April 13th 2014: Hiking in Central Southwestern Massachusetts

I did not have anything on my agenda today, so I decided to head out west for the day, starting with the town of Sturbridge. The first place I went to was the Opacum Woods, where the path I took to explore the place is shown below in pink.

The view of Opacum Pond from Perry's Point wasn't too bad.

I had to cross a broken bridge in order to explore the rest of the woods, which I did gingerly.

The view of the wetlands at the base of the yellow trail was pretty good too.

Other than that, there was nothing much else to see, although I missed out on an ancient rock shelter here. Guess I'll have to cross that bridge again sometime soon.

The next place I went to was the Heins Farm, which I visited before a long time ago. This time around, I wanted to find the pond mentioned in the brochure, but right from the get go, I got lost, heading into the Leadmine Mountain Wildlife Management Area instead from the parking area, as there were 3 trailheads there, two of which were right. Thankfully, I was able to make my way back out eventually, only to find a map of the place I had gotten lost in on the notice board at the parking lot. From here, I decided to continue checking out Heins Farm, taking the right path this time around, the Pond Trail shown below in pink.

the view of the pond, located at the northern end of the trail was actually not too bad.

From here, I decided to check out the Leadmine Mountain Wildlife Management Area a bit more after noticing the water bodies on the eastern side of the area, the parking lot being at 10 Shattuck Road.

The views of the water bodies here were pretty serene, coupled with a nice walk in the woods.

Leaving the town of Sturbridge, it was time to head to lunch in the town of Holland, where I had a coupon to eat at Diane's Villa Nova, a small town place that wasn't much in terms of decor, being partly a pizza takeout place as well.

For food, I got the Homemade Tortellini Soup (Meatballs and Spinach in Beef Soup),

a side of sausage,

and their special, the Peanut Butter and Banana Burger (Burger slathered with peanut butter and topped with grilled banana, served with fries).

The soup was surprisingly good and filling, but the sausage was just so-so. The burger was pretty interesting, but nothing amazing either. Not coming back here for sure, although they did have other interesting stuff like venison risotto.

After lunch, I headed to the town of Brimfield to check out Woodman Pond, located at the end of Tiderman Road in Wales within the Brimfield State Forest.

After a short walk shown below in pink,

The pond itself is pretty scenic.

The next place I went to in town was the Grand Trunk Trail. The path I took to check out the scenic spots is shown below in pink.

I headed west first, meeting a cute pumpkinhead made of wood.

The view at the end of the side trail was pretty good as well.

I headed next to the eastern side, where the views of the marshland were beautiful.

I also decided to check out the boat ramp at 380 Sturbridge Road, where there were nice views of East Brimfield Lake.

From here, it was on to the town of Palmer to see a few water bodies,

Lily Pond,

Pine Street and South Main Street

Thompson Lake

then to Wilbraham to take pictures of the Chicopee River Reservoir and the Red Bridge Dam which I failed to do the last time I was here, partly because it was frozen over.

In Ludlow, it was more water bodies including

Alden Pond, 55 Piney Lane

another Chicopee River Reservoir at 800 Poole Street.

I took a short hike to view a little of Ludlow Reservoir, the trail starting at around 1134 Center Street going around the pretty big reservoir, though blocked off to prevent people from getting to the dam.

My next hike was at the Facing Rock Wildlife Management Area, the entrance located at the end of Bridle Road.

The rough path I took while here to get to the top of Facing Rock is shown below in pink.

Right from the start, I had trouble finding the right path, all being unmarked. The only relief came when I finally reached the power lines, but even then, I did not know exactly where along the lines I was,

and definitely got really lost on the other side of the power lines. Somehow by some miracle, I managed to find Facing Rock itself in the end, and my efforts were rewarded with the views here.

Getting back to my car involved getting lost again, though constantly heading south, eventually emerging onto someone's lawn (thankfully they were not around), and walking along the road back to my car. After that pretty harrowing experience, I decided to call it a day for hiking, heading to Chicopee to check out a few places

480 Burnett Road

Plantation Man, 
Plantation Inn of New England

AMF Chicopee Lanes

before heading for dinner at Maximum Capacity, a dive bar at 116 School Street in town.

Once again, I got a lot of stuff to eat, getting the Seafood Sampler (calamari, gourmet shrimp, crab claw bites, and homemade fries),

the Garlic Parmesan Fries (which I should not have gotten because the sampler had fries too),

and the Peanut Butter Bacon Pizza (cheese, bacon and peanut butter sauce).

The seafood sampler was actually pretty good, especially the calamari. The fries were soggy and disappointing though, and peanut butter and cheese definitely do not go well together. Oh well, definitely not coming back here for sure. By now I was feeling a little ill, which I was feeling a little yesterday. Hope tomorrow will be better.