The Red Red Oak

The Beauty of the Quabbin in Early Autumn

With thanks to our supporting photographer for the photo in the middle.

Catch & Release

Yesterday, at the Quabbin -- Swift River. It was a beautiful day, and the perfect day to be out and about. We took the short drive to the Quabbin, where we saw a number of fellows enjoying the cool waters and the rainbow trout. We even saw a catch.
Catch & release fly fishing is allowed year round. Visit this link for more information.

Goodnough Dike

It was a grey and cloudy Saturday when I made my first visit to the Goodnough Dike, part of the Quabbin on the south end. But the greyness did nothing to diminish the beauty of the water and the sky and the bare trees.

The Dike is accessible on foot or bicycle -- no motor vehicles. It was built in 1938 and is named after X Henry Goodnough, who, among other things, made contributions to the Quabbin Reservoir Projects.

So, next time you're at the Quabbin, do yourself a favour and make the trek to the Goodnough -- maybe even take one of the hiking trails through the woods to get there.

Quabbin Park Cemetery

Remember when those four towns were disincorporated to construct the Quabbin Reservoir? The entire population of those towns needed to be relocated, along with businesses and homes -- and the cemeteries. Thirty-four cemeteries in all, according to mass.gov, and more than 6000 graves were moved. Many of those graves were moved to the Quabbin Park Cemetery, which I visited yesterday.

The Quabbin Park Cemetery was a peaceful place on a Saturday morning; peaceful and maybe just a tiny bit disheveled. Unlike the highly manicured cemeteries in eastern MA, this one had a bit of wildness in -- and more than just from the turkey I caught trotting amidst the graves, scratching at the dirt. I enjoyed the serenity of the cemetery in mid-April.

If you're in a cemetery or historical state of mind, it's worth a visit. Take a little time to read from the stones, when the words can be read. There are always stories living in a cemetery.

A general view of the cemetery.

Can you see the turkey?

A plaque on cannon moved from the town of Dana when the reservoir was built.

More cemetery pictures will come later, with a few gravestones and such.

March Visitor Budget Itinerary

What to do when you have a houseguest for 2 days in the middle of March? Try the following:
Friday:

• Pick up from airport/bus station/train station
• Take pseudo-scenic route home, passing through the Quabbin for pictures, history, and sightings of deer
• Get home, unpack, shower, grab a snack, catch up
  
• Visit the Clapp Library to pick up movies and (hopefully) museum passes; look at the beautiful building and make introductions to the library
• Stop off at Rannsaka for a bit of local shopping
• Head over to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art; see the great exhibits, learn about the building of the museum, and definitely visit the gift shop
• Go next door to Atkins Farms to pick up dinner makings and a pie
• Run up to Trader Joe's and Target in Hadley to run those errands you didn't get to run during the week and to get the things your houseguest couldn't take on the plane
• Come back home because everyone is exhausted; fix dinner; watch a movie; eat pie.

Saturday:

• Sleep in; get up and watch the birds; eat breakfast
• Make a quick trip to Rannsaka with cash to purchase what there wasn't enough cash to purchase the day before
• Wheel on up to Amherst, where there are plenty of parking places
• Visit the Amherst College Museum of Natural History (which is free) to see skeletons of long-extinct animals, locally-discovered dinosaur prints, and a sparkling mineral collection
• Meander around Amherst; grab a tasty lunch at The Black Sheep and relax
• Walk by a few shops on your way to the car
• Drive to Northampton and Smith College, where the Spring Bulb and Flower Show is on display at the Lyman Conservatory -- make sure you don't miss it
• Explore the college some, finally wending your way to Rt 9 where there are plenty of shops to visit on a sunny Saturday afternoon
• Finally make your way to Amanouz Cafe for tasty baklava; stick around for an early dinner, if you wish
• If you didn't eat Mediterranean at Amanouz, eat BiBimBop at the Korean Restaurnt on Rt 9 in Hadley
• On the way back home, take one more quick pass at Atkins to buy some of their killer cider donuts for an easy Sunday morning breakfast
• Take a short drive around the Holyoke Mountains to show off a bit more of that March beauty that's around
• Back at home, download all the pictures you've taken all day long, eat more pie, and watch a movie before crashing in bed.

There are a few things I would have liked to include in all our travelings around, and we might have been able to if not for extenuating circumstances. If you can, get ice cream at Bart's Homemade Cafe, have breakfast at either Kristina's or Roadhouse, take a hike around the Quabbin, take a little more time to visit some of the shops in Amherst (like the bookstore and the scandinavian store), stop off at Nash's, and maybe even catch a film at one of the local independent theatres. There is plenty to do, and two days is just enough time to get a taste of some of the great things the Valley has to offer. I'm looking forward to planning more quick itinerary's for the spring and summer when the weather warms and the options drastically increase.

So there you have it -- two days of fun in the Belchertown sun for pretty much anyone. If you add another day, there's time to see the Berkshires, visit Springfield or Brattleboro, trek around the Holyokes..., but I won't get into those possibilities now.

My sister came in this weekend (Friday morning to Sunday morning), and we had a great time following that itinerary from above. It was a super short visit, but loads of fun.
My camera was off in Utah somewhere, so pictures will come later (she took some fantastic pictures, and I need to get linked to them so I can sort through them and pick some winners) -- be looking for them!

Quaboag Valley

The Quaboag Valley Tourism Site serves a number of towns in the region, including our own: Belchertown. Instead of heading north and west, however, as this blog generally does, the Quaboag Valley site takes us east and south to towns like W. Brookfield, Brimfield, Wales, and Monson. It lists Things to Do (Outdoor Recreation, Arts & Museums, Historical Sites, and more), Food and Spirits (Restaurants, Pubs, and more), Accomodations, Visitor Resources, and the Brimfield Antique Shows. It also keeps a calendar of local events.

The Quaboag Chamber of Commerce shares the site and has a searchable listing of member businesses, as well as community profiles and elected officials.

These pages are a wonderful resource for getting to know Quaboag Valley area and for taking advantage of all its resources.

Natural History

When first we moved to Belchertown, I purchased The Natural History of Western Massachusetts by Stan Freeman and Mike Nasuti at Amherst Books. Being the librarian and information gatherer that I am, I read the green paperback straight through that same weekend on a trip to Vermont and have referred to it time and time again since then.

The book is a slender 112 pages, crammed full of pictures and interesting information. It includes maps, wildlife (birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, fish, and more), flowers and trees, ecosystems, geology, dinosaurs, ice age, early humans, water, weather, and a nature calendar for Western Massachusetts and the Connecticut River Valley Region. Wonderful photographs of spiders, wolves, bears, eagles, waterfalls, dragonflies, mountains, and dinosaur footprints, and identification guides for trees, birds, flowers, and butterflies enhance the informative text.

TNHoWM has been a great resource for me as I have been acquainting myself with my new home. I have used it to identify birds (we have a new bird at our feeder) and trees and to find places to visit. I track the seasons with the wildlife calendar, compare snowfall to years past, and dream about meeting my first moose. I contemplate mountains to hike and waterfalls to get sprayed by. And often, I will simply flip the book open to a random page to reread something I've forgotten.
If you live in the Western MA area and have an interest in the local natural wonders, I highly recommend picking up this book for reference -- it's a good choice for all ages and is a worthy coffeetable book or family discussion book.

For more Natural History, visit this post.

Turkeys

In honor of our recently passed holiday, I thought I'd put up this picture I took at the Quabbin while hiking around one day in September. I was on a lonely trail and came across a flock of enormous turkeys. I took picture after picture after picture, and somehow, in the pictures, the turkeys all managed to disappear. I think you can see one or two in this photo, if you look very very carefully.

Pictures of Autumn

Just a few pictures I took while I was out and about this weekend -- it was definitely a beautiful weekend for foliage and the weather was perfect. My camera didn't quite do justice to the scenes, but at least some came through. Click on the pics for larger images. (Pictures come from the DAR State Forest in Goshen, Hamilton Orchards, and the Quabbin.)

Mapping the Quabbin

Yesterday's excursion took me to the Quabbin Reservoir for a short hike. The Quabbin has an interesting history which includes the "discontinuation" of four towns that used to inhabit the valley: Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott. You can read a bit about the Quabbin and the Winsor Dam by clicking on the "dcr" picture on the right.

I started off on an information seeking quest -- to find the visitor's center and glean some knowledge -- and maybe even find a map of hiking trails. (The Visitor's Center is off Rt 9 in Belchertown and ajoins the State Police.) The VC has historical books about the Quabbin, lists of animal sighted, statistics about rainfall, and information about the towns the were discontinued. For $2.10 I was able to pick up a hiking trail map of the south end of the Quabbin; there were a few other maps available as well.

Soon I left the building and was walking across the Winsor Dam, a beautiful length of grassy road, admiring the water, the blue sky, the trees, and the stony shores. I crossed the dam and headed up a road that led to the Winsor Memorial -- erected for Frank E Winsor who was the chief engineer of the dam.

The Quabbin was built in 1939 and is the largest body of water in Massachusetts, at 39.4 square miles of surface area. It holds 412 billion gallons when filled to capacity and serves as the water source for the metro-Boston area.

However, it's not just the numbers that are extraordinary about this location; the shear beauty alone is breathtaking. Though I didn't make it to the lookout tower, my short hike was pleasant and peaceful, and I'm looking forward to going back soon. The Quabbin is the perfect place to go for hiking, walking, cycling, or running, and it's a wonderful location for birdwatching and other nature-based pursuits -- in fact, a moose had been spotted on Quabbin property earlier that morning, and I had the pleasure (?) of nearly running into a flock of very large turkeys!

Hamilton Orchards

It's autumn and time for peaches and apples -- and apparently, raspberries. I've never considered raspberries fall food before, but I was definitely mistaken. Yesterday morning and friend and I went to Hamilton Orchards in New Salem to pick raspberries. And my, were there raspberries! Rows of red and golden raspberries, buzzing with happy bees and being nibbled by japanese beetles. It was good picking -- we each picked four quarts in about 1.5 hours; not too bad for raspberries -- and you can freeze them, make jam out of them, put them on cereal, make pie -- so many good things can be done with raspberries!

The orchards also had apples ready -- macs and cortlands -- which you can buy by the 1/2 peck or peck, or you can pick your own. (There are a number of pick-your-own orchards and farms around -- I'll try to get a good post about those, soon.) The macouns come later. The orchard store carried apple cider ($3.50 for a 1/2 gallon, if I remember correctly), pies, cookies, chocolates, honey, apple dumplings, corn, and a variety of other candies, pastries, and such things.

The farm is also home to some goats, sheep, dogs, pigs, and a donkey (who kept braying, making quite a racket) -- part of their little petting zoo. The dogs and goats were quite friendly -- that I can attest to. (I'm always taken by an adorable goat face.)

Hamilton Orchards is just up 202, north of Belchertown by about 20-25 minutes. The view on the drive is spectacular, showing off the Quabbin, which sits below the road, surrounded by trees.

Happy picking!