Quest
Forge Pond Park
Surveyed and laid out by Eleanor Kilham
Check the SSQ website for updates at www.southshorequests.org
This is a boxless quest.
Location: Proceed to 245 King Street, Hanover. Follow the main road in the park towards the food kiosk and continue left where you see a low sign saying, ‘Additional Parking’, into Parking Lot C. Park to the left, towards the back of this lot.
Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Conditions: generally smooth cart paths and trails.
Dogs: must be kept on a leash.
Parking: ample parking.
Find a small, white rectangular sign regarding trail maps on a white pine tree to the left of some large, granite boulders at the far corner of the parking lot. (Here, you can download one using a QR code.) At the bottom of this sign there are three capital letters denoting a type of ‘enabled map’. Put the first of these three letters in BOX #12.
Squeeze between the large boulders onto a dirt path and when it briefly joins a wider one, here, turn right. You will see that this cart path continues for some distance straight ahead. Continue walking until, on the left, you reach a metal shed of sorts emblazoned with graffiti. On the left side, painted white, you will see lots of red letters. Near the top, between two exclamation points is a word in Russian which means ‘no’. Put the second letter (of four) in BOX #9.
Walk until you reach a rusted metal gate. A distinctive shape comprises the gate. Put the second letter of this three-sided shape in BOX # 8. A smaller dirt path peels off to the left of the cart path. Take this smaller trail. You will soon be surrounded by towering white pines and oaks with holly trees sprinkled here and there. Further along, look sharp for a sign posted on a white pine tree on the left. It warns you not to trespass but don’t worry – you won’t be! What color is this sign? Put the first letter of this color in BOX #s 5 and 10. You see, the Hanover Police Department maintains a shooting range well over to the right of this path behind a chain mail fence. Continue along this path and shortly it will fork. Here, go left, away from the shooting range.
In no time this trail will connect back to the cart path you started out on. Here, go right. When another dirt path enters in about 100 feet, here go right. This path dips down and is bordered by a water-filled ditch. Walk for a short ways and when it connects with another, wider path, turn right here. As you amble along, notice the shallow ditches to your left filled with water and the thick growth of small trees growing amidst them. This growth looks entirely different from the forest on the opposite side of the path. More about this later!
This path leads you a lovely pond. Before you actually come up to the shore of the pond and just as the path veers left, look to your right through the woods. You’ll see a number of concrete culverts lying side by side. How many are there? Put the last letter of this number in BOX # 2. Now continue walking to the left along the edge of the pond.
This pond is a birder’s delight. Keep your eyes peeled and ears pricked for red wing black birds, jays and ducks. Shortly, you will see a large, iron, box-like structure placed at the water’s edge to control the flow of water out of the pond. Attached to it is a lock. Carefully scrutinize the lock and put the second letter of the brand of lock in BOX #3.
Further on, on the right, you will see a small, gray shed. On the side facing you, you will see a rectangle and another small shape beneath it. Put the first letter of this shape in BOX #1.
Walk beyond the shed along the shore of the pond, to where you see six large boulders clumped together. Of what kind of rock are these stones made? Put the fourth letter (of seven) of the kind of rock prevalent in this part of New England in BOX #4. Be sure to admire the pond from this vantage point.
Turn around and walk back to the shed. On the back of the shed to the right, you’ll see a pipe sticking out. On the pipe is a ring with nuts and bolts. How many are there? Put the first letter of this number inBOX #6. Now walk straight onto the cart path keeping the ditch to your left. Two small dirt paths enter on the right but ignore them as they are dead ends. A larger path will enter on the right but continue walking straight. When another path T-junctions with the one you are on, here, – turn right. Walk slightly upslope and before a cart path crosses the path you are on, here, look to your right. On a large tree there is a white, metal disk. It denotes that this is Hanover Conservation Land. Just below this are two emphatic words which are underscored. Put the second letter of two in BOX #11.
Turn right onto the cart path. Very shortly, you will see on your left, the parking lot and your car. Yes, there is one more letter to complete your clue phrase. You will find it in the color of the shed sitting alongside the parking lot to the right. Put the second letter of this verdant color in BOX #7.
Well, now, that pond fed what your clue phrase describes below.
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The Laurentide ice sheet retreated from this area between 22,000 to 14,000 years ago. As it did, this glacier scoured the landscape, leaving pockets and kettle holes. These depressions filled with sand and gravel and collected water over time. This environment ultimately became the perfect place for the cranberry vine to establish itself. The cranberry plant prefers wetlands comprised of sand, acid peat, gravel and clay. As such, these wetlands are like Nature’s sponge – they hold and purify water.
Wampanoag natives harvested cranberries in the fall, calling them ‘sasumuneash’ and consumed them in a variety of foods. Later, around 1816, a Revolutionary war veteran named Captain Henry Hall of Dennis, observed that cranberries grew better where sand regularly blew over them. In no time, “cranberry fever” exploded on Cape Cod and thousands of acres were devoted to their cultivation.
The Clark cranberry bog you walked around was yet another cranberry farm established to harvest the popular fruit. Once abandoned, a thick growth of trees covered the bog. What remains are the ditches that allowed water, released from the pond, to cover the cranberry bog when required.