Trail Tour

This section of the proposed New England Trail would follow the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail   through the Millers River highlands. It would include several mountain ledges, a scenic boulder field, a mountaintop reservoir and hydroelectric facility, a waterfall, an historic cave, and attractive woodlands. 

W-12.0 Mormon Brook and Millers River
The Metacomet Monadnock Trail follows the cascading Mormon Brook to its confluence with the Millers River. The trail passes over the river on an historic iron bridge. This section of the Millers River is considered particularly scenic; overhanging cliffs and rapids mark the river's route. 

W-12.1 Briggs Brook Falls
Scenic Briggs Brook Falls plunges from the Farley Ledges into a narrow ravine.

W-12.2 Farley Boulder Field
Located beneath the Farley Ledges, a narrow side trail winds between a half mile long jumble of fallen rock, boulders, and caves. 

W-12.3 Farley Ledges and Rose Ledge
Two scenic cliffs with faces south and west. Popular among rock climbers. 

W-12.4 Northfield Mountain Reservoir. 
The reservoir rests in a natural basin at the summit of the mountain; all the generating equipment lies inside vast tunnels carved out of the mountain's interior. During times of low electric usage, pumps drive water from the Connecticut River up into the reservoir. When electric costs rise, or when the flow over the hydro electric dams along the Connecticut diminishes, the Northfield Reservoir releases water through its turbines to generate electricity. The facility includes a mile long "tailrace tunnel" from the mountain to the river.

W-12.5 Hermit Cave
Just beneath the summit of Hermit Mountain is Hermit Cave, where a local recluse John Smith made his home from 1857 to 1900. The cave is a state historic site.  

Resources

Appalachian Mountain Club Berkshire Chapter
Metacomet-Monadnock Trail
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
NPS brochure for National Scenic Trail proposal
U.S. Congress New England National Scenic Trail Designation Act
Quabbin to Cardigan Conservation Collaborative
Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust
Franklin Land Trust
North Quabbin Woods project
North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership
First Light Power Northfield Recreation Area
Northfield Mountain trails map

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Fungus, Northfield Mountain