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White noise
Western Mass. reservations put you on the trail of peace and quiet and maybe a panorama

By Jane Roy Brown, Globe Correspondent, 01/12/03

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		Printable version How to get there Bear Swamp From Boston, drive west about 2 hours on Route 2. Just west of Shelburne Falls, take Route 112 south to Ashfield. From the intersection of Route 112, Route 116, and Hawley Road in Ashfield, follow Hawley Road west 1.7 miles, ignoring a hand-lettered sign to Bear Swamp on left-forking road. See entrance on left, marked by green and white Trustees of Reservations sign. The path to Apple Valley Overlook is opposite the main entrance. Caution: Parking areas on both sides of road are not plowed, so park carefully, single file, on roadside. Trails: 3 miles of moderate trails. Acres: 285. Hours: Open year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset. Allow 1 hours. Admission is free. Chapelbrook Follow directions to Ashfield above. From Ashfield center, take Route 116 east 1 miles to South Ashfield. Where Route 116 turns left, continue straight on Williamsburg Road (follow Williamsburg Route 9 signs) and follow for 2.2 miles. Entrance is on the right just before bridge over Chapel Brook. Trail to Pony Mountain is through the main entrance; the falls of Chapel Brook are across the road. Parking cautions at Bear Swamp also apply here. Trails: 1-mile trail climbs to the top of Pony Mountain. Moderate hiking, though strenuous in places. Acres: 173. Hours: Open year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset. Allow 1 hours. Admission: On-site donation welcome from nonmembers of Trustees. More information Trustees of Reservations 413-684-0148 or 413-298-3239 E-mail: westregion@ttor.org www.thetrustees.org This private nonprofit conservation and historic preservation organization manages both sites. What to bring If you own snowshoes, toss them in the car in case the snow is deep. The trails at both reservations are fine for snowshoeing. Also pack water, snacks, and other winter-hiking necessities. For a list of what to bring on a winter day hike, visit the Appalachian Mountain Club's Web site: www.outdoors.org/ 2002-winter-gear.shtml. Seasonal caveats You will be hiking at your own risk. Though these areas are not remote, they are not staffed and winter conditions, including icy trails and partly frozen water, can be hazardous. Be prepared to deal with emergencies. Where to stay and eat Surrounding towns in Franklin County include Ashfield, Conway, Hawley, Colrain, Heath, Charlemont, Buckland, and Shelburne Falls. Worthington and Cummington in Berkshire County also lie nearby. For a list of accommodations and restaurants, see www.mohawktrail.com/listings; www.hidden-hills.com; www.shelburnefalls.com/accompages; or www.westernmassvisit.net/.

ASHFIELD - In the snow-muffled woods, the first thing you notice is the silence, underscored by the occasional wintry sound: a branchload of snow landing with a muted "whump"; a breeze rattling the beech saplings' dry leaves; a woodpecker tapping an exploratory search for grubs on an ice-torn oak.

In the fall, my husband and I had made brief forays to the Bear Swamp and Chapelbrook reservations, two Trustees of Reservations properties a few miles apart in rural Ashfield, about two hours northwest of Boston. Wide trails, streams and ponds, prominent ledges, and a mixed forest with abundant hemlock promised a winter landscape rich in visual detail and wildlife, and we vowed to return when snow arrived.

We were not disappointed. In mid-December, five inches of snow covered the ground, and the landscape was stripped down to its winter bones, with all its dips, hummocks, and spikes profiled in white.

At Bear Swamp, we set out on the Beaver Brook Trail, part of a three-mile trail network on the west side of the road. (On the other side, a wide track rises for a few hundred yards to Apple Valley Overlook, a pastoral clearing with a picnic table, ringed by birches and pines.) The first leg of the trail passed between steep ledges before skirting a frozen pond and meadow. The ledges and overarching hemlock boughs gave the path the sheltered feeling of a corridor. Fresh powder outlined minute crevices in the rock face.

One of the exciting things about hiking in snow is watching for tracks and other signs that reveal which critters are sharing the woods with you. On the first stretch of trail, we made a rare find: a bloodless scatter of blue jay feathers with the marks of wingtips brushing the snow around it. No other tracks led to or from the feathers, which suggested that a hawk had swooped down from above. Elsewhere, the tidy, double-pair prints of red squirrels crisscrossed the ground beneath the hemlocks.

Following the off-white blazes for the Beaver Brook Trail (which can be challenging to follow if snow clings to the tree trunks), we picked our way across a frozen stream and soon gazed out on a dazzling white expanse of pond. Settlers who cut timber in this area created it as a mill pond; their old stone dam still stands. More recently, beavers have built their own dam on top of it.

From here, the trail hugged the pond bank, crossing several mushy streambeds. Even at 15 degrees, moving water gurgled under the ice. Gradually, the path rose through a bare deciduous glade of birch, basswood, ash, and beech, which striped the ground with blue shadows. Masses of stone poked through the snow as we climbed more steeply on the Lookout Trail, which intersected several deer paths. From the crest of the ridge, a fine view of the pond and the white-dusted forest spread out below. Beyond the opposite slope, rounded hills faded into distant clouds.

Here among the snow-covered boulders, we lost the trail - a hazard of winter hiking, offset by the ability to backtrack easily - and bushwhacked to the Beaver Brook Trail. On the way, in a grove of hemlocks, we spotted a straight chain of four-pronged footprints made by a bird a bit smaller than a chicken, probably a ruffed grouse. From here we easily made our way back to the trailhead, having completed a gentle-to-moderate hike in about an hour and a quarter.

This reservation, only about four miles from Bear Swamp, is in other seasons a magnet for rock climbers flocking to the 80-foot rock face at Pony Mountain, which rises in its midst. Winter is a quieter time to explore the lookout ridge and appreciate the ice formations at Chapel Falls. As at Bear Swamp, trails start on both sides of the road. Pony Mountain is on the side opposite the falls, which are visible - and audible - from the road. In 1828, settlers erected a now-vanished Methodist chapel that gave the spot its name, and at least two gristmills once stood beside the stream. Sheep grazed in pastures that have since grown into the surrounding forest of beech, ash, birch, sugar maple, northern red oak, and hemlock.

The falls, spilling over a series of three ledges, beckoned immediately, so we picked our way carefully down the icy trail to the edge of Chapel Brook. The branches of 50-foot hemlocks overhung the tumbling water, which coated them in silver. The third ledge of Chapel Falls was the most spectacular, with fingers of frozen water extending over a room-sized pool, a perfect summer swimming hole. The brookside trail disappeared among the boulders, and we headed across the road to chase the views from Pony Mountain.

There is only one main trail here, the Summit Trail, which makes a gradual, one-mile circuit around the great ledge. Almost from the start, sheer walls of stone dominated the stark landscape, with an eight-story cliff wall rising straight up beside the trail. Only one person had been here ahead of us, and his or her tracks soon reversed back to the trailhead. As the path gained elevation, it overlooked streams braiding together in the valley below. Near the summit, the trail entered a partial clearing, probably a pasture once, spiked with hardwood saplings bounded by a stone wall. On the other side of the wall, an immaculate pasture (not part of the reservation) stretched down the hill. The trail rose another 50 yards through a dark hemlock grove. Suddenly, the trees opened to reveal the cliff, and a gray and white panorama of the Berkshire foothills spread out below. After admiring the views, we searched for the return trail, but it petered out among the rocks.

During the bushwhack down the slope we stumbled upon a deer trail, which led to a trampled place beneath hemlocks and oaks. Here a half-dozen deer had curled up on the ground while snow drifted around them, their bodies leaving bare hollows of oak leaves. Turkeys, probably drawn by the prospect of acorns, had also left a trail nearby. Not far away, a pine snag - the standing trunk of a dead tree - was riddled with fist-sized holes, probably carved by a pileated woodpecker, providing high-rise dwellings for cavity nesters like red squirrels, mice, chickadees, and nuthatches.

Back at the trailhead after an hour of tramping, we waved to three hikers striking out for Pony Mountain, silently exulting that we had been the first to enter the woods after new snow.

Jane Roy Brown is co-editor of AMC Outdoors magazine.