Sunday, May 21, 2006

Larry Harrop follows directions from JimP and takes pictures

Larry Harrop writes:
Hi Peter,

I'm uploading some pictures that I took from Jim Porter's site in Rhode Island. The album name is Western Rhode Island.
(
http://larryharrop.com )
I was only able to handle 3.5 miles on the yellow trail before turning back. So I'm sure I didn't see everything there is.

Multitudinous rock piles indeed. Rock piles and cairns in large areas scattered along the trail. A few split and filled boulders as well. This site is similar to Parker Woodland, but the piles here seem to be a lot older and not as well defined. The first thing I noticed was the absences of quartz rocks that are so common in other areas.

Nothing really jumps out at you here until you come to the stone walls. The only purpose of these walls or rows seems to be to connect boulders together. They curve, turn and twist every which way just to connect to another boulder. The stone work was amazing in some sections, not like any wall construction I've seen.
(
http://larryharrop.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1510 )
None of these would serve any farming purposes.

( http://larryharrop.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1495 )
Hopefully, I'll be able to get back there this fall and winter ( Lyme free) to throughly explore this area. This area is only 15 miles S W of Parker Woodland. It would be well worth a trip to both of these places. Thanks to Jim Porter for the directions.

Larry

Just a reminder to everyone to check yourself for ticks frequently.. I resorted to treating my clothing with Permethrin. Today I had the pleasure of seeing a tick on my pant leg curl up in a ball and fall off .

3 comments :

pwax said...

JimP: That looks like quite a site.
LarryH: You take great pictures.
I am going to take my time looking through these pics.

JimP said...

Thanks so much for going out there and taking these photos Larry. This site is a serious feast for the ancient stonework lover.

One thing about it that no still camera could capture is the vast quantities of piles and walls. There are sections of trail where there are piles 360 degrees and as far as you can see into the woods.

If walking to the NNW through this area as Larry did, this stonework basically leads the way to a phenomenally beautiful natural area. Eventually the piles peter out to just mostly walls connecting boulders. Then those walls lead you amazing cliff overlooks and rocky terrain very unlike anything else in Rhode Island.

JimP said...

I wanted to add -- Larry mentioned in his description that the site didn't contain quartz, at least from what he saw -- another site without quartz that comes to mind is Queen's Fort. I looked for quartz there on many visits and found none. There is green waxy epidote, but no quartz that I've found.