Hike #45: McLean Game Refuge - Granby, CT

Date Hiked: Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Estimated distance: 3.46 miles
Weather: 55°F, sunny
Resources: McLean Game Refuge Trail Map
Highlights of the trip:  awesome variety of fungi, views
Progress toward 2016 hiking goals:  45/52 hikes; 169.66/250 miles; 31.37/25 miles on Tunxis Trail


I wanted to get out for a hike on this beautiful day, but since I hadn't planned ahead, I stuck with my usual trip to McLean Game Refuge.  I did decide to change my loop just a bit, figuring the highlight of the trip would be the hike to the top of the Eastern Barndoor Hill.  The view was nice, but what really made this hike great was the amazing variety of fungi I found.

Spring Pond.  The leaves are just starting to change.

The variety of mushrooms I saw in just one hike was amazing.  Colors crossed a wide spectrum - white, beige, yellow, pink, orange, and violet.  Be prepared to be bored by my many, many pictures of mushrooms.  In some cases I have guessed as to their names, but they are only guesses.

Some sort of coral fungi.

False turkey-tail fungus?

Some sort of slime mold.

Witches' Butter

Wolf's-milk Slime?

As I turned from the trail that came up from dried-up Kettle Pond, I came to this big, dead tree.  I love this tree.  So stately.  It was here that I had seen puffballs before, so I stopped to take a look.  No luck.

I continued on the trail to the summit.  Aster and goldenrod were growing along the side of the trail.

I stepped out onto the ledge so that I could look north.  It looks like that is Sodom Mountain in Southwick, MA just to the right of center.  The leaves are only just starting to change.

I walked to the second viewpoint to look out over the Western Barndoor Hill.

Spiny puffball.

Another spiny puffball?

I had been keeping my eyes out for puffballs and was rewarded with a log absolutely covered with them.  These seem relatively "fresh" in that the insides were a spongy white.  As they age, a little hole opens in the top and the insides turn to a powder of spores.  If you squeeze the puffball a little "puff of smoke" comes out.  When I was a kid, we used puffballs as mini-grenades in our war-play out in the woods.

Gem-studded puffball?

Near the beginning of my hike, when I was taking a picture of the pink slime molds, another hiker came along the trail.  He mentioned that he had seen these great big orange mushrooms back the way I had come.  I didn't feel like backtracking, and as it turns out, I didn't need to.  I came across these tremendous mushrooms later on.  They seriously looked like the color of pumpkins and I saw them from across the woods road.  Amazing!

Sulphur Shelf or Chicken Mushroom
Laetiporus sulphureus

Instead of taking the usual woods road back to the entrance, I decided to cross the stream and take the horse trail back.  I am so glad I did.  Check out the mushroom below.  It had to be at least as big as a basketball.

Hen of the Woods?

Birch polypore?

And finally, this little guy caught my eye because I noticed a flash of purple by the side of the trail.

Viscid Violet Cort (Cortinarius iodes)

It never ceases to amaze me that I can find something new and interesting on trails that I have hiked many, many times.

Russell, MA - Noble View

Date Hiked:  Saturday, October 5, 2013
Estimated distance round-trip:  4 miles
Weather: 70°F, cloudy
Resources:  Noble View Outdoor Center
Highlights of the trip: waterfalls, view from the lawn

Noble View, owned since 1931 by the Appalachian Mountain Club, covers over 350 acres and has 17 miles of trails.  Lodging is available if you want to spend more time.  The cottages and campsites are at the top of a hill with tremendous easterly views.

A friend and I met in the parking lot at 9:30 in the morning.  Neither of us had ever hiked at Noble View, but the trail map gave us a lot of choices.  We decided to do a loop starting from the parking lot and going down the Pitcher Brook Trail.  We followed this first to Little Pitcher Falls and then Big Pitcher Falls. 

Little Pitcher Falls

Big Pitcher Falls.

Our plan was to continue on this trail and hook up with the Charcoal Kiln Trail, but not long after Big Pitcher Falls, we lost the trail and ended up doing some bushwhacking.  We eventually crossed the Border Trail around markers 31 & 32.  We followed the Border Trail to the intersection with Laurel Lane and continued down to the Charcoal Kiln Trail.  No worries.

Puffballs.

Green stain fungus.

Off of the Charcoal Kiln Trail are two short spurs to overlooks.  Unfortunately, the trees have grown up enough to obscure any view.  We continued down the trail to the actual location of the Charcoal Kiln.

Charcoal kiln.

From here we had the choice of climbing back up along the Dam Brook Trail or going farther to the Glacial Erratic and up the County Road Trail. Our map indicated trail closures in both directions, but we figured we could bushwhack again if we had to.  We decided to head back up along the brook and connect with Laurel Lane to get back to the top.

Dam Brook.

We were able to follow blazes along the brook, but the trail could definitely use some work.  It appears that there was a washout or something, so perhaps one of the dams let go.  If you read the website, it sounds like the dam had a leak, so it is possible. 

More puffballs.

View looking over Westfield.

We really had a fantastic hike.  The blazing of the trails left a little to be desired and some of the trails could use some work, but all of the numbered markers were in place and were extremely helpful.

We finished our hike around 2 p.m. and we took a few moments to sit on a rock and enjoy the view.  There was a large group of campers that seemed to be having a great time with various activities.  Must have been these guys from Worcester.  Fantastic!

I will definitely be back to try some of the other trails.

Barkhamsted: Tunxis Trail - Ratlum Road South

Date Hiked: Saturday, September 21, 2013
Estimated distance: 3+ miles
Weather: sunny, cloudy, rainy (it's New England), 74°F
Resources: CT Walk Book West, CTMuseumQuest
Highlights of the trip:  view of Lake McDonough, catching up with a friend


On Saturday, I was casting about for a place to go hiking.  I wanted to try this hike on the Tunxis Trail, but my usual hiking companion was busy.  I don't mind hiking alone, but I would prefer to do it with someone else when it is an area I haven't been before.  I had resigned myself to a hike in McLean Game Refuge (which is very nice, but I go there a lot), when I received a call from my oldest and dearest friend.  Her husband was busy and she wondered if I wanted to go for a hike.  Perfect!

We drove over to Ratlum Road in Barkhamsted and left her car in the parking lot at Ski Sundown.  Sundown was having a brewfest at 4 p.m., but it was 12:30 and we figured we'd be done well before the crowd arrived.  We drove north on Ratlum to just before its intersection with 219 and parked in a little lot there to start our hike.

We started climbing and before too long came to the first overlook.  From here there was a somewhat obstructed view of the Barkhamsted Reservoir.

It was a nice ramble through the woods.  Some areas were a little muddy and are probably not very pleasant to pass in the spring.  At some point we came across the marker pictured below.  I believe the H.W.W. stands for Hartford Water Works.  I am not sure about the numbers.  I thought 1820 was the date, but from what I can tell, HWW didn't form for another 35 years.

This whole idea of creating large reservoirs by damming rivers and drowning towns has always intrigued me.  The Quabbin Reservoir, in my native Massachusetts, drowned four towns in the 1930's.  How can the powers-that-be do this, and what happens to the poor people that lose their homes?  The Barkhamsted Reservoir drowned two villages, Hartland Hollow and Barkhamsted Hollow.  After seeing a comment on Steve Wood's website, CTMuseumQuest, I have taken the book Water for Hartford by Kevin Murphy out of the library to get some more background.

Onward.  It turns out I am not alone in my fascination with mushrooms.  We made quite a few stops to take pictures of what we found.

Not sure.

Spindle-shaped yellow coral?

Signed the trail log.

Somewhere along the way we had donned our raincoats, but the sun came out just as we got to the lookout over Lake McDonough.  At the far end of the lake is Richards Corner Dam.

The view of Lake McDonough was fantastic.

I knew from my map, we were close to the end of our hike.  I do think that going from north to south on the trail might be easier (or maybe I was just distracted having someone to talk to).

We made it back to Sundown just as the brewfest was getting underway.  A beer might have been a nice way to end the hike, but it would have been a pretty expensive beer.  I think the tickets were around $30.

This was a great hike, made even better by having a friend along. 

OHC - Moss, Lichen & Mushrooms

My son and I took a walk in a local game refuge to look for any moss, lichen, and mushrooms.  There were still large areas with snow on the ground, but around the bases of trees and along the stream banks, the sun had done its work.

The thing that amazed me about this month's challenge was the incredible diversity of species.

Here are some of our mosses (although, I think some are not true mosses, but club mosses).

It's like everyone is looking in one direction.

These look like mini ferns.

These remind me of sea anemones.

Now onto our mushroom collection.  Some of these are absolutely beautiful.

 

 

I love these.  They formed on a stump left by a beaver.

 

Some kind of slime mold.

I think this might be called Ceramic parchment.

Since it is on a coniferous tree, I am going to say it is Orange Jelly.

Some kind of puffball.  I was surprised to find it in early March.
I thought it was a fall fungus.

We also found some lichen, but the pictures were not that great.

This month, we really just spent our time looking for as many different species as we could find.  It is funny how once you start looking, you see them everywhere.  Our next step will be to work on identification.