This afternoon I had a few hours to get my dog Rev some exercise and we went over to Minerva to explore Bigsby Hill. Bigsby can be reached by a short bushwhack of about 1.5 miles from Hoffman Road.
I parked on Hoffman Road, east of Oliver Pond and south of Bigsby. There is a snowplow turn around at the location. On this day, there was also an old christmas wreath hanging from a tree. It had turned brown but was still intact.
I started into the woods and immediately noticed what looked to be an old road. I found an old small dump site and two foundation holes. The old wood road was following the contour of the base of the hill in a northwesterly direction. The temperature was in the high 60's but it was clammy and the mosquitoes were awful in the pines. I didn't linger to explore the remains of earlier days. Perhaps another time.
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| Rev alongside an old stone wall, now surrounded by pines and moss |
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| A better look at the stone wall. Rev had moved on. |
I turned northward and climbed out of the pines into the hardwoods. This alleviated the bug problem pretty quickly and I was thankful for that. The woods were lightly forested and walking was easy. Occasional fields of grasses and ferns carpeted the ground.
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| Small grass meadows interspersed with mixed hardwoods |
There wasn't much ledge rock and therefore views were not to be found with all the leaves on the trees. In late fall or winter, there would be views of Bigsby Pond and possibly Oliver and Muller Ponds.
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| The nondescript summit |
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| Small opening in the trees looking east. |
While I didn't get to see much, it gave Rev a chance to poke around. She probably did twice the miles that I did. It's just her hound dog way. From the summit we came back down the same way.
Hike Stats:
Hike Distance: 3.5 miles
Hike Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Total Vertical Gain: ~700'
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| The route (click image to enlarge) |
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| The route on the National Geographic map |
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