2021-6-10, Breakneck Pond, Union, CT

 On 2021-6-10, I visited Breakneck Pond in Union, Connecticut, and Sturbridge, Massachusetts.  I made an interactive map with location numbers that I will refer to.  Here's is a link to the interactive map: https://arcg.is/1SrLOO .

Below is a static screenshot of the southern part of the interactive map.


Below is a static screenshot of the northern part of the interactive map.



1.  I parked at the northern end of Bigelow Pond in Bigelow Hollow State Park.  Here's a view of Bigelow Pond.


2.  I walked easterly to the blue-blazed Nipmuck Trail and then northerly to the southern end of Breakneck Pond.


3.  I walked along the eastern shore of Breakneck Pond on the Nipmuck Trail.


3.


4.  There was a lot of mountain laurel in bloom.



5.  One of the few fallen trees blocking the Nipmuck Trail.


Between 5 and 6, the blazes changed from blue to blue with a red sub-blaze.

6.  At the northern end of Breakneck Pond.



Near 6.  A stream flows out of Breakneck Pond near the pond's northern end.  I picked up two sticks to help with my trip across the rocks in the stream.



7  On the western shore of Breakneck Pond.



Near 7, another blow-down.



8.  I left the blue-red trail on an unblazed trail that led out to a peninsula.



8.  I found Sheep Laurel, Kalmia angustifolia, a relative of mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia.  Both plants are poisonous to mammals.



8.




8.


Near 8.  I walked back to the blue-red trail.


9.  I thought that the dead trees in the pond indicated that the water level had been lower for a period of ten years or more in the past.



9.  Can you see the fish?



Near 9.  Parts of both the blue and the blue-red trail were less than four feet wide so I couldn't avoid brushing against vegetation which makes it easier to pick up ticks.



Near 9.  Dog Vomit Slime Mold, Fuligo septica.  It's not a plant, it's not an animal.  It can exist as independent, single cells, or it can join with other Fuligo septica cells and form a "plasmodium" which moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTcv_E7LhpM



Near 9, a close-up of dog vomit slime mold.



10.  Fresh hemlock varnish shelf, Ganoderma tsugae.  This mushroom grows on dead and dying hemlock trees.



10.



Near 10.  A rocky section of the blue-red trail.



Near 2.  I'm back at the southern end of Breakneck Pond.  I took a picture of the emerging seedpods on a witch-hazel plant, Hamamelis virginiana.




Near 2.  A close-up of the seedpods emerging from the remnants of last fall's flowers.


Near 2.



There were two campsites with Appalachian Trail-style shelters that could be reserved for overnight camping.  I talked with a group from the Meshomasic Hiking Club that had reserved the campsite on the eastern shore.  They rolled their boats up to the pond from near where I parked.







David Reik

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