Each of the past two years, on the last weekend in October I’ve made the trip to see the fall foliage at Willard Pond in Antrim so, not wanting to break tradition, I visited the pond last Saturday. As this shot of the road to the pond shows, a lot of the leaves had already fallen, but the bare trees are maple trees and I was here to see the beeches and oaks.
I wasn’t disappointed. These beautiful beech trees greeted me as I pulled into the parking area.
Willard pond is a wildlife refuge so it wasn’t surprising to see a sign like this. I wish I could see the actual loons instead though.
I always walk by the actual trail head and go down to the boat landing because you get a good view of the hillsides from here. The trail I’ll follow will hug the shoreline in the distance over a large part of its length. I was hoping the pond would have a mirrored surface but it was breezy and you can’t have everything.
From here the trees didn’t have quite the same eye popping color that they’ve had in previous years and I wondered if the warm October weather had held them back a little.
The colors seemed a little more intense when the sun shined directly on the trees. They looked to be mostly beech, oak, and many bare maples. I’ve decided I’ll come here earlier next year to see the maples and then again later on to see the beeches and oaks. I’d love to see all the colors of those maples.
My favorite view of a forest is from the inside, so down the trail I went.
The beeches and oaks were absolutely beautiful. This is why I come here at this time of year, every year. I can’t think of another forest that is dominated by beech, oak, and maple like this one is. As is always the case when I come here I couldn’t stop taking photos of the trees.
There are hobblebushes (Viburnum lantanoides) all along the trail and many had beautiful red leaves, which is something I’ve never seen on this native viburnum. Usually the leaves are splotchy maroon and green or yellow but never red that I’ve seen, not even here at the pond. This shrub has a good name because it grows long stems close to the ground that crisscross each other and get covered by fallen leaves, and if your feet get tangled in them they will hobble you and you could find yourself face down on the ground rather quickly. It has happened to me a couple of times so I don’t walk through them now. I always walk around them.
Another native shrub with a lot of red in it is the highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum.) Even the witch’s broom that grows on them is red when young. Witch’s broom is a deformity that is described as a “dense mass of shoots growing from a single point.” When witch’s broom grows on blueberries it is caused by a fungus called Pucciniastrum goeppertianum. This fungus spends part of its life cycle on balsam fir (Abies balsamea.) When it releases its spores and they land on the stems and leaves of the blueberry it becomes infected. It overwinters on blueberries and again releases its spores in the spring, and these will infect more balsam ferns and the cycle will begin again. I’ve worked with infected blueberry bushes and in my experience the witch’s broom doesn’t harm the plant.
But I wasn’t thinking about witch’s broom or fungal spores on the trail. I was admiring the beauty of the blueberry foliage, which in this case was orangey red. It can be anything from yellow to deep purple and is one of our most beautiful native shrubs for fall color.
There are many small streams flowing down the mountainside to the pond and they cross the trail, and that reminds me to tell you that you should wear good stout hiking boots when you come here. There are many stones, roots and other obstacles in the trail so this is not the place for sneakers or flip flops. I have waterproof boots, and they’re even better here.
When the streams are too wide to step across bridges help make the hike easier, but other than a bridge or two, blazed trees, and the marks of a saw on a tree that might have fallen across the trail, there are few signs of man here. It is for the most part natural and rugged. And very beautiful.
Several species of sphagnum moss grow along the trail, as if to remind you how very moist the soil is. These plants, approximately 380 species according to Wikipedia, can absorb 16-26 times their own dry weight in water. They are called peat mosses and are found in peat bogs, forests and tundra in both the north and south hemispheres. I see them everywhere but don’t usually say much about them because they can be very difficult to identify accurately. Because of its great absorbency peat moss was used as diaper material by Native Americans. It has also been used for centuries as a wound dressing, due to its natural ability to inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi. Peat bogs were also once used to preserve food, and 2,000 year old containers of things like butter and lard have been found in them.
Motor boats aren’t allowed on Willard Pond but these two kayakers made me wish I had brought my own kayak. How beautiful it must be to see these flaming hillsides from the water.
There are some huge boulders here and by huge I mean house size. They’re bigger than any I’ve seen anywhere else and it makes me wonder why. They’ve tumbled almost right down to the water and there are places where you have to squeeze through a two boulder pinch point. They’re fascinating things to look at because they have all kinds of things growing on them.
One thing you can find growing on the boulders is polypody ferns (Polypodium virginianum.) Polypody fern is also called the rock cap fern, for good reason. I’ve never seen them growing anywhere but on stones. They are evergreen and very tough, and can be found all winter long.
The spores of polypody ferns grow on the undersides of the leaves in tiny mounds called sori, which are made up of clusters of sporangia, which are the receptacles in which the spores are formed. The sori are naked and lack the protective cap (insidium) found on many ferns. The sori are often a beautiful orange color and look like tiny baskets of flowers but it looked as if these examples had already released their spores and were going by.
If this boulder isn’t called table rock it should be. It was big, and flat enough to build an average size garden shed on.
Fern roots reminded me of a porcupine’s tail. I think it might have been a sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis) but I don’t see many of these so I’m not 100% sure.
There is a new thing, or maybe it’s a very old thing with a new name, called forest bathing. To practice it you go into a forest and walk slowly. You breathe in the forest air and open all of your senses and just be part of the forest. Once again I find that I’ve been doing something for my whole life without knowing it had a name, but practitioners say that forest bathing reduces blood pressure, improves mood, increases your ability to focus, and accelerates recovery from surgery. All of these benefits have been studied quite extensively, and there is even evidence that trees give off compounds that boost our immune system to help with things like fighting cancer. They also say that being in a forest gives you a deeper and clearer intuition, an increased energy level, and an overall increase in your sense of happiness. I’d have to agree. I’ve always believed that nature has very strong healing powers, and to reap its benefits you need do nothing more than just go and walk or sit in the woods.
This is the view from the little bench in the previous photo. It’s a beautiful place to sit and soak in the beauty. In general it is very quiet and serene at Willard Pond; much more so than the other ponds I visit. All you hear is birdsong and the lapping of the waves.
If you sit on the bench and turn around 180 degrees, this is what you see. It’s hard to say which view is more beautiful. I like them both and I could sit and stare at either one for hours.
This place takes me out of myself more than any other that I visit regularly, and every time I’ve come here I’ve been shocked by how much time had passed. On this day I was here for a good part of the day, and it seemed like only an hour or two. If you let yourself go and let yourself become immersed in your surroundings, that’s often what happens. It’s very refreshing, as if you’ve recharged your batteries.
I hope that everyone has their own special forest that they can easily get to. If you can, try to make regular visits to it. Don’t turn it into a job; just walk through and relax and enjoy the beauty of nature. After just a surprisingly short time I think you’ll notice that you’re becoming a different kind of person. Happier, more at ease, more energetic, and less stressed. You might notice that you are beginning to see with different eyes, and that your mind has quieted. One of the benefits I most enjoy from being in the forest is the seemingly endless supply of simple joy. I do hope you’ll find the same in your own forest.
It was in the forest that I found “the peace that passeth all understanding.” ~Jane Goodall
Thanks for stopping in.
I’ve heard of the new fad called forest bathing, like you, it’s something that I’ve done my entire life. I’d say that we were trend setters, but I also know that past generations of my father’s side of the family practiced it as well.
But, whether old or new, Willard Pond would be a great place to partake of forest bathing, it looks like just the place to spend a day without realizing that the entire day was going by.
I loved all the photo in this post, you had such great color to capture, and it helps to have some change in the elevation so that you can see more than the first row of trees beyond the pond.
Thanks Jerry! I think the term is only new here. It’s been called that in Japan for a very long time.
My family also spent a lot of time in the woods. Some of my earliest memories include being in the forest with my grandmother, looking for checkerberries.
Willard Pond is a great place to do just about anything. There is even a mountain trail to climb, but I haven’t done it yet.
We’ve had really good color this year but the leaves are falling fast now!
Lovely to walk along with you through your images and words. Those boulders are mighty impressive. We’ve a close-by botanical garden we stop at frequently, even for ten minutes. Guaranteed to improve the day.
Thank you. I’m glad you have a bit of nature to visit. It always does improve the day, and I hope more people will give it a try.
Such a beautiful place! It’s the immensity too, that is astounding. I only have woods here and no huge lake. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. Actually as our lakes and ponds go Willard Pond is on the small side. I think it’s around 110 acres, but it is very beautiful.
To reply to your last paragraph: In previous homes we had our own forests that we could easily walk through, but this time, we back onto a beautiful valley, with charms of its own. I thoroughly enjoyed that last photo — Mr. Creative Photographer –, but my favourite scenes are of the ‘table rock’, the table by the water, and above all, that first photo — it’s absolutely painterly.
Thanks very much Cynthia. Personally, I think the thing is to just be out in nature and to relax and let yourself enjoy it, rather than having to be in any specific place. I’m sure being out in your valley would be just as beneficial as being in a forest.
Forest bathing. Hmm. Very interesting.
I’m not crazy about the name but I can say that nature is very healing.
The name is actually translated from Japanese. They are the ones who came up with the concept and they have guides who lead you through the forest and teach you how to calm down and such. It’s all very meditative.
I think I know what you mean about the name. Tacky. But then it is a translation, and the concept is sound.
Looks wonderfully idyllic, the day was a beautiful one. I’ve immersed myself in nature all my life and like you, recently learned about the research that backs up what I’ve always felt about being in nature. It heals us, mind, body and soul.
Thank you Eliza, it was a perfect day.
I agree, nature is better than any medicine!
I love the colours of the oaks and beeches! The forest you walked through looks absolutely wonderful and the reflections of the trees and colours in the lake are lovely.
Thank you Clare. Willard pond has quickly become a special place for me but I have to make a point of getting there more than I do. I’d love to see a loon and those maples in fall!
I look forward to next October for a few shots of the maples!
Me too. We have no tree more colorful than the maples, but the oaks are trying hard this year.
A beautiful walk. Forest bathing eh? Do you wear special clothes for it?
I didn’t but I’m sure some people do.
There is nothing like a good day in the woods, a field, or a green space of some kind. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more!
What a peaceful, gorgeous spot. I think the Lurie Garden is probably closest to my own forest spot, though it’s not a forest. The oaks and beeches are lovely, but so are the Viburnum and blueberry shrubs.
It is both of those, in spades!
I don’t think being in a forest is as important as just being outside with nature.
Viburnums and blueberries are two of our most beautiful fall shrubs, and they’re natives.
Wonderful photos and descriptions. I’ll enjoy the forest vicariously through your blog.
Thank you Jane. I realize not everyone is able to get into the forest but you’ll see plenty of it here.
What a beautiful time of year it is there, and it seems to last a long time! Our brief season of fall colors has abruptly changed now to a black and white world although there may be some melting in another week. Still, most of the colored leaves are on the ground.
I liked seeing the loon sign, but I would also rather see the loons themselves.
Thanks Montucky! It is lasting a long time this year, I think because of our extended warm spell. We’re still warm now, with near 70 degrees expected Monday.
Too bad the snow and cold finished your season early. I was looking forward to seeing your aspens.
I’d love to see a loon too. It’s another bit of nature I haven’t seen.
PS – I think Willard Pond is a kettle pond, meaning a pond formed when a big chunk of glacial ice broke off and created a depression, then melted…
It’s an amazing thing to ponder!
My understanding of the reason for all the boulders in Hancock is that the leading edge of the last ice age glacier stopped here (more or less )and melted. It dropped its load of boulders, and as it melted, sent huge rivers carrying sand and gravel south, into Peterborough and onward. The huge sand banks along route 202 are evidence of the rivers slowing as they created a big lake more ore less along the path of 202’ south into Massachusetts. There were other glacial lakes nearby, including Lake Ashuelot, and Lake Hitchcock (the entire Connecticut River valley). In the highlands around those glacial lake beds, the glacier dumped its boulders.
Thank you John, I’ve heard the same. The only thing that always throws me a curve about glacial erratics is how they’re supposed to have been carried from far off, so their make up is supposed to be different than the stones and bedrock found in the area. The huge boulders I see always seem to be made of the same granite that I’ve seen all my life, so they don’t seem to fit the description of an erratic. Maybe it takes some kind of scientific / geological testing to tell them apart, I don’t know.
The granite around here is Kinsman granite, which is part of a broad band of granite bedrock that runs north-south through the central part of New Hampshire. So the boulders could have moved a ways and still be of similar rock. I’d love to see a map of our bigger boulders and their origins..
Me too!
Looks like a beautiful area. I don’t know what I was more enamored with; the large boulders or the fall colors. I certainly agree with your thoughts about spending time in the woods. When younger I did a lot of bicycling but now I increasingly find myself drawn to long hikes in the woods which speak to me in a multitude of ways.
Those boulders are something to see. I’m used to seeing big stones but these surprise even me.
I can’t imagine not having access to the woods. I lived in a city once, long enough to know that I just wasn’t made for it.
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Thank you.
Lovely post … I agree with you. I am lucky enough to live in a place where I can reach beautiful walking tracks and have views of the mountains …it has always been an important part of my life …and is very resoritive after a stressful day.
Thank you. I’ve never lived any other way except for a short while in Florida, so I can’t see the other side of the coin. We are lucky though, you and I. That I’m sure of!
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
Forest Bathing, great idea
Thank you John. If you Google forest bathing I think you’ll be surprised.
Very interesting what you have found out about ‘forest bathing’, I can quite believe that it is true. Wonderful colours especially, for me, when reflected in water.
Thank you Susan. My only problem with forest bathing is that I’ve been in the woods since I was a very small boy, so I have nothing to compare it to. I wonder what life is like when you don’t forest bathe.
Particularly enjoyed the last photo!
Thank you. That was part of an old birch tree that had fallen.