{A little brook near the trail head}
{Littleville Lake just off of the boat landing}
Nothing went according to plan for this adventure. The plan was to head to C.M.Gardner State Park, find a trail, and explore a bit. After the two hours it took to get there, we realized there was no place to park our car since the park itself was technically closed for the season, and there was no designated off-street parking. We started to circle the road surrounding the park to see if we could find an alternative entrance, and instead, saw a little brown sign signifying nearby parks and a recreation area which we ended up following out of curiosity. The signs led us to the Knightville Dam and Indian Hollow Group Campground.
The dam itself is located in Huntington in the Berkshire foothills, and upkept by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Knightville Dam coordinates with Littleville Lake to create "challenging water flows for the annual Westfield River Wildwater Canoe Races". The area surrounding the dam includes over 2.4k acres of undeveloped fields, rivers, stream, and forests. The reservoir area is referred to by the brochure as a "Massachusetts Watchable Wildlife Site". We ended up not going down the nearby trail that starts near the dam, since it was hunting season and we were very unfamiliar with the area.
Driving back through town we passed Littleville, and saw another brown sign, this one for their lake. So we headed in that direction! At the mouth of the lake near the boat landing we discovered that there was a hiking trail nearby so we got out gear together and went to go trailblazing. The trail, known as Eagle Cliff Loop, turns out had not been maintenanced yet for the season, so 250ft into the trail when we lost all signs of the trail markers we turned around. However, we still got a good walk in as the trailhead was about 2 miles down a dirt road from the boat landing. We would totally return to check out all of Eagle Cliff Loop on a different day, and in season.
*Art on location photos taken with my I-Phone 12 Mini. Photographs taken with Canon 60D and I-Phone 12 Mini.
xo,
Kerstin
