Day 50: Stony Brook

Stony Brook State Reservation, West Roxbury/Hyde Park, MA, 6:00am-7:30am
clear and very cold

To celebrate the 50th day of the project, I trekked out to Stony Brook, about 3 miles south of my house. I'd spotted it on an old-fashioned paper map a few weeks ago, and have been plotting a visit ever since. Imagine, a state reservation just a few miles from me!

I got to see almost the whole sunrise, if my glimpses from the road count. The sky was just beginning to blue on the horizon when I left my house, with a startling large and bright planet just above the eastern horizon - probably Venus. As I neared my destination the sun was also reaching the horizon, a nice parallel anticipation.

It was impressive how many folks were out at 5:45 in the morning on busy Washington St., and I especially felt tender towards a group of five jovial teenagers waiting at a city bus stop. That's EARLY to be going to school!

Stony Brook felt a lot like Franklin Park -- rambling with giant rocky outcrops and clustered woods of slender trees, and even an adjancent golf course. I wasn't super lucky in my quest for a perfect sunrise spot - was screened through trees - but enjoyed my boulder-top perch.

Day 50 was seriously impacted by the temperature. It was FRIGID out this morning, and I spent the last 30 minutes at Stony Brook (and the whole bike ride home) muttering, It's so ****ing cold!

Here is one stony brook I encountered:


I was disappointed that I couldn't readily escape Traffic Noise (both ground and air). I guess the fact that it was a state reservation led me to imagine it as a remote retreat with no sound pollution. The overhead planes, many cars (and even reversing trucks) were constant, however. A glance at the map clearly shows that the park quite small and criss-crossed by large roads. Must remember that traffic noise travels far!

The Bird of the Day made the briefest of appearances. We've heard him before!:


My version- listen for guest bird =):