Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Winter at "Above The Falls" - Bolton MA

This is a favorite site I call "Above the Falls" and I thought it would be worth going out to take some pictures of it in the snow. Even though I know exactly where the site is, I had trouble seeing it. It was so covered with snow I would not have seen the rock piles - except that I knew they were there.
[Click here for all the previous articles mentioning this site.]

I had a chance to re-examine the layout of the rock piles around the main central boulder feature at the site and I took pictures from every angle. Here is a sketch of the layout:The picture is oriented with the top of the picture more or less to the North. Notice that four of the piles are more or less in line with each other. Notice also that there are several "gaps" - between the boulder and the largest pile, and between the upper two piles. Notice also that, with the exception of the large pile forming a gap with the boulder, the other piles are all slightly elongated in a directions towards the upper left, which would be roughly northwest.

Here are the panoramas. You can figure out which direction. I started looking north, then moving counter clockwise around the features.These gaps open towards water and, in fact the site is on a piece of land between two brooks which meet and form a cataract dropping down about 15 feet at the edge of the site to the east.

Here are "before and after" shots of a snow-covered pile:It was well-buried.

I should mention a connection between deer and this site. I found two different well-preserved deer skulls here. One had a full ten-point rack of antlers (which I traded to FFC for a lunch one time). Visiting this time in the snow, I noticed a deer had walked up into the gap between the large boulder and the adjacent large pile. The deer stopped, peed, and then came back out again. You can make out its tracks in the first photo above, heading up into the gap.

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