Hiking Tyringham Cobble - Part 6

At this point, the dogs and I had passed the peak of Tyringham Cobble and arrived at the point where we would return to the trail head by angling down through an overgrown field:

As we emerged from the woods, the route back down toward the road seemed to be visible:

We continued hiking downhill as the dogs sniffed for signs of wildlife and I dreamed of how I'd like to pasture cattle here as had been done years ago:

Apple trees still bore fruit in this former farm field and some of the fruit had lasted right through the winter:

Looking back toward where we'd emerged from the woods:

A crab apple with fruit still attached. With all this fruit available, it appears that the local wildlife has had an easy winter:

We passed out of the field and back into a woodland. And then with a "woof!" the dogs announced the source of the noises and wood smoke I'd noticed early. Three loggers had been clearing a fallen tree but had decided to build a fire and take a break. They were happy to see a couple of friendly, playful dogs:

After a brief chat, we continued down an increasingly steep and slippery slope toward the trail head. This is the fallen tree the logging crew was working on. They were resting just the other, uphill side of it:

Soon we approached what seemed to be the cow pasture where we'd begun:

We passed the spot where the loggers had parked, but that turned out not to be the field with the trail head. You can see the classic New England church spire in the town of Tyringham below. We were almost back to the car, but there's yet one more post before we reach it:

Hiking Tyringham Cobble - Part 5

We'd hiked to a scenic overlook on Tyringham Cobble in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts to what I thought must be the highest point. But then the trail dropped down into a ravine and then began climbing once again. It was about at this point that I began to smell wood smoke, presumably from some house in the valley below. As we continued on our path, we began once again to emerge into an open, sunny area. This unique tree on the left is, I believe, an American Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, often called musclewood for its rippled, sinewy trunk and branches:

And off to the side of the trail I could see glimpses of the valley far below us:

I heard a commotion high in a tree and saw a very large turkey flying off in a rush, presumably the same obese turkey we'd sent looking for a new roost when we were at the bottom of the cobble. The poor guy just couldn't get any rest. We came to another scenic overlook and, if I remember correctly, Seamus and Fergus are, in this photo, looking in the direction to which the angry turkey flew, though he was high above us:

I began to hear what I at first thought were snowmobiles and momentarily tensed up (Seamus sensed my concern and went on heightened alert). But then I thought the sounds might be chain saws in the valley below:

Oblivious to it all, young Fergus just ran and had a grand time:

We came to a scenic overlook near a large rock so I set my camera on auto-timer and placed it where I could get a photo of myself. Alas, every photo came out bleached looking. I've had this problem before and suspect it may have something to do with the self-timer setting but can't be sure. This was the best picture of the lot:

Yet when I picked up the camera to photograph Seamus smiling on the summit, the camera functioned just fine:

The trail took us back into the woods:

And then back out into a clearing at the opposite side of the cobble:

From here we'd descend down the overgrown fields into the valley, swinging around to the left to arrive at our departure point. But this isn't the end of the hike. I'll post more in days to come: