April 12th 2012: At Heald Pond, Pepperell

 Today after work, I headed to Heald Pond in Pepperell. The last time I was here, the trails were covered in snow, but this time I was able to walk them after parking at a suitable spot on Heald Street near Bayberry Street. The path I took here is highlighted in black below.

I first headed down the Jeff Smith Trail along the shores of Heald Pond,but at the point where the trail moves away from the trail, the other trail faded into non-existence, so I was forced to backtrack to my car. Pictures I took of Heald Pond in this area follow.

I then headed across the road to another section of the Jeff Smith Trail, and walked down the somewhat treacherous path alongside Gulf Brook to a bridge/dam made of twigs that I had to cross to get to the other side of the trail.

 

 From the other side of Gulf Brook, I walked the path back to my car. Determined to get to Viewpoint A on the shores of Heald Pond which I could not get to earlier, I decided to try again by heading to the Heald Street Orchard area further down the road. As I walked along the trails to get to Heald Pond, I took a few pictures of the views of the sky from the orchard.

When I finally reached the shore of Heald Pond, the view here was actually better than from the Jeff Smith Trail.

By the time I got back to my car, it had started to rain, and it was getting dark as well, so it was time to head for dinner at Harley House Inn in Lunenburg, where I had a $40 Groupon to use. The last time I was here, it was St. Patrick's Day and the restaurant had a lunch buffet, so I was unable to use my Groupon, so I decided to do it today instead. Once again, the waitresses took one look at me and decided to warn me about not ordering enough, like I did not know already. I then set to looking at the menu and ordering enough to fit the bill. I first got a bowl of Farmer's Stew, which had a lot of variety in beans, and pretty good too.

Next, the appetizer. I had a choice between corn fritters and crabcakes, and I decided to take a chance with the fritters, which came with both maple syrup and Tzatziki sauce, a type of Greek yogurt. I did not expect them to be so big though.

My final course finally came when I had two of the corn balls to go. When deciding on it, I was torn between the seafood pie and the lamb chops with Mint Jus, but the restaurant owners were actually nice enough to do a combo of both dishes for me, complete with a crabcake from the appetizers earlier. I also went with the turnip and carrot au gratin and Italian risotto as sides.

Overall, everything was fantastic, with the lamb reminding me of a similar dish I had at the King Phillip Restaurant in Phillipston. I could barely finish everything though, with the sides still being barely touched. On top of that, I still had $2 on my Groupon to spend, so I still had dessert to go. I decided to go with their Peach Pastry, which was served hot with Vanilla Ice Cream on top.

It was good, but I could barely get in 2 mouths before I had to give up. I finished the vanilla ice cream though. With that, I had more leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.