Joshua Herzig-Marx » outdoors

Back up Mt. Wachusett

herzigma — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 03:56:21 +0000

This past weekend I went with some classmates back up Mt. Wachusett to see the foliage. Not so many pictures this time, but the view was beautiful.

View from the top:

View at the bottom:

Plenty of runoff from the top:

Crazy knocked-down tree:

The colors were crazy. This is looking south, towards central Massachusetts:

Closeup of the colors:

Mt. Wachusett State Park

herzigma — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 04:21:14 +0000

Two weeks ago we went hiking with some friends in Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, about 45 minutes west of Boston and a scenic drive along Rte 2. It was supposed to be brutally hot in the city and we hoped that the mountain would be cooler and less crowded than spots in southern New Hampshire. We covered about 4.5 miles in five hours of sometimes very difficult hiking. Unlike Borderlands, it wasn’t too buggy and we enjoyed well marked trails and varied topography. We look forward to returning.

Here’s a 180 degree panorama from the top, facing mostly southwest.

Wish we could have climbed the fire tower.

Another view from the south slope.

New England may have wussy mountains but the trails are steep. This one on the south face of the mountain turned into tough glacial scree on the east face.

My father-in-law would be happy to know we were hiking with a Ham.

Hot and rainy weather means there have been lots of these great mushrooms.

More fungus – I do love the sprouts.

Not just fungi growing. Here’s a sapling emerging from the rot on a recent cut.

Borderland State Park

herzigma — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:19:55 +0000

This past Saturday we spent a few hours hiking the trails of Borderland State Park, in Sharon, MA. Of the places we’ve been recently I can’t say it’s my favorite–that’s probably at least partly due to the huge number of mosquitoes and horseflies–but it was a nice day in the woods and was much better than the next day’s trip shopping.

Most of the activity of the park takes place around the ponds.

However, the land was once primarily agricultural. The forest itself looks new and some fields are still mowed.

We saw a turtle…

…and a frog. Not a lot of wildlife (a few birds).

But we did see a deer. Yeah, the park’s in Sharon and deer a nuisance throughout the Boston suburbs, but it’s cooler when they’re in the woods. We startled her at about 10 yards, and she quickly bounded up a small hill and watched us from about 50 yards. This was my first opportunity to use the new 125mm Sigma lens I’d bought when I couldn’t have just gotten closer.

Finally, since it’s been damp here in Boston and it’s that time of year, we saw a lot of these fungus flowers. Good stuff!

Crows Have Human-Like Intelligence

herzigma — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:34:32 +0000

Ravens are the only (non-human) animal to purposely taunt me, confuse me, and then laugh at me. Spending a summer on top of Mount Mansfield in Vermont put me in close contact with a flock and my experiences validated what I read in University of Vermont zoologist Bernd Heinrich’s book Mind of the Raven. Now Candace Savage has documented similar behavior in Ravens’ corvid cousins the crow. Check out Crows Have Human-Like Intelligence, Author Says from National Geographic News. (via Sploid)

Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary

herzigma — Tue, 30 May 2006 05:23:04 +0000

With some friends, we visited Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary, a Massachusetts Audobon park. My mom used to take me here as a kid and I loved the boardwalks out over the swampy areas. I think that’s still my favorite part.

We ran into this gal in the middle of the trail. Looked like she was burying some eggs. We left her alone.

This wetlands looks relatively new–you can see the now dead trees killed off by the increasingly acidic standing water. I’d say beaver dam, but I’m not sure we have those things in the Boston area.

We saw about a dozen of these. It’s cool that noone picks them.