M&M Section 3

September 2, 2012: more M&M!  For this section we persuaded my lovely wife/peanut-mama to drop us off on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and pick us up later so we can avoid walking the section twice.  Doubly nice since the weather was quite warm and humid, having rained earlier that day - the mosquitoes were out in force!

We started on the north bank of the Westfield River, in a parking lot across from where we would've forded from the last section. A little road walk across busy Route 20 and up to the Pioneer Valley Sportsman's Club property, and suddenly we were in the woods.

Judging from the amount of spiderwebs hitting my face and arms, few hikers had been through this section recently.  This probably has something to do with the fact that a massive quarry operation is eating away this portion of the ridge, here known as East Mountain.  The trail has been recently been relocated down the east side of the ridge, away from the quarry - as such there are no vistas, and lots of small ups and downs along the waving hillside.

Not to say the experience isn't beautiful - the lack of visitors makes for a refreshingly remote feel, and the quiet marshes of the Paucatuck Brook are pleasantly lush this time of year. Which makes for some muddy bushwacking as this crappy cellphone pic tries to show (forgot my camera).

Adding to the loneliness of the section is an old shelter - the first we've seen - built by boy scouts long ago, now with a caved-in roof and the floor rotted away.  If you were thru-hiking the M&M, this would be a natural stopping place from the MA/CT border - better bring your tent.

The trail does gain the ridgetop eventually and a view of the quarry can be had with some bushwacking through nettles and prickers at its edge.  Quite an operation:

In the distance to the south is the television relay station from Section 2.

There are quarries up and down the Metacomet Ridge, with its accessible basalt - often called "traprock."  Basalt is a pretty hard rock, formed from molten lava, but when the lava cools slowly, it often cracks into hexagonal vertical columns.  (These columns sometimes erode to look like staircases - the name "traprock" comes from the Swedish word for stairs "trappa.")  The natural breaks in the basalt allows for easy harvesting and also make it easier to further break the rock into smaller pieces - as such, it is useful for railroad and highway bedding material.

 Past the quarry, the trail meanders through a recently-logged area that the guidebook describes as an "almost forest primeval of stately hemlock and oak."  Needs a rewrite.  The good number of blown-down trees that lay across the trail here required careful navigation so as not to knock my passenger's head.  Last fall saw a tropical storm come through, which went on to devastate Vermont, followed by an early snowstorm while the trees still had leaves.  Lots of blowdowns everywhere in the region, but this section will need a couple maintainers with chainsaws soon.

The section finishes at the Mass Turnpike, crossing beneath it via a gratified tunnel.  However, Peanut and I still had a surprise mile and a half walk out the Old Holyoke Road, which is closed because of an unrepaired bridge.  Guidebook needs updating on that too.

Today: 3.9 trail miles, 5.4ish hiked miles.  M&M completed: 9.6 out of 114 mi.