Green Turtle Pond



Green Turtle Pond, Long Pond Ironworks State Park (3/10/2012)

We have hiked in Long Pond Ironworks State Park several times in the past, but never west of East Shore Road. In the past we have always hiked in the eastern section, the part which includes the famous furnace and building ruins, as well as Monksville Reservoir. There is only one partially-blazed trail in the western part, and a network of woods roads, four of which run north to south like fingers east of Green Turtle Pond. I assume there may have been summer cottages here a long time ago, or perhaps there was a camp. In any event, Green Turtle Pond is a lovely pond with parking available directly at its boat launch, but where's the fun in that? So today we parked in a small dirt lot on the southern side of East Shore Road exactly one mile north of Route 511. From there we took woods roads all the way to the pond, then proceeded south along its western bank (on a woods ride high above), then south along the east bank (on another woods road) before returning to the car.

We were the first at the pond this morning but as we proceeded along the western bank, a jeep came in with two kayakers. After hiking the easter bank there were two additional vehicles parked at the boat launch. The single bufflehead we saw all alone in the relatively large pond was soon joined by the kayakers.

Total distance hiked today was 4.6 miles, in 2 3/4 hours.

(Click on the thumbnail to bring up a bigger image in a pop-up window)









 




 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 

Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh
Web design by Dan Balogh