Poltrack Blog

Hogback Pond is a glacial kettle pond formed by massive chunks of ice buried in the sand. Hogback Trail circles the pond. It is a quiet and beautiful trail. A portion of the trail was a former carriage road I got caught in a quick rain shower A view of the pond I would wish for more dragonflies and less mosquitoes The trail is well marked I heard some splashes but didn't see any pond life The sky was amazing It has been wet and a great year for mushrooms Love the sky More fungi

I've been asking myself why I didn't wear a swimsuit when I took the short walk to the Lower Purgatory Falls on Purgatory Road. When I arrived I saw a number of children cooling off in a pool near the falls. On the walk I saw several mushrooms, a true sign of August These are the fruiting bodies of the fungi which only become visible starting in August So many people walk the trail the soil is  worn down to tree roots The falls are beautiful Another view Hypnotic watching this

After a week of haze, humidity and heat, Saturday brought welcome relief. I was anxious to take a stroll in the woods and a great place to do that are the trails at the Beaver Brook Association in Hollis, NH. I picked a trail that looped around a pond, checked out the gardens and American Chestnut nursery. Young American Chestnuts being provided  by The American Chestnut Foundation  with the hope of reintroducing the tree after being decimated by the 1904 Chestnut Blight . The trees are kept behind a tall fence. They share the space with bee hives. I assume the fence keeps out deer and bears. Swamp Rose spotted on the bridge near the pond. Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lily) growing in the garden Mandevilla growing in the garden. This plant is not hardy, it was growing in a container Bee Balm spotted along the wildflower trail Thyme for some honeybees The Garden at Beaver Brook Association

Just off the Goffstown Rail Trail is an eerie sight. Rows of numbered graves without names, gender, dates or any other humanizing details. Records of the interred have been lost. According to Jerome St. Germain, a maintenance worker at Hillsborough County complex and caretaker of the cemetery the graves contains the "poor, sick or insane" as well as Civil War veterans who had no family. The graves are located just off the Goffstown Rail Trail near the Goffstown District Court on Mast Road 710 Numbered Graves The stones were engraved with just a number so that the county could save tax dollars, Sadly records of the names were lost. A simple marker at the cemetery

I often think how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place. I took the opportunity over the last couple of days to visit friends and walk along trails that they have created on their properties. The biggest treat for me was seeing the damsel flies cavorting on rocks and plants near the Souhegan River. All these photos were taken in Smithville, New Ipswich. It only makes sense that a bus that traveled to the Burning Man Festival would end up in a field in New Ipswich. Photo taken with an infrared filter (because I can). I spent a fair amount of time at "Kelly Cove" watching Damselflies cavort in the sun.  Great signage Mary Kelly-Ciancetta I wanted to take a trail to Caribou Farm but it was too chaotic I spotted this on another trail on a friend's property, Some familiar names. I spotted lots of nice bracket fungi A A Fungus among us Gills Interesting trail marker Hiking on one of the many trails on the Dudley Property...

In 1923, Marion Buck of New Ipswich and Frank Robbins of Rindge planned a 21 mile hiking trail from Mount Watatic in Ashburnham, MA to Pack Monadnock in Greenfield, NH. They named the trail WA-PACK using the first syllables of the mountain peaks. To celebrate the 90th birthday of the trail in 2013, the group Friends of the Wapack held a series of guided hikes along different parts of the trail. I attended the one held on June 1st which started at cellar hole of the Wapack Lodge which was destroyed by lightning in 1993.