Today, my goal was to do a brewery tour at
Pioneer Brewing Company in Sturbridge, which is only held at 2 p.m. on Sundays, so I decided to visit other towns in the area while waiting for 2 p.m. to arrive. My first stop was in Oxford at
Grace Episcopal Church.
Next was the Ice Cream Lady statue at 67 Main Street in Douglas.
In Dudley, it was the
St. Andrew Bobola Church which drew my attention.
On the way to the
Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary in Wales, I passed by Dresser Memorial Park on Walnut Street and Main Street in Southbridge, and the Felix Gatineau statue on the corner of South Street and Main Street.
Dresser Park
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| Felix Gatineau |
Moving on, I passed by the
Holland Pond Boat Ramp on the corner of Pond Bridge Road and Morse Lane in Holland, when there was a nice view of Holland Pond.
Finally, it was on to the Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary in Wales. The place is actually closed on Sundays, so technically I was trespassing all the time I was here. The path I took after parking my car right outside the gated entrance along Peck Road is shown below in pink.
After walking through the Hickory Grove and the Conifer Grove, I entered the Holly Orchard area and the Pine Barren Garden, where I came upon a large open field.
Here, I spotted my second groundhog for the year, the first one being at the
Fort Devens Museum in Harvard. This one was standing stock still pretending to be a wood stump or something, allowing me to take pictures continually while inching closer until it decided to bolt for it.
After that, I got lost around the Wood and Rock Museum, heading back to Peck Road instead. At this point, as I had not seen anything much here other than the groundhog, I decided to give up exploring the place and headed back to my car.
With that, I headed off toward Sturbridge, passing by a horse drawn wooden carriage statue at the White Coach Motel at 309 Sturbridge Road in Brimfield.
I decided to have some lunch first in Sturbridge, choosing to go to
BT's Smokehouse, which apparently is one of the best BBQ places in New England, although it looks like any other typical BBQ place, simple and filled with the smell of smoke. I decided to get the Platter with Beef Brisket, Pork Ribs and Pulled Pork, with Mac and Cheese, Dirty Rice and Cornbread on the side. There was no space, as the place was so crowded, that I had to eat in my own car, and I could not even finish half of it.
Finally at the Pioneer Brewing Company in Sturbridge, I realized that it was right next to
Hyland Ochard and Brewery. There was a crowd of people in the bar area, where I got a free glass with my choice of beer after handing over my Livingsocial coupon to the man behind the bar. Not knowing what to get, I just went for the Blueberry Ale, which just tasted awful, although you should not take my word for it, as I do not like be
I slowly sipped my beer while waiting for 2 p.m. to arrive, but the guy giving the tour was a little late before he announced the start of the tour, and pretty much almost everyone followed him into the brewing area, which was pretty small.
After a brief explanation about how beer is made, he then brought us into another small room in the back where all the fermenters were. Here, he gave people a chance to sample beer straight from the fermenters, but as I still had an almost full glass of beer that I could no longer stomach down, so I stayed away from the long line that formed up.
I could not find a way to properly dispose of my beer without being stared at disapprovingly, so I had to wait till everyone was gone before dumping my beer into a bucket of waste water.
After that, I exited the place with my free beer glass, and headed to a town to the west of Sturbridge which I had not been to before: Hampden. This place is known as the easternmost town in Massachusetts that does not have a single traffic light or major highway running through it. I visited a few places in town before heading to the Goat Rock Ridge Trail, located behind the Hampden Memorial Park.
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| Hampden Town Hall, 625 Main Street |
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| Town Common, South Road and Main Street |
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| Historical Society, 616 Main Street |
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| Spray park at Hampden Memorial Park |
The path I took on the
Goat Rock Ridge Trail is shown below in black.
The trail was pretty straightforward I guess, and when I got to the Hampden Outlook (near the first summit on the trail I took, there were 2 places here that had fantastic views.
The next place of note on the trail was at the end at Goat Rock, where the views here offered a different aspect as compared to at Hampden Outlook.
From here, I headed to Country Club Drive and found my way back to Main Street, which I walked to go back to my car at the Hampden Memorial Park. Along the way, I took some pictures of the flowers along the side of the road.
After getting back to my car, I headed to my next hike at the
Minnechaug Mountain area, where I parked my car at the end of Old Coach Road. The rough path I took here is highlighted below in pink.
I took Bob's Trail, hoping to get to the Algonquin Trail, but somehow I walked all the way to the pipeline without knowing it, thinking it was Tom's Trail. So I headed east up the slope, where there were a few good views from the pipeline.
When I reached a crossroads, I thought this was the summit of Minnechaug Mountain, so I headed south along the unmarked trail, thinking it was the Algonquin Trail leading to the powerlines. What a mistake that was. The unmarked trail was so full of fallen trees, and I had a hard time climbing over time. It was at this point that I realized my mistake, but it was already too late to turn back. Thankfully, I had my compass with me, so I was able to find my way back to Somers Road way south of Old Coach Road. Here is a picture of a frog I happened to pass by while climbing across fallen trees, and pictures of the quarry I emerged out of the forest at.
With that I headed down Somers Street toward Hickory Lane on my right, which turns into Old Coach Road and back to my car. I would say this place is okay in terms of the views from the pipeline, but terrible in terms of trail navigability.
Finally done with the town of Hampden, I decided that there was still daylight time for sightseeing, so I went to see the
Wilbraham Children's Museum in the town of Wilbraham, which was closed by this time, and I am not akin to go into this place as well because its meant for kids many times younger than me. Just know that this place exists in Wilbraham, and has a playground behind it as well.
At this point, I decided that I had to go find a restaurant to eat at before it closed on a Sunday, and the restaurant that seemed the best rated and still open at 8pm was the
McLadden's Irish Publick House back in Hampden, so there I went.
I decided to get the Guinness Lamb Stew, which was listed in the soup section but was really a pretty big portion, and tasty at that too. I decided to try the Sticky Toffee Pudding as well, which was pretty good, and similar to the one I had at
Nancy's Airfield Cafe in Stow.
With that, my exploring of the towns of Central Southwestern Massachusetts was complete.
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