2020-8-15, Tunxis Trail, Barkhamsted and Hartland, CT



 On August 9, 11 and 15, I visited the Tunxis Trail in Barkhamsted and Hartland, CT.

I'll start with my August 9 pictures.  I'll put in location numbers on the map you can get to with this link: http://arcg.is/0GLW1K .


1.  A bit of a scramble.


2.  Indian Council Caves is a collection of spaces under huge boulders.  I am sitting in the opening to one of the spaces.


3.  This cellar hole I would guess was made in the early 19th century.


4.  When this tree was young, there were no trees around it, so it has large lower branches.  Trees like this are sometimes called "wolf trees."


5.  A structure of questionable utility at the Roaring Brook Camping Area.


6.  A beaver dam.





7.  There were many of these hand-written signs along the trail

8.  Springfield, Massachusetts, is in the center of the picture.


9.  Why do trees have spiral grain sometimes?  Some information at https://www.logbuilding.org/SpiralGrain.LBN63.pdf .  




10. Hog peanut, Amphicarpaea bracteata. I am on my way back to where I parked on Hillcrest Drive in Barkhamsted.






 
11.  A "wolf tree" I photographed when I was almost back to Hillcrest Drive.



I went back to the Tunxis Trail on 2020-9-11.  This time, I parked on Walnut Hill Road, at the west end of the road.  Here's a link to a view of my interactive map that shows my 2020-9-11 route: http://arcg.is/1m1Hn0 .

12.  Oyster Mushrooms, Genus Pleurotus, is the identification I came up with.




13.  Is this an ancient carving of a fish?  More pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kWMpGnbSEFdNwmKH7




14.  I was struck with how these leaves looked like fused poison ivy leaves.  The identification I came up with was Sycamore Maple, Acer pseudoplatanus.  Can that be right?




14.  The plant looks vine-like.






15.  A large isolated boulder.




15.  A close-up of the boulder.  It seems to be a conglomerate with a lot of quartz in it.








16.  The trail runs along a gorge dominated by hemlocks.









17.  Now I am overlapping where I was on 2020-8-9.  The witch-hazel harvest didn't seem to be in progress when I was there.




18.  An area of bare rock with a view.  This area of bare rock is about 70 feet to the southeast of the bare rock with a view I visited on 2020-8-9.







19.  This rock looks similar to the rock that made up the isolated boulder, leading me to believe that the isolated rock is not a glacial erratic.





20.  Can you see the Barkhamsted Reservoir through the trees?



21.  Would it be possible to identify the species of bird that made this nest?



I went back to the Tunxis Trail on 2020-8-15.  Here's a link to my map showing the area I visited on 2020-8-15: http://arcg.is/1XKmrK           

22.  Some species of Amanita.



23.  I was impressed by this bridge.





24.  Balanced Rock.



25.  Mockernut hickory?


26.  Tunxis Forest Ski Cabin, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  There used to be a ski slope here.




26.



27.  I am on my way back to where I parked.  Somebody has been maintaining the cabin and mowing the grass around the cabin and on the access road.



28.   When there is more water, there must be nice cascades here.



29.  A yellow birch growing on a boulder.








29.  Can you see the swirls in the rock?



































David Reik

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