dr_wu002
Well-known member
So, Eric and I decided to stick with the Massachusetts vibe (until the Pension scheme falls through or something like that) so this time we visited Erving State Park area. This would be section 16 of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail for your red-liners out there.
The woods were very nice from the start -- mostly Hemlocks during the first part. After a while we reached a side trail to "Hermit's Castle." Actually, it was a loop. We went down (Eric had been before) and got to some huge rock -- one of the biggest that I've seen in the backcountry. So, I'm admiring this thing, commenting about how big it is and Eric tells me, "That's not the castle -- that's just the outpost!" And lo and behold a few minutes later we reach the "Castle." It's not a castle really but a freakin' fortress! It's basically an enormous rock ledge, about 100-200' high and running continuously for about a 1/2 mile or so. This was one of the most spectacular things that I've ever seen while hiking in New England. One could (and I plan to) spend a whole day just messing around on this thing.
From the Castle we continued through the attractive woods, still mostly hemlock but some birch present until we reached a road or two and made our way to this "Crag Mountain" thing. The summit is semi-open with a series of ledges, one of which looks out North and East -- we decided to have lunch here. From the ledge you get a great view of the rolling hills in the distance and can see Mt. Grace (with fire tower) and Grand Monadnock about 35 miles North. There were also turkey vultures floating around above but every time we went over to look at them they moved away. I guess they didn't feel like competing with us.
We kept walking, now through predominantly pine woods (with some birch and hemlock mixed in) that gave the forest floor a nice squishy feel. I honestly might have asked to turn around and go back had there not been a nice bed of pine needles on the trail. So, we kept walking along this attractive ridge, bushwhacked through some poison ivy and then eventually found a road and the end to this section of the M-M Trail. we then decided to walk back. Along the way we bypassed the Hermit's Castle Loop which is not part of the M-M trail (wouldn't want to miss a spot!) and came to this place called "Farley's Ledge." This was a ledge that looked over into the river valley. Eric called the river, "Miller's River," or something and I assume he wasn't lying but I might have written that wrong. Anyway, there were some train tracks and just our luck a train was passing through! I even got the whole thing on video! After that we traveled the remaining ups and downs back to the trailhead.
This was one of the finest hikes that I've been on all year! The trail was in great shape -- someone obviously takes pride in maintaining this section of the M-M trail. The trail was very attractive with it's thick canopy of first hemlock and then pine trees. There were some great views from various ledges. There was interesting signs around in the area including a one for "Rattlesnake Ledge" which you have to check out in the pictures section. This is an area that I look forward to returning to. There are numerous areas that we did not go to (Rattlesnake Ledge) and areas for further exploration (Hermit's Castle) and it'll be a durn good hike in the fall and winter. Also, this 16 or 17 mile round trip (8 hour) hike was a 45 minute drive from my house. That's about a 5:1 ratio of hiking to driving. I like that. I'm really beginning to appreciate all the hiking opportunities in Massachusetts.
-Dr. Wu
The woods were very nice from the start -- mostly Hemlocks during the first part. After a while we reached a side trail to "Hermit's Castle." Actually, it was a loop. We went down (Eric had been before) and got to some huge rock -- one of the biggest that I've seen in the backcountry. So, I'm admiring this thing, commenting about how big it is and Eric tells me, "That's not the castle -- that's just the outpost!" And lo and behold a few minutes later we reach the "Castle." It's not a castle really but a freakin' fortress! It's basically an enormous rock ledge, about 100-200' high and running continuously for about a 1/2 mile or so. This was one of the most spectacular things that I've ever seen while hiking in New England. One could (and I plan to) spend a whole day just messing around on this thing.
From the Castle we continued through the attractive woods, still mostly hemlock but some birch present until we reached a road or two and made our way to this "Crag Mountain" thing. The summit is semi-open with a series of ledges, one of which looks out North and East -- we decided to have lunch here. From the ledge you get a great view of the rolling hills in the distance and can see Mt. Grace (with fire tower) and Grand Monadnock about 35 miles North. There were also turkey vultures floating around above but every time we went over to look at them they moved away. I guess they didn't feel like competing with us.
We kept walking, now through predominantly pine woods (with some birch and hemlock mixed in) that gave the forest floor a nice squishy feel. I honestly might have asked to turn around and go back had there not been a nice bed of pine needles on the trail. So, we kept walking along this attractive ridge, bushwhacked through some poison ivy and then eventually found a road and the end to this section of the M-M Trail. we then decided to walk back. Along the way we bypassed the Hermit's Castle Loop which is not part of the M-M trail (wouldn't want to miss a spot!) and came to this place called "Farley's Ledge." This was a ledge that looked over into the river valley. Eric called the river, "Miller's River," or something and I assume he wasn't lying but I might have written that wrong. Anyway, there were some train tracks and just our luck a train was passing through! I even got the whole thing on video! After that we traveled the remaining ups and downs back to the trailhead.
This was one of the finest hikes that I've been on all year! The trail was in great shape -- someone obviously takes pride in maintaining this section of the M-M trail. The trail was very attractive with it's thick canopy of first hemlock and then pine trees. There were some great views from various ledges. There was interesting signs around in the area including a one for "Rattlesnake Ledge" which you have to check out in the pictures section. This is an area that I look forward to returning to. There are numerous areas that we did not go to (Rattlesnake Ledge) and areas for further exploration (Hermit's Castle) and it'll be a durn good hike in the fall and winter. Also, this 16 or 17 mile round trip (8 hour) hike was a 45 minute drive from my house. That's about a 5:1 ratio of hiking to driving. I like that. I'm really beginning to appreciate all the hiking opportunities in Massachusetts.
-Dr. Wu
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