Hike #50: Peak Mountain (Metacomet Trail) - Suffield/East Granby

Date Hiked: Saturday, October 15, 2016
Estimated distance:  5.2 miles (based on CF&PA Walk Book)
Weather: 75°F, sunny
Resources:  CF&PA Walk Book West, CT NET: Section 20
Highlights of the trip:  fall colors, views, fun group of people to hike with
Progress toward 2016 hiking goals:  50/52 hikes; 191.35/250 miles; 31.37/25 miles on Tunxis Trail


My husband and I have been attending the Our Night Sky video/discussion series put on by the East Granby Land Trust.  We have really enjoyed it and have met some very nice people.  They invited us to join them on their next hike, and I took them up on their offer.

The plan was to hike the part of the Metacomet Trail that runs from Phelps Road in Suffield, south to the corner of Route 20 and Newgate Road in East Granby.  We met at the East Granby Community Center and carpooled to our starting point in Suffield.  Cars had already been left at the finish in East Granby.

GPS Route from the MapMyHike app using OpenStreetMap.

I thought I had turned my MapMyHike app on before we started, but it didn't register and we were about 3/4 of a mile in before I realized it (that's why I am using the mileage listed in the Walk Book).

Whenever I think about hiking along this section of the trail, I think of an initial climb to gain the ridge and then level trail until the climb down at the end.  That is not really what happens (which you can see by looking at the red elevation line at the bottom of the map above), but the trail is still not that difficult.  The most challenging part is at the start/end in East Granby.  However, when you have a nice group of people to talk with along the way, you barely notice when you are climbing.

Not long after we started the hike, we came to an old chimney on the east side of the trail.  There was a bench nearby (I think there used to be more).  I don't know if this was part of an old cabin or was built as a free-standing structure.  I tried to do a little research, but did not come up with anything.

As we hiked along, there were some great westerly views of Manitook Mountain in Granby. In the picture below, you can see the cliff that is located near the bike trail that goes by the other end of Phelps Road.

We came to several overlooks on our way south.  They are difficult to see in the picture below, but the Barndoor Hills are visible just below the horizon in the middle of the photo.

And while the views may be why most people take this hike, there are plenty of other interesting things to see along the way.  We had some great discussions about various trees - telling white oak, from red, and the different types of white and red oak.  Did you know that black oak is a type of red oak?  Or that there is something called chestnut oak (part of the white oak group)?  We were also on the lookout for witch hazel.  I believe we found it, but with no flowers, there was some discussion.  We also saw quite a few mushrooms, including the Sulphur Shelf, that I think is so cool.

The rocks that make up the ridge are really interesting.  I think we take them for granted when we are standing on them looking out at the spectacular view.  In a couple of places, rocks jut up along the trail, and then you can really get a sense of how amazing they are.  These are the result of volcanic and then earthquake activity.  

Traprock

This was truly a spectacular day to hike.  The air was crisp.  The sky was sunny.  And the leaves on the trees were really amazing.

Our final viewpoint was at Peak (aka Copper) Mountain.  From here, you can look south along the ridge and see Talcott Mountain and the Heublein Tower in the distance.

Talcott Mountain in the distance.

Thank you to the folks of the East Granby Land Trust for inviting me to join them.  I had a great time and look forward to future hikes together.

Outdoor Hour: Focusing on Trees

Can I just say... I love trees!  I love to take pictures of them, try to identify them, touch them, sit under them.  Trees just make me happy!  So, it is no wonder I was eagerly anticipating this month's Outdoor Hour Challenge.

How did we focus on trees this month?

• We used Tree Study Grid from the October Newsletter to focus on specific aspects of trees we were looking at.
• We kept a list of the trees we identified.
• We went on a hike to find a specific kind of tree.  Read about that in my post about Great Pond.
• We went looking for a couple of state and national champion trees.  Read about that in my post about Large Trees.
• We looked up information on what trees were the oldest, tallest, heaviest, and had the largest trunk circumference and added that information to our nature notebooks.
• We did artistic activities related to trees.  We made a leaf "rainbow" by skewering different colored leaves on a stick.  We also did leaf rubbings in our nature notebooks and identified the trees the leaves were from.

B's leaf rainbow.

In identifying trees, I found that the trees like oak, maple, and birch, which I would expect to be the easiest to identify, were the hardest.  I think I expect them to be easy because they are common, but there seem to be many that are similar.  This is especially true when all you have to go on is the bark.

Trees identified and comments:
Common Witch-hazel - unusual in that it flowers at this time of year
Eastern Sycamore - love the mottles bark on the upper trunk and branches
Sassafras - three different kind of leaves on the same tree - "live long and prosper", mitten, single lobe
Cottonwood - very large shiny buds, cotton fluff everywhere when the seed capsules split open
Tuliptree - interesting, distinctive leaf and beautiful flower
Big-tooth Aspen - the name says it all, aspen leaf with large teeth
Quaking Aspen - always thought of this as a western tree
Black Birch - aka sweet birch, wintergreen smell
Paper Birch - white, peeling bark
Yellow Birch - wintergreen smell
White Oak - leaves have rounded lobes
Chestnut Oak - part of white oak family, lobes rounded, but not deeply cut
Black Oak - leaves have pointed lobes
Scarlet Oak - part of black oak family, but with more deeply cut leaves
American Chestnut - almost entirely wiped out by blight, shoots grow to several feet before dying back
Shagbark Hickory - fabulous shaggy bark that looks like it is about to come off tree
American Beech - beautiful smooth grey bark
Striped Maple - very large leaves and green striped bark
Red Maple - beautiful fall color
Silver Maple - leaves are distinctive, deeply cut
White Pine - needles in bundles of 5
Red Pine - lovely, flaky, red-grey bark, needles long in clusters of two
Pitch Pine - needles in bundles of 3
Eastern Hemlock - short, flat needles, very small cone
Eastern Redcedar - fibrous bark

Beautiful beech tree.

We never got around to the oak and acorn study this month, but I did note that acorn production seems to be way down this year.  We have two large white oaks in our front yard and nary an acorn.  I suspect it is the lack of rain.

This was a fun month of nature study.  There were several activities I would have liked to have done that we just didn't get to, so I will save them for a later date.

Favorite tree resources on the web:
Virginia Tech's Tree ID Guide - I especially like their Fact Sheets and their Leaf Key (under tools).
Arbor Day Foundation: What Tree Is That?

Favorite Tree Field Guides:

Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast by Michael Wojtech

This is my new favorite field guide, but I need more practice using it. 

Peterson Field Guides to Eastern Trees by George A. Petrides

Another book that looks interesting, but that I do not own is Identifying Trees: An All-Season Guide to Eastern North America by Michael D. Williams.

See my disclosure policy on the bar at the top of the page.  These books were purchased by me for my own use and I do not receive any compensation for mentioning them or from Amazon if you decide to purchase them.

Visiting Large Trees

As part of our tree study for the month of October, I thought it would be fun to visit some of the large trees nearby. 

On Columbus Day, the family took a hike at Bartholomew's Cobble in Sheffield, MA.  There are two notable trees here.  One, is a huge cottonwood that is hollow at the bottom.  I have read that this is the second largest cottonwood in Massachusetts.  (I found a website that indicated the largest is in Pittsfield, MA.)

B inside the cottonwood.  The record is 12 people.

The other tree that I saw, that the guys completely missed as they hiked on ahead, was a large tulip poplar.  I like tulip trees because of the beautiful flower they have in the spring and the interesting shape of their leaf.

Tulip Tree - October 2012

Tulip Tree flower and leaves - June 2009

Largest Tree in CT
A little closer to home, we visited the locally famous Pinchot Sycamore in Simsbury, CT.  Named for Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the US Forest Service, this tree is the largest tree in the state.

October 2012

More information on the Pinchot Sycamore:
CT Museum Quest
Wikipedia


Coolest Tree in CT
A little reluctantly, we made a visit to the Dewey-Granby Oak.  The Granby Oak is a white oak and is believed to be the oldest oak tree in the state (and possibly the nation) at between 400 to 500 years old.  Last October, Storm Alfred dumped a foot of snow on the area.  Most trees still had their leaves, which resulted in widespread devastation (and eight days without power for much of the state).  The Granby Oak was not spared and some of its huge limbs had to be removed and others were cabled up in the hopes of saving the tree.  I had driven by the oak in the month after the storm and was saddened to see how much damage it had suffered.  On this visit, we got out and walked around the tree.  I was relieved to see that the tree actually looks pretty good.  Though Storm Alfred may ultimately be linked with the death of the tree, it looks like it will be with us for the near future.

October 2012

Information on the Granby Oak:
Salmon Brook Historical Society
CTMuseum Quest  - At the bottom of Steve's post is a picture of what the tree looked like shortly after the storm.  It was crushing to see the great tree in this condition.  This tree is a huge part of Granby (it is on the town seal).  After going back this fall, nearly a year after the storm, I feel much better about its chances to live a little longer.
Granby Land Trust



National Champion Black Oak
And finally, we paid a visit to the national champion black oak in East Granby.  It is certainly large, but I would never have figured it for a national champion.

More about the National Champion Black Oak:
Connecticut's Notable Trees
CTMuseum Quest - Watch the first minute or so of the video Steve has linked to at the top of his post.  It is a video someone took during and after last year's October snowstorm.  You will get a real sense of what it was like sitting in the dark listening to trees and branches fall all around you.


I just love trees, especially really old, big trees.  This month's Outdoor Hour Challenge at the Handbook of Nature Study blog was a great reminder to get out and enjoy them.

Simsbury - Great Pond

I am trying to make sure we get outside to enjoy these nice fall days because I know it won't be too long before things take a decidedly colder turn.  Today, we ventured over to Great Pond, part of Massacoe State Forest in Simsbury, CT.  My motivation for heading to Great Pond today was to check out some trees as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge.  I knew we would be able to find a pretty good stand of red pine and I wanted to compare the bark to pitch pine.

The walk around the pond is just a bit over a mile.  We took our time, taking pictures and trying to identify trees.  The tree identification wasn't wholly successful because many of the trees had already lost their leaves.  I did have some success with my new book, Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast, but I need a lot more practice.

Nice fall color.

Early on in our walk, B spotted a tree that a beaver had started work on.  We'll have to come back next month and check it out when the Outdoor Hour Challenge focuses on mammals.  One question I have about the beaver lodge is whether the entrance is always under water even when the water level is very low like it is now.

Busy as a ...

...beaver.  Must need it for his lodge.

Great Pond is known to be a bird watcher's paradise.  Today, we saw a lot of Canada geese and some mallards, but not much else.  I was kicking myself for not bringing my binoculars.

A lot of Canada geese on a pretty shallow pond.

Seems like we are past peak foliage.

Almost half way around the pond, we came to the stand of red pine.  Red pine is identifiable from its needles.  They are quite long and come in bundles of two.  I love the bark of the red pine - flaky, with a redish-grayish color.  In my Bark book, the range map indicates that this pine is native to northern New England, but there is a small area shown in this part of Connecticut, I assume specifically for Great Pond.  About 20 acres of red pine were planted here in the 1930's.

I still have a hard time identifying red pine from pitch pine just by looking at the bark.  If I had two trees next to each other, maybe it wouldn't be as difficult.  I think the red pine is a bit flakier and the flakes of the pitch pine curl away from the trunk.  More study to be done.

Red pine.

Red pine grove.

Before we left the house, I had said to B that I hoped we would find some witch-hazel.  I had recently seen a post on Along the New England Trail where Teresa had found some witch-hazel in bloom.  To me, this makes witch-hazel kind of unique, blooming in the fall and even winter.  I did find some witch-hazel, but the first few had no flowers.  We came to another area with several trees and my son spotted the blooms.  They are kind of bizarre looking.  My Eastern Trees guide indicates that seedpods can be found at any time of year.  I didn't notice any, but I didn't look either.  I was focused on the flowers.

Witch-hazel blossom.

We wrapped our hike with a walk through a very nice white pine grove.  Towering trees, but then large areas of young trees, so it is like you are going through a green walkway.

This was a very enjoyable hike and it was nice to get out of the house.  The next couple of days look like they are going to be rainy, so I am glad we took advantage of the nice weather today.