Wednesday, June 19, 2013

I didn't mean to go to Gardner

More a comedy of errors than a righteous site find. I made several tactical blunders in planning; the worst being that I misjudged the exit off Rt 2 by about 5 miles. So I passed where I thought I should exit then, confused, reversed directions and went back to the first place. Took a walk there in a woods at the end of a road that was similar enough to my plan that I only realized later it was a different place. Back in the car, I finally saw the mistake on the map (compounded by a page break at this spot in the map book) and proceeded to the originally planned exit, then drove far past the turn I wanted and gave up, going into yet another conservation land that looked a bit like the one I planned to visit. In the end I visited two places like the one I planned but never got there (Beech Hill in Westminster). 
At one point on this second walk, I saw a woodcock fly out of the woods and land on the road 20 yards ahead. It spotted me reaching for my camera and took off. On the walk, I just kept going uphill, up and over, trying to get to the back side of the hill (of course this was the wrong hill), and followed a bit of a gully - way high on the hill. There was not much there except walls. One thin trace of a wall led diagonally over to the brook so I followed it - the way you do. 
It led to the brook and across the brook was a massive bit of terracing:
This is deep in the woods and not an open field above. Instead the thick wall stopped after a few feet, then there as another wall "corner"  without much accompanying extension. It was completely covered with ferns. I walked back along the side of the slope and encountered more brief stretches of wall covered in ferns. It was hard going so I stepped down, back into the lower wetlands and hit rock piles - three or more of them.
 
 
 
 
Not much to see. But these terraces mixed with rock piles and a watershed high point are different than what I am used to. I imagine that the further from home I get, the more different things will be. It is only a bit true. I tried to sketch the features in black:
Back at my car again I realized this was still the wrong hill. I have it to do.

2 comments :

  1. Title is a reference to Arthur Ransome's "We didn't mean to go to sea."

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  2. Compare with the saddle and hill south of Lost Valley/Wallace Brook at the north end of TSF.

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