EZ Storage by Rt 3 - a roadside attraction from the Journals

I have been wanting to tell about this site because I see it twice a day. So here is my account from April 2004.

I have been commuting between home and Andover Mass. This takes me along Route 3 and along Rt 495 twice at day. I always look for interesting things in the woods, when I can spare a moment's attention from the traffic, and, of course, there are a few places along there that look interesting and worth exploring. Years ago I noticed a large rock in back of a company off of Route 3, which you can see in the southbound direction just before an overpass directly to the north of Treble Cove Rd. So I also look at this big rock on the way by every afternoon. In the past I thought it looked like a turtle and certainly this looked like one of those "spots"; even though it was in the narrow strip of woods between Rt. 3 and the EZ-Storage Company parking. From Rt. 3 you'll see something like this:
Looking more carefully at it, or rather glimpsing it more carefully as I rush by at ~70 mph, I noticed what looked like rock piles next to it, so today I figured out how to get there on surface streets and went out to take some pictures. For the record, the overpass to Rt 3 is Rangeway Rd in Billerica, just north of the Treble Cove Rd exit from Rt 3. The Rangeway Rd overpass and Rt 3 divide the land area into 4 quadrants and I explored each of them. Mainly the northwest quadrant is the interesting one, containing this large rock and 5 or so rock piles.
I kind of like the shots with Rt 3 in the background.

Several of the piles had a turtle like look to them, with a large rock hanging over the edge. Here is one, front and back:
And here is an interesting "seat" style pile only a few yards from Rt 3. It is interesting to me because of the rusting bucket in the interior. This cannot be too old and I very much think the bucket is from a "user" of the rock piles.
Previously, on Little Bear Hill, I thought I had found a rock pile with a rusted gear incorporated into it. I was judging from a picture and later concluded the "gear" was just a curl of bark. So this rusted bucket is the first certain example of a recent offering, included in a rock pile.

At the back of the main large rock there are some damaged structures. One consists of a short stone wall leading out (west) to end in yet another turtle like pile. The next picture shows this pile, in relation to the large rock. The other picture is a detail of some of the structure in the front of the large rock, which includes propped up fragments. You can barely make out a small dark cobble wedging up the middle two fragments.
After spending no more than 10 minutes at this site (hardly a place to hang out, next to Rt 3 and behind the EZ Storage Company's parking lot; but I feel bad that I was "site bagging" which I am, all too often, guilty of), I went back to the car and drove to each of the other "quadrants" to take a look around. It appears the Rt 3 and Rangeway Rd overpass pretty much went right through the middle of this nice site. But I am not saddened; perhaps because this, today, is the place I know, not the one that was here before. Also, it is still a nice site, in spite of it having been so thoroughly ravaged. Another possibility occurs to me: that this site was created after the roads were put in.

Anyway, across Rt 3 from the turtles, there were two nice split-wedge/filled rocks. Here is the first, right out near the highway (visible in the background), showing first the rock and then a look down into the split, with an arrangement of several wedges.
Here is a second split-wedged rocks, a little further back in the woods. That's a heavy rock on top: too heavy for a passing "boy scout".
Across Rangeway Rd from this place, is not much. Across Rangeway Rd from the driveway into the EZ-Storage company is a little up-and-down above a wetland. Several nice larger rocks but I only noticed one rock-pile structure of the platform/seat variety behind one large rock (you can see Rt 3 through the trees):I noticed from the car, but did not stop to photo it, that there was what looked like a "Twin" pile down in there too, closer to Rt. 3. Probably worth taking a closer look at sometime. So there you have it. Another little site, not too much the worse for wear for having been chopped into pieces by a road and a highway. Interestingly, this location is on the same direct diagonal line, which I call "Hobomock's Spine" that includes all the other sites down through Carlisle, Acton, etc.