Chapter 2 - Losing Max and Finding a Mansion

Chapter 1 - Lesson learned on a Saturday walk
Chapter 3 - Soggy and Beautiful
Chapter 4 - Hiking through the Eyes of a Child

Today was the day for another try at our woods. I was more prepared with a compass and a pedometer! What I could use to mark my personal trail? All I could think of was the masking tape Bob had in the garage. I thought it was blue. It turned out to be light tree green! But, better than nothing.

Sprayed Max with doggie bug stuff and hooked him up. Max is the little male we have and he comes when you call him. I felt he could be an off-leash dog in the woods. Not Roxie, her nickname is Runaway Roxie.

All garbed up with my water bladder backpack, Tilley hat, mosquito net, bug spray, etc., we stepped into our 'forest'. As soon as I was 'out of sight', I sprayed the bug spray on, put my hat and net over my head and off we went. Shortly after I took off Max's leash.

The trail was familiar. The solitude was so nice. I marked trees and bushes frequently with my roll of light green tape, paying more attention to my surroundings. Max ran ahead of me all the time, just out of sight, but came back when I called. All was going well until Max didn't come back. For 20 minutes I called him. More panicked then when I was lost the last time, I called Bob on the cell phone again. I said, "Max is lost!". He thought I was joking but he heard the panic in my voice. He said he'd get dressed and start in on the trail. Just as we were hanging up, who walks up, sits at my feet and looks up at me? Yup, Max with his little non-tail wagging!!! On went the leash, no more off-trail for this little guy!!

Shortly after that, we seemed to be on different land. It opens up to a field and the path becomes a small road. There were many choices of paths to take, so I can't tell you which ones I took, but I will go again and mark the trail more permanently soon. 

The pictures below show the progression of the trail we took. Stony and muddy at the beginning, opening up to progressively wider trails/roads. It was obvious we were going to come out into civilization, but where? My pedometer indicated we had walked about 2.5 miles so far.

All pictures can be viewed in the photo gallery

Buildings fallen down, burnt. The two chimneys I saw had to be 30' tall. That must have been one huge house/mansion? I tried to imagine the history of that place, big buildings out in the middle of such a large tract of land, in such seclusion.

All pictures can be viewed in the photo gallery

About 1/3 of a mile after the buildings, we came out to a 2-lane highway. I couldn't tell what road it was. I wanted to have Bob come and get Max so I called him. By telling him I had just come out in a northern direction and could go either east or west, he figured that I was on Riverlin Street, which I was! I have no sense of direction so I was amazed that he figured it out.

He came and picked up Max. I decided to walk back. The trail, from where I came out, is called the Georgia and Martha Deering Conservation. Two female names, daughters of the Deering family? Mother and daughter? I wonder? This is the sign below. 

I met the family again as I was going back in and they were coming out. I asked if they knew anything about the foundations. She said it was the "Deering Estate" and produced some pages she had printed off the Internet. I believe they were from GeoSearch. It told about the fire, etc. She also said that she was visiting from California! 

The total round trip hike was 6 miles. And I did NOT get lost. Oh, that tape just worked out perfectly. Later, at home, I tried to find out something about that property. I didn't find the information my fellow hiker had. One think I found about this property was from an Open Space Campaign in Grafton - link is below.

"Located at the end of Potter Hill Road, the Potter Hill land is a 60-acre wooded property that lies adjacent to the state-owned 155-acre Martha Deering Wildlife Reserve and 60 acres of conservation land owned by the Town of Millbury. As a result, its permanent protection will create a 275-acre contiguous natural area. The Potter Hill parcel is a conservation priority because of its extraordinary views, wildlife habitat, and key location in a network of nearly 10 miles of interconnected trails."

http://www.grafton-ma.org/glt/grafton_events.shtml - "The Land Trust’s Hunter Pace is a timed equestrian event involving about 100 riders. It covers 10 miles of field and forest terrain in the Brigham Hill/Potter Hill area, including the Deering property in Millbury, Land Trust and other private land on Brigham and Potter Hills." Event happening this September 2004.

Information on the Dorothy Pond Restoration project http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/river/lakeprogram/dorothybroadmeadowbrook.htm#Summary

This information is offered by Brian Burns, our PRVA Treasurer 
"Here is a link referencing those trails http://content.mtbr.com/pscTrails/United,States,Trails/Massachusetts/,RAYBURN/PRD_168448_4554crx.aspx . MTBR is a mountain bike website with trail descriptions for every place you can think of. The woods out back are referred to as RAYBURN. Rayburn is a street off Carousel House Rd. where some of the trails connect to. That's where a lot of the mountain bikers enter the trail system so they named the place Rayburn. The guy who built most of the trails lives right there too."

I purchased a map of our area at New England Backpackers. It was printed in 1982. PRV isn't on it, but we are between Cronin brook and Braney Street. The Deerfield Estate Road does come out onto Riverlin St. and this map indicates only 2 dots at the end of that small road which indicate 2 buildings. There was 1 burned foundation and one crumbling down garage building. It also fits the description of the land quoted above. Here is a bigger section of that map. It is a .pdf  (Millbury Area)

Michelle Fontaine

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