Hike through the Cascades

A few photos from a walk back from West Tatnuck School yesterday...

This first is actually in Cascades West. There's a little corner of Cascades West that you cross when you go from Worcester Public Schools property (which much of that red maple swamp down the hill is) to Cascades Park.

Here's that stream you cross on rocks:


Here's the top of the Cascades

And the shot you're more used to, from Cataract Street.

Boy Scouts

We had a troop of Boy Scouts (little ones) come through this morning on a hike. They went all the way up to Boynton Park, took the side trail to West Tatnuck School, and enjoyed the playground there.
They also saw a snake.

When the trails turn into streams

We took a lengthy hike this morning: up the Cascades Trail next to the waterfall (which is still running fast and furious; if you haven't been by, you should!), around to the Silver Spring Trail to its end, by road to West Tatnuck School, bushwacked to the West Tatnuck spur trail, down that to Cascades, and down the Newton Trail. (That's blue circles to yellow triangles, to the road, to yellow circles, to blue circles, to red circles, for those of you who go by blazes.)

The most notable thing is how very wet it is. The ground really is saturated, and there's lots of water just sitting on the ground out there. If you're planning on taking the Silver Spring Trail in particular, wear waterproof footwear, because you are going to get your feet wet. Parts of it have become the brook that it turns into in the spring, and there's plenty of water just sitting there, too. In places it's difficult to tell that there's water due to leaf coverage.

If you have never been on the Silver Spring, or haven't lately, let me recommend it. I hadn't been up there in awhile, and with all the brooks running, it's really lovely. There's a number of benches out there to sit and contemplate it all; a nice antidote to running around.

It looks like a tree took out a picnic bench up at the picnic grove at Boyton Park; I'll send that into the Parks Department and see if we can get anywhere on it.
For those who have despaired of ever again seeing that huge sign that belongs in Boyton Park, we're on it! We're getting there! We've had the great problem of having to update it to include more preserved land just about every time we thought we had it done. As there's nothing in the works in that regard, we'll see about getting it back out there.