Hike - Podunk Wildlife Management Area

                Last year the Old Redneck and I did a lot of hiking and didn’t document any of our hikes.  I did mark waypoints on my GPS for all the cellarholes we found, but didn’t bother to document the places that we hiked that didn’t have cellarholes.  Some of them had great views, or waterfalls, or other cool features, so this year we are finding ourselves repeating those hikes.  I decided to take pictures of every hike, and document them in a scrapbook.  There are often hiking threads on the facebook group Upper Valley NH/VT and I thought it might be helpful to people who live or visit here to have access to some hiking reviews.

            On the first weekend in May, we went hiking in the Podunk Wildlife Management Area in Strafford. The Podunk State Forest was once mostly farmland.  In the mid sixties, the State of Vermont bought the land as a wildlife preserve.  There are two ways to access Podunk.  From the west, take the Justin Morrill Highway in Strafford to Old City Falls Road, and then to Pennock Road.  You can take any car as far as the sign that says “Road Not Maintained Past Here.” There is a small parking spot there. If you have four wheel drive, you can drive much farther down the road, depending on the weather and road conditions.

            About ¾ of a mile down the road, there is an abandoned homestead on the right with some nice cellarholes right next to the road. If you turn right into what was once the barnyard, and keep going until you get to the woods, there are several more really nice cellarholes and a grave back there. I would bring a GPS so you don’t get lost.  The coordinates to the grave are 43◦53’09.9”N 72◦20’08.6”W.

            This is Esther Bacon’s grave (who I have memorialized on this blog). Esther (spelled Ester on the gravestone) is buried next to her baby.  Before the internet, I always assumed that she died giving birth and was buried next to the baby, but that is not the case.   Esther was married to Levi Bacon and they had 8 or 9 kids. This baby is the only baby they lost. She is buried next to the baby, a daughter. Levi is buried somewhere else in Strafford. I assume she lived on this farm when the baby died, and then moved later. When she died, she was buried on this farm next to her daughter’s solitary grave.

            We usually do not see anyone else when we hike out here, although occasionally we have. Although we always bring our dogs and don’t leash them, you want to bring a leash because one of the houses on the way in has an overly friendly beagle who is often running free. The road is nicely maintained for hiking and the terrain is rolling hills – not too flat but having no difficult inclines. This is a perfect place for people who want to walk in the woods, see some historical stuff, and not have to worry about climbing a mountain.

VT Fish and Wildlife has a PDF that features all the information on Podunk State Forest. Access it here: http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_73079/File/Where%20to%20Hunt/Barre%20District/Podunk%20WMA.pdf

 

The pictures were taken that first weekend in May. Now it is the last weekend in May and everything is beautiful and green.  Such is the difference a month makes in the Spring in Vermont.