Patterns of Great Hill

Caution: Watch out for poison ivy on the trail. Use insect repellent and sunscreen when outdoors. There are ticks in these woods; use care.

This hike can be done in either the “short version”, to the “Old Indian Grinding Stone” and back - approximately 50 minutes, OR

The “long version”, which includes the summit of Great Hill - approximately 1 hr 30 min.

Facing the map kiosk, turn 90 degrees to the right and spy the manmade homes for bluebirds in the meadow. Search for a yellow arrow at the tree line, pointing to your trail. Cross the meadow on the mown path towards the yellow arrow and enter the woods.

Can you find the remains of this lands farming past -- an old apple tree with trunk rotted and round? (clue: it’s after you pass to the right of a stone wall)

Watch for the leaves of three - poison ivy - that fill these woods. A hardy survivor, note the thick, hairy vines climbing the tallest tree -- and beware!

The big old Northern red oak with a large vine of poison ivy should be on your right as you take the next right. Red oak trees have distinctive ‘V’ shaped deep furrows on their bark; they look like arrowheads pointing to the sky! In the spring you will notice “Jack in the Pulpits” growing at the base of the tree.

You will know you have chosen the correct path if you spy a red oak leaning 45 degrees in the woods on your right.

Follow the cobble path into a young grove of hardwood. Can you find the woodpecker holes? Search on the left of the trail behind the two tall, skinny American beech trees with smooth gray trunks with horizontal lenticels. The beechnut is a favorite food of squirrels and raccoons. Native Americans ground the nuts for flour.

As you step through a stone wall and take a right, look down at the threshold to note these “veins of 4”. What force made them -- glaciers scraping rock against stone, humans scratching symbols… or….?

Head down a hill past a spreading Eastern hemlock on right. The bark was once a source of tannin used in the production of leather. Pioneers made tea from the leafy twigs and brooms from the branches.

Young Eastern white pine recruits are on your left. Here is an identifying clue: Count the number of needles in each group or bundle - - W H I T E = five letters and five needles.

Walk down the hill between two trees tall and straight - pine on the right and beech on the left.

Notice the white fungi growing on the left - they look like scaly white toenails!

Cinnamon Ferns are coming in. Is there water?

More, and different, grey fungi are growing on the fallen log on the right.

Check out the dead tree located past the fungi. Find a woodpecker hole high, insect holes low.

Duck under the “limbo” red maple -- How tall are you? Can you see the branches growing up to the light?

Continue down the hill through mixed evergreen and deciduous.

Not long after you pass the maple find a small tree on your left with a flat rock at base. Who lives in its hollowed out base?

The path becomes very “bouldery” Could it have been a stream? Spot the “circles” of lichen on the rocks

After walking up hill and down, find the tangled group of pines on the right. What does it look like?

Spot the dead “see thru” tree on the left, then head right thru a stone wall. Stop immediately at the stone wall and take 30 paces to another right turn (before the yellow blaze)

If you pass two big white pines (one with yellow blaze) on your right, you’ve just missed the right hand turn.

Lots of fiddle heads and ferns can be found to the right and left of the trail. This trail is parallel to a stonewall on your right.

Jog to the right at wetland and skunk cabbage

Hopscotch across the mud.

Which direction is the water flowing?

Cross over the small stream -- Do you know what it is called?

Red maple swamp is covered with large trees fallen during Hurricane Bob. The trees lie southeast, because this was the direction of the secondary winds.

Continue until the stone wall on right meets another stone wall crossing its path to form a “T’

Time for bushwhacking through the brush -- take an IMMEDIATE right after crossing the stone wall! You are now off the beaten trail, following next to a stone wall. (a triplet of maples means you have missed the turn!)

Walk 45 - 50 paces to a wet, swampy area -- the basin shape in front of you is known as the “Old Indian Grinding Stone.” Do you think this was used by Native American people centuries ago to grind nuts and grains -- or was it formed by glaciers grinding over New England????

Search at the stone wall on your right for a hidden quest container. Use the stamp pad to mark your passport and add a message to our notebook. Please replace the container in its hiding place for the next questing group.

Return to the “real” trail and REVERSE your steps back over the stream (can you find the sparkly rock?), across the wetlands and thru the woods back to where the two large pines, one with yellow blaze, are found.

******Turn right to continue the quest or left to return to your car. (The hike will continue for another 50 minutes if you continue the quest.)

Who made the stone walls? How did they farm this area? Can you imagine how people moved some of these large stones?

Where is the traffic noise coming from? Which direction?

The increasing number of evergreens signals well-drained, sandy soil! The Eastern White pine adds one row of horizontal branches a year! The tall, straight trunks were prized for ship masts in the colonial period.

Note the leaf litter on the trail and off. Why is there a difference?

At the intersection of two trails, right on red is wrong! Follow your trail to the left, past the big white pine with many trunks.

Can you hug some of these enormous pines? Which is the largest?

The trail will split just after a large pine with a yellow blaze on the right - take right or left - your choice, and meet at the yellow blazed pine at stone wall!

Cross over stone wall and weave thru three white pines. Stay straight on trail past yellow blaze to left to meet stone wall again, edging wet land.

Hopscotch across wetland -- if it’s wet it must be spring!

Go for a ride on the “Triple Pine” Tree!

Pass thru two fallen trees and step over stone wall.

A stone wall will be on the right, up to another ahead.

Cross another stone wall to wetlands

Large hemlock at 150 degrees. Along the wall is a hemlock. If you look on the left side, you will find a new evergreen variety!

Can you find quarried granite? (Clue: It is located on the left after a small stone wall.)

Can a tree grow from a rock? Look for the roots covering a rock, with hardy tree growing upwards.

Follow yellow marks down to another low land -- lots of ferns! Can you find two kinds?

Up hill to stone wall crossing -- look left through the trees - can

you find one of the oldest, and largest, oaks in the woods?

Sharp eyes may also spot lady slippers in spring and summer.

Trail comes to “T” at double yellow slash - Go left.

Find the paper birch on the right. Paper birch is used for products such as toothpicks, clothespins, broom handles and pulpwood. Native Americans made lightweight birchbark canoes by stretching the stripped bark over frames of Northern White-cedar, sewing it with thread from Tamarack roots, and caulking the seams with pine or Balsam fir resin. Never strip the bark from living trees -- it leaves permanent ugly black scars! Houses are close!

Pick a snack of blueberries if they are ripe!

Start up hill, thru wall -- light may dapple thru hardwood leaves.

Check out the tree before the stone wall on the left -- the large fungi look like climbing wall holds!

After the second fungus tree past the double slash yellow, you need to go left on the red trail, across from the blue house on the right!

What do you think the animals that live in these woods eat? Can you find three sources of food?

Follow the path that might take a cart up to the top.

All that glitters is not gold! Find more mica in the rocks.

On right there is a “tree of four” -- a good start for a fort!

Hike on to find, on the left, bug hieroglyphics on a red maple.

Near the top; locate a big rock in your path, with a sink hole on its side. What do you think caused it?

Spy an ancient evergreen, once very tall, now lowly lycopodeums.

Spy the “tree teepee” on the right.

Near it, find the summit mark. With back against the tree, summit sign above your head, pace 5 steps out and look left for a good hollowed home. Look within for the treasure box and stamp. Return the treasure box to its hiding place, after stamping your passport and recording a message. From your stump - eye the red. Cross over the path to large boulders quarried before the Civil War.

A large hemlock towers over a cut block left to fallow. Can you find the cut marks?

Return to the trail and follow it downhill.

At the T turn left on the blue-blazed trail, then pass through a stone wall. Pass the big white pine on the right with “stress fractures”.

At the next fork in the road, bear left, then left again at the big tent rock on the yellow trail.

How many different birds call can you hear?

When can you spy the meadow and the green grass?

Avoid the false blue trail and continue straight to your starting point.

Look for water striders at the pond on your way to the car.

Try another Quest! Check out www.artemiaassociates.com for more quest hikes! Let us know if you enjoyed this one, or give us your suggestions and feedback, please.

If you like this quest, visit these sites for some other treasure hunts you might try: www.letterbox.org or www.geocaching.com