Machimoodus

Yesterday, my husband and I hiked in a State Park known as Machimoodus. "Machimoodus" is a term the local Native Americans gave the place well before English Colonials moved out of the Plymouth Bay (MA) area in the early 1600's. It means simply "Land of Noise." The perfect place for a nice quiet walk to get back in touch with nature.

There are trails that are level, and ones that are super steep. There are broad, level, wide-open fields that were once farmland and winding paths up and down the wooded hills, granting occasional vistas and views of the nearby waterways.

Despite the name, it is a quiet place. The name's origin is based on an interesting geologic feature. The particular make-up of the land actually amplifies the noises of the earth. For centuries there have been moans, rumbles, roars, creaks, cracking and crashing sounds that echo mysteriously through the woods. Legends include dragons fighting, gods moving in the earth, and an underground battle between good/white-witches and the devil. We know now there are very small earthquakes ("micro-quakes') in the area (1.0 or less on the Richter scale). It's too small for people to feel, but they can actually be heard there.

My husband and I have visited this place a few times, now, and haven't managed to be there for any strange noises. It's quiet enough to hear the distant planes 15,000 feet overhead, the rustle of bluejays through the pine trees, the chitter of a squirrel eating acorns, or the lapping of wind-generated waves gently lapping the sides of the riverbank.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the lack of snowfall to explore off-trail. In the summer and fall, the wild briars are thick and puncture many layers of clothing. With just jeans and pull-overs, we were able to explore areas we could not easily accessed before. There were wonderful discoveries of old fields, hilltops with beautiful vistas, little sheltered coves surrounded by bare-branched trees, an abandoned Christmas Tree farm still standing in ruler-straight rows, and animal tracks of a wide variety, including local wolf-coyote mix.

That is what I treasure most on these day-trips, the chance to explore off the beaten path. For when I do, I see far more than the common sights. While the cleared paths are easier to walk, and leave you with more chance of someone finding you if something goes wrong, going off-trail, we see far more wildlife, and many more beautiful scenes, great and small, that many others miss when they stick to the trail.

How much is life like that? We walk the everyday trails, living life day-by-day, rarely venturing off the wide road to explore the narrow ones - or even go where there is no trail at all. But when we do, there is SO MUCH MORE to see.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other, as just as fair

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling them with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by 

And that has made all the difference

~ Robert Frost

- ESA

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