M&M Trail, Section 4

We hiked 4 miles today on the fourth section of the Monadnock-Metcomet trail. It dumped buckets of rain just before we set out. We stayed mostly dry through a few sprinkles during the hike. Unfortunately, our house leaked a little as the roof was being replaced this morning. It looks like there was no serious damage done, though.

The trees are just about fully leafed out, and the spring green colors were really emphasized this morning after the rain. There were lots of wildflowers blooming and even a few amphibians out crawling around.

Here are a few shots of wildflowers.

Columbine

Dogwood

Bird-foot violet

Actually, there were so many red efts out it was hard to avoid stepping on them in some places. We also saw some wood frogs and a toad. I saw a black rat snake in some rocks along the ridge and River and Bill spotted a red fox next to a cliff.



We definitely started seeing a little more elevation this time. The ridge we’ve been following from Connecticut hasn’t been particularly high until today, but there were some nice views of Westfield. We climbed up a ladder on a tower to get above tree level at one point. It was a bit misty, so it was impossible to see to far. As we neared the end point, the clouds started to burn away and we could see Hampton Ponds and some of the hills on the western side of Westfield.


I’ll leave you with an image of three trucks driven off the edge of the cliff. If you’d like to see more pictures from this hike, check out the photo gallery.