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Rock House Reservation

West Brookfield, MA

March 8th, 2014

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Carter Pond Snow may have been underfoot but spring was definitely in the air at Rock House Reservation on the nicest day we'd seen in months. Our contingent was small due to spring break, but eager to get out and explore. We encountered the lovely and still frozen Carter Pond just a short distance up the trail.

Of course the best part was climbing around the huge boulders and overhang of the rock house next to the pond. Below, Logan and Zabrina scale the incline while avoiding the snowy part.
Rock House
Logan & Zabrina
Gabe Carter Pond Gabe makes it all the way to the top! The rest of us followed suit taking different routes. Then we meandered up to the Trailside Museum for another view of Carter Pond from above.
Gabe, Logan & Zabrina Balance Rock From the trailside museum, Gabe, Logan and Zabrina enjoy the Carter Pond view, and then follow the trail to Balance Rock. That's the round thiny perched on top of the cliff.
Logan and Gabe on Balance Rock A successful conquest: Logan and Gabe perch themselves atop Balance Rock.
cow pasture It turns out spring wasn't all that was in the air. On the Summit Loop trail we caught whiff of this cow pasture long before it came into view upon cresting the hill.
cows The cattle were lined up staring straight at us, and the standoff commenced!

A cow gives us the eye. We creep forward. The cows quickly surmise that we are neither dangerous nor edible, and go back to munching on their bales hay.
cows eating hay
cow watching us
Zabrina & Gabe on Summit Trail
Completing the summit loop, Zabrina and Gabe carefully make their way back down the slippery slope. Despite being tricky in spots, the snowy trails were beautiful.
snowy trail

After passing through a grove of tall pines on the Outer Loop trail, our group arrives back where we began at Carter Pond, completing our snowy but balmy hike.
tall pines
group at Carter Pond

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