Awakenings!

It's a little early to tell if a genuine Spring is in the offering. But why look a gift horse in the mouth when a perfect spring-like day is offered to you?

So where to start with all the many choices. It was decided go with my long running activities n the mountains east of the Connecticut River. It proved worthwhile as I was able to solve the 'mystery' of one old John Lovell stereoview sold to me as the Pulpit Rock, but in reality was Grave's Nook.

The Cave as it appeared circa 1870

But the day began up at The Cave, high in the fractured conglomerate ledges, about a mile east of the River. Along those same ledges the Pillar could be found, a tall spire of rock that has separated from its parent ledge. Somewhere along here, another stereoview from my collection, depicted a scene know as "Approach to the Cave". However, its exact location could not be determined. The long way up and around these ledges brings one above The Cave to The Ditch. This 'open air' formation is an integral part to Cave's formation as the splitting bedrock is cause to both of them.

The Ditch

After moving on to Grave's Ledge, I quickly passed by all the old sites identified in past excursions including Castle End, Etta's Nook, Rock Roof, Rock Bend, Kittie's Nook, and Pulpit Rock to arrive where I wanted to focus my attention. Here we brought up the image of the 'second Pulpit Rock' stereoview and shortly identified it as Grave's Nook. A good view - at least for photographic reasons - was almost impossible but I captured it as best I could. Then I focused on capturing images of formations obtained in my last purchase including Myra's Retreat, Tripe Lichen Ledge, and Titan's Quarry. Per usual, I worked in updated photographs of some old favorites. In this case: the Twin Slabs.

Titan's Quarry

Time seems to pass all too quickly when one's busy on such an enjoyable day! The identification of Grave's Nook provided an extra bonus in that it finishes pinpointing the location of all John Lovell's photography for the Grave's Ledge section of his "Views In Sunderland Park".

Myra's Retreat as it appeared circa 1870

Return to the Southern Berkshires/CT

Late into the season, we go back to a site first seen a few weeks ago: Tipping Rock in the Southern Berkshires! Gary L. from Great Barrington wanted to see this old relic photographed by F.W. DeMars of Winsted during the early years of the 1900s. Arriving at the venerable old rock, Gary did a clean up of the usual forest debris one might find on and around the rock We then set about creating our own versions of the 'Then' and 'Now' photographs. From there it was on down to the Colebrook River Lake, which was running pretty low. The well know bridge (visible at the lowest water levels) left over from Colebrook's early days, has been removed.

Hanging Mountain - from a distance

Down into Winsted CT, we cruised an area that likely will be used as a future access to Robbers Cave. Then it was slightly to the west, checking about for anything that might fit the name of Perch Rock along Highland Lake. Several sites were checked out including a couple Dog/Snoopy Dog rocks. An antique shop and lunch rounded out our time in Winsted. Then it was up into the northwest corner of the Nutmeg State for a quick excursion through an old lime quarry and its prolific deposits of crushed limestone. Two more antique shops in town finished out our time in Connecticut and we returned to the Southern Berkshires along old Route 7, passing Mount Petra marking the gateway to downtown Great Barrington.

'Snowy' looking scene in the old lime quarry

Tekoa!

Finishing out RMM's last full day in the Berkshires, we took Jacob's Ladder Highway out of the Berkshires! Time had come to introduce Mike to the rugged cliffs of Mt Tekoa, overlooking the Westfield River and the Massachusetts Turnpike.

I had not been back here in many years and was not entirely sure we could find my old haunts. But with a little poking around the lower limits of talus was found, along with several small cave formations. Greatly perplexing was the apparently loss of a massive lean-to slab that formed a nice cave right along the base at one of the cliffs. I can only imagine Mother Nature reclaimed it in some large scale movement of the rocks. Of interest is a persistent legend of a Counterfeiter's Cave existing somewhere in the Mountain! No one that I know of has ever confirmed this.

Mike exits a lower entrance of a talus cave

With rain moving in, we made our down the mountain and back to Lee along the same route we took earlier. Passing through the heavily mined town of Chester, the picturesque Huntington, along with Becket. All towns greatly explored over past years. In Lee it was time to say goodbye with Mike planning a solo adventure the next day on his return to Rhode Island. But that is a story for another time!

Housatonic to Stockbridge

The omnipotent Rhody Mountain Man (occasionally know as Mike) made his way back to the Berkshires for his annual week's stay. I was fortunate to join him on two days during that week. On this particular day, our objective was the Village of Housatonic (within Great Barrington) and Stockbridge.

Mike exits the 'back door' of the cave above Housatonic

Housatonic is bordered to the east by Flag Rock, a slightly lower summit of the better know Squaw Peak summit of Monument Mountain which is slightly less than a mile to the southeast. Several hundred feet above the Village is a cave, difficult to access and very well hidden. Just over 50 feet in length and roomy enough to stand in, it shows the typical signs of being visited in the past, perhaps by the people from the local area. Mike and I obtained our photos, got our measurements, before proceeding down the mountainside to our next destination.

The Sedgwick Rock, summer 2017

This next stop was none other than Ice (sometimes: Icy) Glen in Stockbridge. It had been many years since either of us made the full trip through. It was preceded by incorporating a jaunt along the trail system to Shark Fin Rock and the Sedgwick Rock. A primary destination that we sought out within the Glen, was the location of Robbers Cave. It was here that legend tells us, a would be bank robber took refuge during the day, while working his plot to drill into the local Stockbridge bank at night. The 'cave' is not much of a cave (there are better in Ice Glen) but a rocky site comprised of large boulders. Many such sites like this exist in the Glen.

Hampden County motor tour!

In the days of my long ago youth, a good friend who was MUCH older than myself, mentioned taking a motor tour at the Norcross Sanctuary in Hampden County. Along this tour was a location called Tunket Cave, which was the correct name of a site given in Clay Perry's renown books on New England caves. Perry had mistakenly labeled it Plunkett Cave but my friend mentioned tunket alluded to the sound of a counterfeiting operation that operated in the vicinity long ago.

Somewhere around 20 years ago, I visited the property finding out the motor tours had been discontinued. Flash forward to present day, and they once again exist! So after seeing them advertised for at least several years, I finally got myself booked in. It is an extremely jam packed hour and a half (or slightly more) with all sorts of botanical and other natural science information. The history of the area is also covered to a large degree. Who settled the area. Who lived there. Anecdotes of their lives.

A close up Tunket Cave (this is the correct spelling) was not ensued due to it being inhabited by a number of porcupines. But our illustrious guide provided another possible origin to the name "tunket". It apparently is also a synonym for "Hell".

"Jacob's" Boulder

After the tour, I tried to revisit nearby Cat Rocks. It had been 17 years since my last trip there. Unfortunately, like with so many areas, access was posted with the well known "No Trespassing" signage. But on the way home, back in Hampshire County, I waded through the Westfield River in search of a massive boulder brought to my attention by a friend. It IS a big one! Among the largest in all of Western Massachusetts.

The Catskills!

This was a long awaited return to the Catskills with Great Barrington's Gary L. After our late winter trip (with many of the park's gates closed) we desired to seek out a number of the famous rocks that can be found in the vicinity of South Mountain and the old Mountain House site.

Dinosaur Rock

A little poking around got us to Alligator and Dinosaur Rock. The former is an oft photographed formation with many old images from the Golden Age of postcards. Afterwards, more poking around brought us to a spectacular vista at the former location of the Mountain House. We tracked down a rock that General William Tecumseh Sherman posed by - with family - likely during the late 1880s. Then it was back up to the Mountain House site for an invigorating walk along the precipice that forms the eastern perimeter of South Mountain. Here a number of Victorian and Gilded Ade attractions can be found. We located Boot Jack and Bowlder Rock.

Bowlder Rock (occasionally: Rip's - or Rip Van Winkle's - Rock)

After a much delayed lunch, we wound our way back through Windham with an eye towards locating Cabin Rock. Then rolled back through Catskill once again, passing by the site of Road Cut Cave (looks like a demolished entrance) which I explored MANY years ago during my youthful days.

The Southern Berkshires and Connecticut

This is the time of the year when I look around and focus on exactly where I wish to put the limited time remaining before the usual 'winter hibernation' sets in. I've wanted to return to Abiel's Rock, and I had a couple leads tossed my way by a northern Connecticut man.

But my first stop was to check into a lead given me by Great Barrington's Gary L. Someone had mentioned a boulder to him that this individual knew LONG ago. Like 50 years plus! This did not pan out as no boulder turned up in my search.

Tipping Rock

The next stop was pure magic! I had been given GPS information on the 'lost' Tipping Rock of Sandisfield. It also was originally photographed by Winsted Connecticut's F.W. DeMars during the early 1900s. This was located without too much difficulty, so it allowed me enough time to take on a steep climb in adjacent Colebrook CT. This was in search of another 'lost' formation: the Pulpit Rock, also photographed (or brought into his collection through a purchase) by DeMars. Although an impressive boulder was located (once again due to my CT contact) I did not see it matching the old DeMars photo.

Boulder at Colebrook

On the return home, I once again scouted out South County's Abiel's Rock . One of the largest boulders in Berkshire County.