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Stoping at the little bus turnaround/parking area off Central Shaft Road inside the park, you take the Busby Trail, as you would if going to the Spruce Hill/Hawk Lookout.
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When you have climbed upward for a while from the foundation and are very close to the last steep, rocky climb up Spruce Hill, on your left you will see this sign. On this day, I decided to do a little exploring and see where this went. Notice the rock wall in the background. Believe it or not, although you have to drive up the mountain from North Adams into the town of Florida to get to the park, you reenter North Adams when hiking to Spruce Hill, which actually is in North Adams. This trailhead is also.
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After hiking from the lost Pond Trail to what the official map calls part of the Blackburnian Loop for about 45 minutes, I came upon what I take to be "Lost Pond." Actually, it appears to be a swamp created by hungry beavers. Notice the chewed bases of a couple of trees. Pretty neat!
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The beavers got all the way through this one. I'm not sure if they wait for the tree to tip over at this point or if they have some way to make it fall over. I imagine they were disappointed that it didn't topple over into the water when they had chewed through it!
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I took this on the way to the swamp when it struck me just how isolated this rarely used path is. The forest seemed big and empty.
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Foundation along the Busby Trail. As is true of Greylock and so many or our forests in Western Massachusetts and Vermont, 100 years ago they were farm land, and old stone walls abound. This was no doubt the foundation of a farmhouse.
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This cliff is actually larger than it appears, maybe 60-70 feet. It is a familar geological formation in the woods in these parts.
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I love this one. Notice the trail marker. Part of the trail was actually flooded out. All the encouragement I needed to turn around, especially as I wanted to make it up Spruce Hill to take some photos before heading home.
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It's great what you can see in the woods. This is a fascinating example of the effect of weather on rock. I'll bet it took several thousand years of erosion for it to crack this way.
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