Thursday Hikers

Perfect hiking today. The weather was cold, a bit of wind, and sun.Snowy patches let us know that soon we’d have to find our snowshoes. The hike, 4 1/2 or 5 miles, from Sanderson Academy parking lot to Bear Swamp in Ashfield. The terrain was nicely varied, so was the vegetation. We saw many fresh signs of bears and had been told that a mother and 3 cubs might be spotted. We didn’t see them but wish we had (from a distance, of course). The gang was in high spirits and we shared a lot of nonsense as well as interesting things things we spotted along the trail. An old, 10’x10′ stone structure was, we think, once a spring house. Still dangerously full of water so we made certain not to fall in! It seemed to be about 4’deep. “Ice Soldiers” have started to form now that the ground is freezing. So Pretty! I’ve included a sign that’s on “Peter Hill” that you can read if you ‘d like. And, I bet you’ve never seen an Octopus Tree before! We were really happy to get to Elmer’s Store in Ashfield after nearly 4 hours of hiking for a nice sit down together over soup and sandwiches. Another hiking group is being formed at Trustees of Reservations (where this all started for us) and we’ll go, but will also keep our group intact. These weekly hikes have made a huge, happy impact on my life. We may be returning to the Charlemont property next week, all depends! Stay well, come and visit, Love, Penny