The Deerfield River Valley

My family drove to a Children's Music Network gathering at the Rowe Conference Center in February, 2006. Following Rt 2, the Mohawk Trail. We decended to the Deerfield River South of Shelburne Falls and traced the river and the rail line NorthWest to Zoar, where we headed North to the hills of Rowe. It was so beautiful that I resolved to return in the Cessna.

I wanted to get back with the cameras while snow was still on the ground and on March 6th, I flew up the Connecticut River to Turners Falls and Greenfield, Mass, where the Deerfield River empties into the Connecticut. I followed the Deerfield up past Shelburne Falls, Charlemont, Zoar, the East Portal of the Hoosic Tunnel to Monroe, into Vermont past Reedsboro to the Deerfield's source at Harriman Reservoir.

New England's rivers have always been a source of power, for her mills and then to generate electricity, and my flight was a tour of the recent decades' evolution of energy generation.

On the way up the Connecticut River Valley, I saw this most unusual example of farmland loss, but not from the construction of Sprawl - this farm in Sunderland is literally having the ground pulled out from underneath it. 3-6-06-5-23.jpg

Looking North at the river winding wide and sinuous up the flat Deerfield Valley to Greenfield, where it emptied into the Connecticut, 3-6-06-5-22.jpg

Shelburn Falls, with its glacial potholes and Bridge of Flowers and so many artists and craftsfolk, 3-6-06-5-19.jpg

East Charlemont, 3-6-06-5-17.jpg

Charlemont, 3-6-06-5-16.jpg

On the South side of the Deerfield, Berkshire East Ski Area, looking (of course) down the mountain, 3-6-06-5-15.jpg

Just Above Charlemont, Rt 2, the Mohawk Trail, climbs out of the valley's bottomland into the Mohawk Trail State Forest. To stay in the valley, take the Zoar Road and then, of course, River Road. 3-6-06-5-13.jpg

The River Road crosses the Deerfield River below Negus Mtn, on the right. 3-6-06-4-12.jpg

The rail line crosses the river and dissapears into the East Portal of the Hoosic Tunnel to reappear in North Adams in the Hoosic River valley. 3-6-06-4-10.jpg

The aptly named Pine Cobble on the left and, beyond the Lower and Upper Bear Swamp Reservoirs. When the river is high, excess generator capacity is used to pump river water up to the upper reservoir. Then at times of high electrical demand, the huge "head" of the upper reservoir can supply the need. Yankee ingenuity. 3-6-06-4-9.jpg

Looking South, in the opposite direction over the Upper Reservoir. 3-6-06-4-6.jpg

Looking North, up the Lower Reservoir, up River Road, 3-6-06-4-3.jpg

Looking North over the site of the now decommisioned, dismantled and hauled away Yankee Atomic plant in Rowe, MA., 3-6-06-4-1.jpg

We turn from the river and fly East a short way to Rowe Conference Center, on the West slope of Adams Mountain. 3-6-06-2-1.jpg

Rowe Conference Center, close from the North, looking down the Pelham Brook. 3-6-06-2-4.jpg

Rowe Conference Center, wide from the East, over Adams Mtn, looking out to where the Deerfield River cuts through the Berkshire Hills, 3-6-06-1-17.jpg

This is a link to the Unitarian Universalist Rowe Camp & Conference Center, a spiritual and educational organization offering opportunities for the presentation and exchange of a wide variety of ideas and beliefs consistent with Unitarian Universalist principles and values. Go take a look at this famous and beautiful oasis of sanity in a mad world.

Back over to the Deerfield, looking South at the Yankee Atomic site 3-6-06-2-7.jpg

Looking South over the Sherman Reservoir to the Yankee Atomic Site, 3-6-06-2-10.jpg

The Sherman Reservoir becomes the Deerfield again an winds West to Reedsboro, Vermont, 3-6-06-2-9.jpg

Reedsboro, Vermont, at a bend in the Deerfield, 3-6-06-2-12.jpg

Wind farm on a Southern Vermont ridge, Yankee ingenuity alive and well 3-6-06-3-13

The same wind farm, close, looking South into Massachusetts, 3-6-06-3-18.jpg