens:

I thought I would end this post the way I began, with a flower photo.  The Yellow Iris, Iris pseudacorus, is an alien, a European native which escaped from gardens to colonize our marshes and streamsides.  These plants were growing at the edge of the House Pond, which I passed on my way back to the sanctuary entrance:

On my way home in the late afternoon, I spotted an ice cream place, Pine Ridge Ice Cream Shop, in Barre Center, and decided to treat myself to a dish of pistachio ice cream.  Mmm!

I recently downloaded a Trail Guide to the Chatham Conservation Foundation lands in Chatham and decided this morning that walking one of these trails would be a fine thing to do on this hot summer day.  I started to walk to one of the trail heads from George Ryder Road but was immediately distracted by a sign for the  Old Colony Rail Trail, an extension of the Cape Cod Rail Trail.  The wide paved trail, off-limits to motorized traffic, proved irresistible, and I started down the asphalt path.  This is a typical sightline:

The bike trail took me west toward Harwich, so at Sam Ryder Road, I turned north toward Old Queen Anne Road and the ponds.  Across from “The Triangle” formed by Old Queen Anne Road, Training Field Road, and Old Comers Road is a 47 acre parcel featuring glacial kettle ponds, upland birds, and shade-loving plants.  One of the first birds I saw in the woods was a beautiful Baltimore Oriole!

Though narrow and at times blocked by fallen branches, I found these trails fairly easy to follow, and I had no trouble finding all three ponds, Schoolhouse Pond (left), Mary’s Pond (center), and Barclay’s Pond (right), perhaps because signs naming each pond were nailed to trailside trees just as I arrived at each shoreline.

The photo below doesn’t do justice to Schoolhouse Pond — it’s by far the largest of the three, and the water looked fresh and inviting.  I saw a beach on the far shore of that pond, so it seems that swimming is permitted.  But I didn’t have my swimsuit with me, and I couldn’t linger; within an hour I had finished my walk where I began.

Now, what’s with these ponds? As is apparent to even the most casual visitor, Cape Cod consists almost entirely of sand, gravel, silt, clay, and boulders, material consistent with its glacial origins. Even the many lakes and large ponds scattered about the outwash plain owe their origins to the great Laurentide ice sheet which once covered all of New England. When the ice started rapidly melting thousands of years ago, large blocks of glacial ice remained here and there, with meltwater streams flowing around them, building up sand around them. Later, when the ice blocks themselves melted, cavities remained; geologists call the ponds and lakes thus formed ice-block lakes, or kettles.  These ponds that I saw are typical of the genre.

As for Chatham itself:  settled as early as the mid-seventeenth century and incorporated in 1712, it’s a pretty little town of about 7,000 year-round residents. Situated in the elbow of the Cape, the town welcomes a large influx of visitors each summer. Of particular interest to tourists are the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, the Chatham Lighthouse, and the Chatham Railroad Museum. As I was in the area for only a hour or so, I don’t have any personal comments or recommendations with respect to these attractions. I can say that I wished I had my bike with me, as the roads leading out from the town center are not designed for pedestrians. Walking to and from the Conservation Foundation lands was not pleasant because I had to walk on the road with a lot of vehicular traffic speeding by me.