Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Barbour Brook, NY

by theseventhgeneration

The trail map reads "A high point (2000'). Trail descends to a rock field in hardwoods..." So this is really a bonus find:The flat boulder near the bottom, but not on the bottom, makes up the entire base. There are also trailing rocks to the right. My flash was going off, so the picture doesn't do justice to the fact that the large, flat boulder has a perched look to it.

Just downhill from there is the cellar hole:
Then, further to the southeast, the pile-gap-pile. All of these features run parallel to a stand that was clear cut several years ago and is now impossible to walk through.
This is in the background, just behind the pile-gap-pile. You might be able to see my half meter stick in the depression, in front of the stone row. When I hopped down in there to pick up the stick, I heard rocks beneath my feet. I stuck my hand into the ground cover to see if I could feel a rock and pulled up a piece of aluminum (maybe an old sterno?) so I stopped at the thought of someone having used this as a latrine.

There is something like a mound just a bit further to the southeast from the pile-gap-pile, with only a piece of stone row going over it. Still dry, it looks like the "rock field", but then changes to a break-out zone very suddenly.
Just below the break-out zone and also at the end of the clear cut, the water runs like a stream just behind this stone wall. What is fascinating about this is that the water goes completely under the wall, so you can walk right up to that break in the wall and your feet won't get wet. There is a single layer of stones that connect the wall and they are above the water level.Right there at the break in the wall, notice the stone to the right? Here is a close up:Is it me, or does it look similar (yet smaller) to these stones?

Then uphill from the break-out zone and stone wall, I don't know if this is natural or placed, but I found it stunning.

3 comments :

pwax said...

Great report. In the case of the Kibbe cellar hole in Concord/Carlisle we know the name of the person whose cellar that was. If I was more of a scholar I would proceed to the Concord Library to find out what more there is to know about that family. Meaning, is there a way to find out more about your cellar hole?

pwax said...

To me the broad stone next to the wall opening looks too small to fill the opening. It reminds me more of some of the "manitou" or "triangle" stones seen next to rock piles in pictures by Norman, Larry, and JimP.

theseventhgeneration said...

Thanks! Yes on the research part. I am going to see if I can get the 1856 plot map of this area from the County seat. I'm hoping to get over there next week.