Thursday, November 22, 2007

Exploring at Mt. Pisgah in Berlin, MA

Last weekend I went to Mt. Pisgah, a surprisingly busy conservation land. At the entrance on Ball Hill Rd. I hung left with the throught of skirting behing the houses and following one of the brooks (parallel to Ball Hill Rd). But I got dis-oriented in the flat area and eventually swung back to the east where I picked up one of the conservation land trails that follows the gully down towards A on the map fragment.At around A, I started seeing hints of piled rock. When I saw two in a row I began to think it was a little site.The little pile to the right has a feature I want to call attention to: a small gap opening towards the viewer, namely towards the brook behind me while taking the picture. It is a nice little rock pile next to the trail.

A few feet further dowhill (to the north on the map) a few other traces, then this wonderful configuration.
In this second view we are looking back towards the brook that is at the bottom of the gully.
I think the little rock pile is placed deliberately in front of this crack in the large rock and that this is very intentionally placed as it is, facing the brook.

Still further downhill, just before the cultivated land, some impressive sized rock on rocks:

Note, relative to the size of my foot.
Later in the walk I found other rock piles higher up (south) in the same gully (at C). This suggests we call the whole gully a site but that is misleading since the different places might have different functions and date from different times.

I'll try to document the traces I saw at B in a subsequent post.

2 comments :

JimP said...

Mt. Pisgah is one of the few MA sites you've covered, Peter, that I've actually visited. I was there for the views, but I had one very long look all around. My impression was that there was likely much more beneath my feet.

Kyle said...

Interesting stuff, what were these rock piles used for?