The flow of time in the Connecticut valley

by George W. Bain; Howard A. Meyerhoff

c. The contours of the cliffs are smoothed out.

The downward trail follows the cliff above the highway. The drop is rapid but not precipitous, and soon the western half of the trail is behind.

The east end of the Range, especially beyond Mount Norwottock, is less commonly visited, but it offers much more of the valley’s story. Here the Range is more broken than it is in the western half, and the trail winds through valleys for much of the distance. Long gentle slopes from the west lead to mountain summits, and steep eastern descents take the hiker into the valleys. Plainly the walk is much easier from west to east than in the opposite direction.

The trail leads from the crusher scales around the north base of Notch Mountain and thence up the power line to the crest of the ridge. The path lies on conglomerate below the lava sheet through most of the distance and returns to the lava only where it bends eastward along the crest line. Faulting east of Notch Mountain has moved the base of the lava southward until it abuts on the sandstone above the lava occurring west of the fracture. Thus, the entire backslope of the Range along the power line is coarse sandstone, whereas in the woods to the east it is vesicular basaltic lava.

Many small but abrupt descents occur along the path as it follows the ridge eastward. Each of them marks the position of a minor fault, along which the eastern side has been pushed down and southward under the western side. However, the elevation of the trail increases gradually to the summit of Mount Norwottock, which is almost as high as the uplands bordering the valley. If one can momentarily overlook the lowland excavated on the incoherent Triassic sandstones, the regional surface seems to slope gently upward to the east, the north and the west. Far to the east Mount Wachusett rises above the general level, and there in the northeast is Monadnock’s sharp cone. On the western skyline Mount Greylock’s summit, with the fire tower at the north end, attains prominence as Massachusett’s highest peak. The long ridge of Glastenbury and the point of Bald Mountain are clearly visible in the northwest. Far to the south stretches the lowland, and on a clear day Hartford’s towers stand sharp and clear against the sky.

The north face of the Range is a sheer 250-foot cliff. The south side is a half-mile-long, 20-degree slope. Eastward the crest terminates in a precipitous drop, and the trail winds down the corner between the north face and the cliffs at the east end. It crosses the contact between the lava flow and the red Triassic conglomerate about 150 feet below the summit. The conglomerate beds are separated by shaly sandstones, many of which have weathered out to make rock shelters; these are the so-called “Horse Sheds” and are said to have been used during Shays’ Rebellion.

The great cliff at the east end of Norwottock was caused by the rapid erosion of the sandstones below the lava sheet, which has receded steadily westward as it was undermined. Recession started at a fault plane about halfway between Norwottock and Hilliard Knob, for here displacement pushed the lava down and southward on the east side until the subjacent sandstone was exposed west of the fault. Exposure led to erosion and to recession of the lava cap.

The trail passes through the “Horse Sheds” to the south base of the Range, following the contact of the lava with the overlying sandstone for about one-half mile on the way towards Hilliard Knob. This eminence lies over half a mile north of the crest of the Range, for it has been offset by faulting, much like the displacements near Mount Norwottock and Notch Mountain, and the trail passes suddenly from the conglomerate above the lava flow to the conglomerate below it. Trail markers must be observed closely through this section because many wood roads cross the path.

Eastward the way again leads upward to the lava and follows the crest of a low section of the Range, but soon another fault breaks the continuity of the ridge, and the high top of Flat Mountain stands out on the far side of a deep hollow. The hollow is underlain by sandstone below the lava sheet, and the trail follows down the steep dip slope of the beds, only to ascend again towards the reddish basalt cliffs of the mountain. At the base of the flow, the bed of a dry brook exposes a mass of frothy lava.

The best views from the top of Flat Mountain are those along the south slope of the Range towards Mount Tom, and northward across the Hadley lowland. The path then turns down the north face of the mountain some 200 yards along the crest from the west end and, passing over a series of conglomerate ledges underlying the lava, it continues along a wood road beside a steep-sided brook until it comes to the Bay Road at the fork to Dwight and Belchertown.