The year ended/began upon a quiet note. The traditional November trip was made down to Connecticut and involved but a small amount of history, and perhaps even less geology. A stop was made to the local centennial tree, still in pretty good shape for being over a hundred years old. A drive-by to search out a possible (and likely) site of Witch Rock and a return to Rockwell Park. In recent times, the park has returned to (at least partially) filling the old lagoon that provided so much recreational enjoyment to the locals back in the park's early days. An interesting stone tower exists along side the lagoon, and old postcards show it to be an anchoring point for swings and slides. Visited was Crescent Lake, by Chauncey Peak and Lamentation Mountain, which showed some of Connecticut's best examples of trap rock ridges.
Some time after returning to the Berkshires, I took up an old project from years past: a stone cross in Connecticut that looked down on the valley below. I first saw it as a child and over the years its exact location became somewhat nebulous. At one point it was even questionable if it still might exist. Making use of aerial imagery, it was 'rediscovered' and my associate made a field trip to confirm it.
Not quite so traditional, just the second time I've done it, was a First Day hike over in Williamsburg. Although it was on the Petticoat Hill Reservation of the Trustees of Reservations, it really doesn't climb Petticoat Hill. A couple obscured lookouts, a high elevation vernal pool, and a VERY rocky ravine with animal dens, were along the way. There is a commemorative boulder at the property's entrance dating this reservation to 1906.
