Hike 12 - Sections #12 & #13A

Today's hike was an audible (that's football talk for "changed from the original plan").  You see, I was supposed to be hiking tomorrow, but the forecast for tomorrow afternoon is dismal.  And since Nathaniel (home for Columbus Day break) would rather chill than go to a Renaissance faire, my Saturday just opened up.

I recruit Alex to join me for this 6-mile jaunt.  Including "getting lost time" it takes us 1:10 to locate the cars before we start hiking at 1:12pm.  It is warm today, temperature in the mid 70's (unseasonable for October) and very humid.  With the exception of fall colors, there was very little of interest along our route today.  Most of the colors were yellows and quite a few of the trees had already lost all their leaves.  Like my last outing, this  hike is entirely in the town of Spencer.

Starting out on the south side of Rt 9.  The trail crosses just west of the Leicster town line (for those of you outside Massachusetts, we pronounce that "lester").

We hiked through some Mass Audubon property that had a trail system of it's own.

This photo reminded me of the Windows 7 wallpaper on my computer.

Once again, I saw wildlife along the way: Garter snakes slithering off the path, ducks in the swamp, and this colorful tree toad.

OK, this was not in the trail guide.  Apparently, a piece of the trail has been replaced by a handful of new houses and a new street named Candlewood Drive.

No matter what, when Alex hikes with me, we can't avoid swamps.  At least this one was colorful.

We get a break from the forest under some power lines.

Here's an actual re-route sign.  From here, we have to tread on private property.  Thanks to the homeowners allowing us passage.

The tail end of the hike had us walking local roads for about 2 miles.

We finish at the Four Chimney's Wildlife Area.

The trail underfoot at the beginning of this hike was very rocky and wet, making for slow going.  By contrast, at the end, we were entirely on roads.  The partly cloudy skies we started with gave way to dark and threatening ones, but we finished before any rain fell.  On the way back to my car, we drove on some of the same roads we had just hiked and also criss-crossed the trail a couple times.  It was like deja vu all over again.  Our totals for today:  time 2:07, mileage 6.59 miles.