Basswood Pond Hike – Tuesday, September 23, 2008

On this perfectly beautiful Fall day, we had a bit of an adventure on the trail, followed by lunch next to Basswood Pond, and then for some, a trip to Tom Salo’s home nearby.

Eight of the group chose to walk the lower, more even Blue Trail. The other twenty two of us chose the upper, hillier Yellow Trail. The trails were reportedly in good shape. However, logging activities had left some messy, deeply rutted sections. The Yellow Trail had not been well used and there were many pricker bushes and blow-downs. All the hikers helped me to locate the yellow markers and alternate ways around the downed trees. It added interest and a little excitement to the walk. At one point we crossed a path that had three foot ruts to jump over.

After lunch, about twenty of us went to Tom’s place where we looked at his “famous” root cellar, his wetland bird sanctuary, his fish pond and finally we picked blueberries. What a happy sight it was to see our ADK Tuesday hiking group spread out in Tom and Jo’s blueberry patch picking and eating to beat the band. We had a wonderful day. Photograph 2 by Norma Lee Havens, the others by Scott Fielder: 1) Beginning of Hike, 2) End of Hike – Tom & John Salo looking at the blueberry pickers, 3) Logging Road, 4) Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), 5) False Solomon’s Seal (Smilacina racemosa), 6) New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae), 7) Reflection Pond, 8) Basswood Pond, and 9) A Snag or Two.