Too big a place to explore thoroughly, I did a sweep that passed over the three summits and exhausted myself. Saw one faint trace of the Wachusett Tradition and come away mostly with the memory of a single perfect brook crossing.The drive north on Rt 3 had a sort of aesthetic:
Later, parking on Dunstable Rd and walking in westward towards the hill, I was confronted with a flooded trail and had to go upstream around the bend of the hill to the north, looking for a place narrow enough to cross.About half-way up the hill, facing north, I found something by sheer luck, I was not expecting anything midway up the hill. But here was a rectangular rock pile outline:
(from the other direction)
This pile was 10 feet uphill from the corner of a short L-shaped stretch of stone wall dis-connected from other walls:
A bit further west on the hillside was another L-shaped stretch of wall but it connected to other walls running along the hill:
I remember seeing other L-shaped short stretches of walls not too far away at a place called "Elbow Meadow" (click here).And that was about all I saw on this large hill. I would have explored more of it but found myself tiring more rapidly than expected, so I headed downhill back in the direction of my car. Ran into the same flooded area and was circling the wet area back towards where I first crossed the brook. But I took a chance and headed into a muddy area and found a place where a thin slippery log crossed the brook. Made a cane from a branch, planted it in mid brook. Took a first cautious step on the wet log, planned my next step carefully, swung my foot smoothly up to this spot, and stepped once more onto the muddy grass at the other side. The log was thin enough that it could have snapped and put me thigh deep into the brook but it all went smoothly - a memorable crossing.
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Photo #7: is that an outcrop?
No outcrops.
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