Moose Mountains Reservation 6/27/11

"Bringing Burrows Cemetery Back from the Dead!" (pictures)

Thimbleberry Flowers and a Bee

After a lousy week of weather and so-so weekend it was a nice change to finally have the sun out and hot weather. There was no humidity and it was just plain beautiful out! I took a drive to Home Depot and got some clippers to bring up to the Moose Mountains Burrows Cemetery. I decided to wait for Scott to get home from work at three because he never gets a chance to work on the property. So when he got home we headed out!

Hawthorn Flowers

We got to the lot at about 3:45. The gate was still closed from my last visit five days prior and all the signs were still in place. We made the hot walk up the road batting at mosquito's and horsefly's. Wildflowers were still plentiful with Whorled Loosestrife, Hawthorn and Daisy Fleabane making an appearance. Also all along the road was Tall Meadow Rue flowering and standing taller than me at nearly 6 1/2 feet! Awesome!

Scott working on Burrows Cemetery

We took a left at the first road junction for a short cut and came up past the Steven's Cemetery. Through the grass covered road and up to the Burrow's Cemetery. We put out gloves on and went to work. Scott began outside the fence with the large clippers. They turned out to work very well and also extend!

Jason working on Burrows Cemetery

I began inside the fence with the small clippers. A lot of weeds had to be pulled and there were more trees to cut than what we thought. After some time of cutting and throwing piles of brush to the side we switched tools and finished up the work. We even cleared out on the right side (outside the cemetery) where I noticed a large, pretty blue hedge was growing.

White Admiral Butterfly

This done and tired out from the heat and bending over, we headed back to get home for a quick dinner than off to work. On the road walk back I spotted a beautiful butterfly and was able to chase it down for a picture :) Looking good up here! Roads are drying up nicely and the field has grown in nicely! I will probably be back Tuesday to do some more work. We will be picking up paint from the Forest Society on Friday and will be blazing some of the trails soon!

Phoebe's Nable Mt. & North Trail 6/15/11

"Trash and Wildflowers, and a Double Whammy of Moose!" (pictures)
(Moose Mountains Facebook Group)
 

Fawn on Ridge Road

Well I finally got myself in the mood for picking up trash at Moose Mountains Reservation. After a wet and cold week, a nice day on Wednesday had me wanting to get out and do some hiking. So I finagled an old hiking pole with an unused bowie knife to create my bad-ass trash picker! And off I went....hold on, gotta have trash bags....OK, now I'm ready! As I rounded a corner on Ridge Road I spotted a fawn in the road. It crouched down against the pavement as I passed. Not sure if it was hurt or just scared I parked. I began to jump out for a closer look and it jumped up and darted into the woods. Off you go Bambi!  I parked in the parking area and put the gate back up. Then beginning on the right side of the road I began the search for trash.

Larger Blue Flag Iris

Along the way wildflowers that had passed, where replaced with new kinds. It was an interesting balance holding a trash bag in one hand, a pole in the other and taking out my camera constantly to snap pics of the flowers! A few bugs made there way into my lens as well but the flying insects would have to be on hold today as I didn't have the time or patience for them! At one section of the roadside I passed by a beautiful colony of Bird's-Foot Trefoil and found a small bunch of Larger Blue Flag Iris's. Spectacular! I continued my walk up to the Burrows Farm site, took some pics and continued on.

On the Summit of Phoebe's Nable

I took a left onto Phoebe's Nable spur trail, collected bottles we had stashed from picking them up on a previous hike and continued up the hillside. Temperatures were rising and I was getting pretty hot up this steep section of trail. This area was apparently where the ticks had moved too as I began to find them on my legs. Ah the beauty of hairy legs! They have trouble climbing and I can feel them when they disturb a hair follicle, LOL! I arrived at the summit, took a picture and headed back down quickly to get back home for 3.

Thimble Berry

I did have to stop a few times for more flower pics. I just can't help myself! They were so pretty! One flowering plant on the picture to the left was all over. I've yet to figure out what it is, but very pretty! The task completed I had one 33 gallon bag of trash! I passed a couple my age coming up from the parking lot whom I introduced myself too and spoke with shortly. Nice to see people hiking this area each time I'm here, more than I had previously thought!

Unkown Bird

I got back home just before Scott arrived from work. He wanted to go for a hike and I was totally down for another hike! It was after all, a beautiful afternoon! We threw some peaks around but really didn't want to drive to them. Doesn't help that we have to head to work at 6/6:30. So it was back to Moose Mountains. I decided we would try the North trail as I recall reading there was some sort of view up there. We got a slight view South from a banking along a landing area where two birds were making noise and flying about. Not sure what they were, Northern Rough-Winged Swallow was the best I could come up with.

Ledge with view to Piper Mt.

We passed by more wildflowers, tiger beetles along the road and dragon fly's. We passed by some open rock ledge with a pretty good view of Piper Mt. and arrived at a large landing zone. It was here I believed we were to take a left but everything looked to be grown in. So we continued on the only open road to the right over a gated bridge which we re-gated. Tick checks kept turning up a couple of the little buggers. Ticks...ick! We continued for a ways upward then as the trail began to drastically descend it was getting too late so we turned back. Another trip not finding the views we had heard about, ugh! Soon we WILL find what we are looking for and can mark and trim these trails!