May 28th 2014: Dinner at The Blind Pig, Athol

Today after work, I headed northwest to the town of Hardwick to start my evening of sightseeing. The roads were so rough that I feared for my car, and had to take the long way often just to be able to get to Hardwick Pond at the end of Summer Place,

and Pottapaug Pond,

which involved driving into the Quabbin Reservoir area on Hell Huddle Road and involved me encountering a moose standing in the middle of the road, although it ran away before I had time to photograph it. Pottapaug Pond and Quabbin Reservoir were worth the effort though.

Quabbin Reservoir

From here, I ventured into Petersham,

Gauco Pond, 200 Monson Turnpike Road

heading to the Slab City Tract of the Swift River Reservation. I have been here once before, but failed to get to the viewpoint because the area was entirely flooded. Thankfully, the water levels were not too high today, and the path I took to get to the viewpoint is shown below in pink.

The view was pretty obscured by trees though.

Oh well. I made it back to my car as it got dark, and I decided to head to Athol for dinner at The Blind Pig, a small town bar restaurant in the downtown area. For food, I decided to get the Nick (ham, cheddar, bacon, BBQ sauce pressed on panini bread)

and the Pig Fries (covered with mozzarella, bacon, green onions, feta, Dave's homemade curry sauce).

Pretty good actually, especially the sauce on the fries, even though it did not taste like curry at all. A pretty tough day of sightseeing, really, with all the off road driving and detours.