May 17 2021 - Ipswich: Willowdale State Forest

Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail.  To get new posts in your inbox, please subscribe (see the little "subscribe" oval above). The rest of the past posts can be found using the little menu on the left.  If you are curious how this all started, go here.

From B to D

Google misled us on the way to the trailhead (I do seem to write that a lot!) but we figured it out and enjoyed a picnic lunch where we left off at Linebrook Road last time. 

We enjoyed lamb sandwiches from local favorite Dave’s Fresh Pasta.

We were charmed to see wild columbines lining our path.

From L to R: Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea), Starflower (Lysimachia borealis), Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastum cinnamomeum), and Azure Bluet (Houstonia cerulea)

Many species of birds were taunting us from the trees. Frogs calling in the marsh drew our attention and we stopped to listen more than once. We recorded the bullfrog songs at one spot because they sounded like banjos. We each thought we recognized snippets of songs - the Deliverance theme or Camptown Races.

Willowdale State Forest has a complex trail nextwork, so it was helpful that the BCT was well marked, and the trail description was detailed and accurate. The junction markings from the DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation) are at eye level and so far pretty easy to find.

We saw so many chewed up pinecones, and every every now and again an untouched one. We wondered if that was because it was a male cone and therefore without tasty seeds inside. 

Because it’s so sunny today we haven’t seen as many birds as we saw last week. We heard many but saw few.

Walter and I were both wearing our pyrethrin sprayed socks. Mine are tucked into my pants;  his were not. Hopefully they will do the trick against ticks.

Based on the number of cars in the parking lot I didn’t think Sulu would be able to be off leash so I didn’t bring a full pouch of cookies. However the trails are delightfully uncrowded and he was able to be off leash almost the whole time. The forest is technically on-leash only, but as we used to say in grade school “but everybody does it!”

The only notable bird sightings were a kingbird and one of our favorites, the towhee.

We appreciated the lovely brand new boardwalks around the pond. I looked at some maps to try to determine the name of the pond, but it looks like beavers have been at work and what was a deeper spot in the marsh is now a pond.

Definitely beavers at work here!

Our turnaround point on Route 1

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