December 26, 2004 (ed. note: There is a Wendell St forest building on Montague Rd where you can usually stash you ride. Here you can skirt Ruggles and pick up the M-M again) M-M Trail Guide (click for trail guide)
December 25, 2004 (Ed. note: Bug and I actually did this hilke the day before the Ruggles to Jerusalem Hill hike, thinking that we could accomplish the trip to Ruggles and back here to the Hollow in Farley in 4 hours , but we realized that that was not possible, so we just spent some extra time investigating the ruins of an ancient Piano Factory here in Mormon Hollow, Farley. Time well spent.
As you can see, the M-M trail is great for a nice lost day of improvisation and thought with your best friend at your side.
We started the day on Mormon Hollow Road in Farley, where it follows the Mormon Hollow Brook and where the M-M trail crosses it on an ancient foot bridge. This whole area is mysterious. It reeks of 1850 and the ghosts of the industrial revolution. Ice was oozing out of the sides of mossy rock croppings that trees were somehow growing from. The humans were long gone, the trees liked it just fine. The Mormons must have lived here in the middle of scary old testament Calvinist Protestants. They must have owned the knitting and piano factories. These Mormons were probably off to Utah to join ther brethren, and I wonder what their lives were like here??
This was a small industrial complex of early mechanized industry, using the Mormon Hollow Brook as power.
Bug and I slowly made our way upstream past the dead factories and cellar holes to the foot bridge that lead to Olde Davis Road. This road was a main thoroughfare when the piano factory was in operation, leading up to Jerusalem Road and Damon Camp Road and the homesteads that were there. It was rock and it was steep and we were cold. Tomorrow, we'll come at this section from the Ruggles side where there might not be so many ghosts and we can concentrate on nature.
