A Mountain-Bike-Degraded Stone Mound in the Woods in Williston, Vermont. Photo by Mike Luoma.

Springtime Stonework Explorations in New England

As the Snow Melts, Stone Features Emerge

This can be the best time of year to go looking for old stonework in our New England woods and forests. Winter snows tamped-down last Autumn’s leaf cover. Now, as the snow melts away, the stonework stands out more distinctly than it will after Spring greenery busts out all over, beginning the vegetation’s annual leafy obscuring of stone features.

I’ve managed to get out to several sites with stonework in Vermont and one in Massachusetts in the last couple of weeks. Though these have been return trips, the late Winter, early Spring conditions have allowed me to discover additional features at each location — stonework I hadn’t seen before. New discoveries bring their own unique joys…

A Previously-Unseen Stone Row on a Ridgeline in Niquette Bay State Park in Colchester, Vermont. Photo by Mike Luoma.

Speaking of optimal, ideally one shoots video and photos of stonework on overcast days — the cloudy lighting tends to bring out the colors and textures in the stones. But life and work and timing and schedules and even the weather conditions don’t necessarily allow for explorations only on ideal shooting days. Sometimes, you get lucky. And, sometimes, you find yourself politely asking the sun to…