By NANCY JANE KERN
WE OFTEN OVERLOOK THE BEAUTIFUL places close to home like the Beebe Hill State Forest northeast of Spencertown. I went to Red Rock, then east, and turned in at Barrett Pond to look for birds. Only one car was there, and I heard one white-throated sparrow sing its “Sam Peabody-Peabody” song a few times. It was a beautiful sunny day and I looked over at the pond which was completely packed with the invasive water chestnut leaving little room for anything except a few turtles sunning themselves on the shoreline stumps and rocks. A sign said the trail to the Fire Tower was closed because it was unsafe to climb the tower. How things have changed.
Everything is overgrown. Some leaves were falling from the tops of trees and most trees were still green with no autumn colors.
I next parked by the Frenchman’s Cemetery named for Prospire Rougot who died in 1857 and his stone is in French. I sat there hoping for more birds. Suddenly there was an awful, unfamiliar loud sound, and I looked up to see a large, black raven making very unholy noises. I was relieved to see this very intelligent member of the corvid family of birds. As I thought about Edgar Alan Poe and Halloween, how appropriate of it to be perched above a cemetery!
I talked to it, and it bobbed on the tree limb and answered me. It stayed there for about 10 minutes. Maybe the raven hoped to be fed. Unfortunately, I had nothing to give it and it flew west.
I drove east to Rt. 22 then headed south, then west on Rt. 203 to Stonewall Road. My nickname for it is the dismal swamp.
It is damp, darkly overgrown, and buggy in warm weather and a great place for birds. The other entrance to the Beebe State Forest and Fire Tower is from this road. My maternal grandfather, Frank Wambach, had been the Austerlitz Fire Warden and wore a round Fire Warden badge and, as a small child, I was impressed. Gramp often checked on the tower and the watchers on duty and it was another time he put me in the old pickup truck for a ride.
It was a long straight road to the tower and all I remember was the tower seemed very high. You can’t drive in there now but there are repairs planned for the tower. The Columbia Land Conservancy has its Harris site further on the left on Stonewall Road. After passing it I came out into Red Rock to complete the circle for a very enjoyable ride around my town.
