LEG 33, FROM CARRYING PLACE BRIDGE TO THE HEAD OF MILL POND, CALDERWOOD NECK, MAY 7, 2010

My last walk terminated at the Carrying Place Bridge, terminated along with much hope that we or any of our descendants will ever again see the beauty that was that artifact, its surface having been obliterated but a pathetic 'restoration' undertaken by Knowles Industrial Services of Gorham, Maine. Calls to them have not been returned. I'm not surprised.

During this modest walk, perhaps an hour and a half, I passed three houses built by my dad, one we both built and a fifth by me, memories at every juncture.

Throughout this long exercise I've come across inexplicable concentrations of one kind or another. Early on it was accummulations of mussel shells but only in certain areas, then colonies of barnacles, again only in certain places. In each case there seemed no good reason why these should not have gathered just as easily in adjacent spots. Lichen are another good example. Certain species, with specific exposures, happily segregated from others. These black lichen are very enthusiatic about the west shore in this area of Mill River.

The Mill Pond was another and particularly desirable old mill site. The narrows are so constricted that they could easily be traversed by a hanging pedestrian bridge the remains of which are still in place as is some of the machinery. I can remember going back and forth here, hand over hand, as a kid.

There was a good chance for this little spruce to gather a little nourishment from an area just to its left. Instead, it stubbornly sent out a tendril across the entire dry face of this boulder to reach

a little soil elsewhere, probably a better neighborhood.

With summer and attendant deadlines coming on it's hard to find time to continue. Until fall, it may be only once every week or two. The next leg, later in May, will be from the Head of Mill Pond to Jenkins Cove.