August 15

Older maps show the connecting road between Pond Street down at the end of Grove and the causeway over in Holden, and through the years we’ve seen many cars go down our street only to return shortly, when they discover its closure long ago. It was called Kendall Road, and now it is a fallow two-track that climbs out from near Streeter Pond and over the ridge line toward the Kendall Reservoir basin. There is a gate to prevent vehicles from traveling, and the land has been turned over to the reservoir authority as a protected water source.

We walked the old road this afternoon, admittedly well aware of the questionable legality of our doing so, but our intentions were less intrusive; we meant only to observe the neglected way, to discover the sluice that feeds Kendall Reservoir from Pine Hill, and walk the abandoned access that leads from the ridge saddle to the big dam.

This way has been abandoned for years, and the old road is fairly eroded, particularly on the descending hill to the sluice where seasons of rain and snow melt have created water channels and washouts. There is a remnant open field on one side, filled with early successional shrubs and trees and bordered by a stone wall. The other side is forest, rather thick and overgrown, and the contrast of open field sunlight on one side and darkened woods on the other is slightly disorienting, made more so by the interruption of light here and there where the canopy reaches across the road.