Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Near Sippewisset

At the end of Terhuen Dr in Falmouth, there is a path into the woods. You step on a couple of smeared out rock piles (a) and then have a choice between a short easy walk on the path or heading into the bullbriar. Last weekend I went south along the side of the gully to (b) where I noticed an isolated rock pile and a low, very decrepit, stone wall. It runs south along the side of the valley, then turns, crosses a knoll where it forms more of a mound, then terminates at a large boulder. I did not have my camera as I did not expect to find anything on that walk. I went back this weekend for a more thorough look. I see now that the land form is a southern piece of Swift's Hill, one of the tallest hills in the town. 
In fact this hill has rock piles all over it if you look carefully. At (c) there were ~3 piles.
At (d) I stumbled back into a site where I have been before. Seems as though I always end up here in the same place. Lost in the woods, I am able to locate myself because I recognize a rock pile. The place is well hidden otherwise.
Then I extricated myself. [These accounts are sprinkled with references to the difficulty of walking in here. My legs are all scratched up with bullbriar scratches and I dare say, not too many people go off trail in this part of town.]. 
Taking the straight line from the hilltop back towards (a) I found myself stepping on other rock piles again at (e). So they are well hidden, and difficult to get to but this hill has plenty of rock pile clusters. My understanding is that the higher norther part of Swift's Hill is private property. A landowner there asked me to come look at the stone structures on his property, so there is that still to do.

3 comments :

Tim MacSweeney said...

Nice finds! I hate ending up in bullbriar/greenbrier - and, wondering if it is a native plant (it is)I just happened across a study (done not too far away from where you are writing about on Naushon Island) about it and fire, wondering how it might work into the fire management scheme.

http://www.myfirecommunity.net/discussionimages/NPost2621Attach1.pdf

Tim MacSweeney said...

Well: "Following fire,
greenbrier resprouts vigorously Richburg 2005). Rabbits (Niering and Dreyer 1989)and deer (pers. obs.) browse succulent post-fire shoots." How might that work out in a "burn the woods over" hunting strategy?

pwax said...

It is overdue for a burning.