Hiking: Wendell State Forest, Wendell MA

After my visit to the New England Webcomics Weekend, I drove to downtown Springfield and picked up my friend Judy Y., and we headed back north for some outdoor fun.

She picked out Wendell State Forest for a hike. We drove through some pretty scenery on the way there.

As we crossed the river into the town of Montague MA, this freight train was traveling over the railroad bridge.

From there, it was a short drive through town and over a one-lane bridge and we soon arrived at the state forest entrance.

I'd come up from Cape Cod, where we'd had warm weather the previous week, so I was surprised at the amount of snow still on the ground.

In fact, a lot of the roads and trails were coated with wet ice, which made for slow and slippery going.

We hiked a narrow trail through the woods down to Ruggles Pond, where we found a huge beaver lodge.

We hiked along the pond and then met up with a dirt (and ice!) road, which we followed in a loop, crossing fast-flowing streams and passing vernal pools.

As we made our way uphill, we came into a cleared meadow area.

We caught a glimpse of a black-and-white bird here, which Judy later looked up in some of her birding references. She's pretty sure it was a pileated woodpecker, the first one of that species I've ever seen in the wild.

As the road returned to the entrance area we came upon a display of old farm equipment in a picnic area and playground.

Across the road was a dam at the end of Ruggles Pond with a waterfall.

We left Wendell and headed to Turners Falls to get a bite to eat. We ate at The Rendezvous in Turners Falls, a pub that is co-owned by a friend of Judy's. Fun quirky place, and the food was delicious.

Judy collects the Massachusetts State Park Passport stamps, and she added one to her collection at Wendell. In Turners Falls, we made a brief stop to pick up one more stamp at the Great Falls Discovery Center.

The facility was closed, but the box with the stamp was outdoors.

For those interested in the Passport program, the information can be found here.

We also got a good view of the bridge that goes into Turners Falls. The Falls themselves can be better seen from across the river. We got a look, but it was getting late so we didn't stop to take a photo from the other side.

This was my second time visiting this part of Massachusetts in the last few weeks, and it seems like each time I'm out that way I find there's more I'm interested in seeing and doing. I expect I'll be heading out there again soon.