Wachusett Greenways

Connecting the Wachusett Community with Trails and Greenways 

April 2006 Activities

    Trail surfacing is completed  for a section the Mass Central Rail Trail in Rutland

                                                              Part of the MCRT in Rutland was completed today April 12, 2006.

About one mile and a half of the rail trail was completed between Glenwood Rd. and Route 56 in Rutland. This adds another link to the rail trail connecting Sterling to Rutland. The base layer for the MCRT is also complete from Charnock Hill Rd to Rutland State Park.

Spring cleanup time on the rail trail in Holden. Student volunteers from the Bancroft School helped clean the leaves and other debris left over from the fall and  winter months.

     The White Oak Trail made a great place to explore the woods on a perfect spring day April 20.  Twelve Greenways enthusiasts hiked the four-mile trail loop from the North Street parking lot.  They knelt low to enjoy the sweet fragrance of the tiny white waxy flowers of the trailing arbutus or Mayflower  [The name Mayflower was given to E. repens by the pilgrims after their ship the Mayflower; the plant was abundant where the ship landed at Plymouth Rock.  For this reason, it was chosen to be the state flower of Massachusetts.]  The walkers reached out to smell the crushed needles of the evergreen Canadian Hemlock.  Some participants chewed on the vitamin C-rich white pine needles and nibbled red wintergreen berries.  Occasional bird song drew attention--perhaps a brown creeper, pine warbler and an intriguing unidentified song. 

     Along the hike they also saw signs of human history including a small well, stone fences, shop and home foundations, and signs of years of logging and farming.  The group paused to examine slow-growing lichens on rocks and trees and to identify common trees such as oaks, pines and the once mighty American Chestnut.   We learned that Colonists were once required to ship chestnut boards wider than 24" to England.  At lunch time at the "dinosaur" rocks at the northern tip of the trail, the hikers admired a flourishing stand of large foliar lichen on the big stones.  After a relaxing picnic, the congenial band walked the last leg back to North Street.