I recently repeated a hike I did last April along the north eastern side of the Quabbin Reservoir. The area was formally the location of North Dana, Massachusetts. When the town the dissolved to complete work on the Quabbin, the land was absorbed by the neighboring town of Petersham.
With all of the snowfall we have had this winter, I came prepared to snowshoe down the road that runs along the shore. What I found was the DCR plowed the road beyond the gate (gate 35) that keeps motorized vehicles from entering the wilderness. I figured they would only have gone a certain distance, so I brought my snow shoes with me just in case. It turned out they cleared the roads a lot further than I thought, so I carried my snowshoes for about eight miles.
Dana / Petersham Town Marker
North East Bank no. 3 – Neeseponset Pond Area, Quabbin Reservoir
Mount L no. 1
The Pass no. 1
Distant Leveau Island no. 1
The Pass no. 2
This photograph of The Pass was taken only about one hour and twenty minutes after the first one. The conditions look a lot worse than they actually were because I was shooting through a telephoto lens (85mm). The snow limited visibility at distance, as captured in the photograph. There was very little wind at the time, so walking in the snow was not bad at all. The snowfall actually made the rest of my hike very enjoyable.
Approaching Storm – Quabbin Reservoir
North Main Street no 4