May 13th 2012: Finishing Up Athol on Mother's Day

This morning, I was supposed to go hiking at Mount Watatic in Ashburnham with a friend, but she backed out at the very last moment, so I proceeded to my backup plan, sightseeing in Athol. Along the way, I passed by Lake Quinsigamond, where the New England Rowing Championships happened to be taking place, so I parked nearby and walked over to the bridge joining Shrewsbury to Worcester to take pictures of the rowers and the river.

New England Rowing Championships

Other side of the Bridge

Turtles Basking in the Sun

Common Grackle

In Athol, I first headed to the Minnie French Conservation Area, located on Benton Place. This place has no trail map as of yet, but the rough path I took here is shown below in pink.

I headed down the single path southwards, and soon heard the sounds of the Millers River flowing nearby, so I went to check it out, coming out into an area with power lines, and a beautiful view of Millers River below.

From here, I continued southward, taking another picture of the power lines soon after.

I finally returned to the road by heading onto Goddard Street, walking out to Chestnut Hill Avenue to get back to Benton Place and my car. From here, I headed to the Bearsden Conservation Area in the same town. After parking on Bearsden Road near the Little Round Top area, I thought that this would be a short hike, so I decided not to bring any water along, especially because I had none anyway, but I was soon to realize what a huge mistake that was. The path I took here is shown below in pink.

I parked right next to the Page Cabin on the map, then took some pictures of the wetlands beside me before heading up the Little Round Top Trail.

The climb up Little Round Top was pretty steep, but there was not much views up here, except when crossing the brooks like Falling Brook, which were pretty much series of mini-rapids.

Falling Brook

From here, I emerged near Thompson's Corner, where I took the path following the Boston and Maine Railroad.

The railroad tracks

Millers River from the railroad tracks

Following the path, I next came upon the Duck Pond, which was a pretty scenic water body.

There was a side trail here leading to Sheep Rock, so I decided to take it, and was pleasantly surprised by the views I got from atop the viewing platform there.

The viewing platform

Walking along Bearsden Road to get to the trail leading to Bemis Hill, I had to pass through a really deep cut in the rocks where the road passes through. There were tons of bugs here though, so I did not linger here long.

At Lawton's Barway, I took the left fork to head up the Bemis Hill Trail. Unfortunately, there was nothing to see at the top, so I continued on to the Buckman Brook and the Old Stage Road, onto which I turned left and followed the trail which went with the Millers River for quite a distance.

While on this path, I happened to pass a lone runner running in the opposite direction, and by this time I was already starting to feel tired and thirsty.

I pushed on, finally coming to the Thousand Acre Brook, which was fed by a reservoir I passed by soon after.

Thousand Acre Reservoir

By now I was feeling parched and exhausted, thinking that I won't be able to go on for much longer, but as I got onto South Royalston Road after being lost a little on Willis Road, I happened to see the same runner running past me again. As luck would have it, he lived nearby, and when I passed by his home, he was outside taking off his shoes, so I decided to chance it and ask him for a drink of water, to which he obliged and gave me a bottle. Oh, what a relief it was to finally have hydration in my system. With renewed vigor, I carried on to the Newton Reservoir, where several nice views follow as I walked to the dam.

At the dam, I spotted the mud huts denoted on the map, and the views of the reservoir from here were fantastic.

Mud Huts

Newton Reservoir Dam

From here, I walked north along the pipeline path to get back to Buckman Brook and head in the direction of Round Top. By then, I had run out of water again, and this time I was starting to feel a little dizzy while walking. Pushing on, I passed by the Warren Vista, which had only partial views of the surroundings.

Somehow, by some miracle or other, I managed to make it to Round Top, where there was a wooden viewing platform from which there were terrific views.

Feeling like I needed a rest, I then decided to sit down on the steps, which was my next big mistake. I first noticed an American dog tick crawling on my jacket.

After pulling it off, I then realized that my jeans were now covered with them. Feeling disgusted and scared that they might bite me, I ran away from the platform and tried my best to pick off all the ticks on my pants. Somehow, this occurrence gave me renewed strength to make it all the way back to my car from here. Safe inside my car, I immediately resumed checking  for more ticks, and there were actually still some on the interior wall of my jeans. After being satisfied that there were no more ticks on my body, it was finally time to head off toward New Salem. Along the way, I passed by Adams Farm, from where there is a great view of downtown Athol.

Downtown Athol

After grabbing 2 bottles of Gatorade at a nearby gas station which I downed almost immediately, I decided to head to Bear's Den in New Salem, where there is a short trail to a scenic waterfall. Unfortunately, it was already too dark to take any good pictures of it, but I tried anyway. I'll definitely come back again next time.

The only viable place for dinner seemed to be in Belchertown according to Yelp, so I decided to head there next. After a half hour drive, I reached the town center, and happened to pass by the Hope United Methodist Church, and decided to try taking a picture of it.

As it turned out, the picture looked pretty good, so I decided to stay here for a bit to take pictures of the buildings in the town center.

Water Tower behind
the United Church of Christ

United Church of Christ

Town Common,
Main Street and East  Walnut Street

Belchertown Town Hall, 2 Jabish Street

Clapp Memorial Library

With that, it became too dark to take any more pictures, so I headed for dinner at the Grapevine Grille. This place is actually pretty nice, especially with the decorations for Mother's Day today. I decided to get the special Panko Chicken Parmesan, which actually came with an alfredo instead of tomato based sauce. Even though I was extremely hungry after the day's events, I could not even finish half of the dish, but it was okay I guess. I'm just glad I made it through this day alive.

Side Salad

Panko Chicken Parmesan