Beaver Dam Across Salter's Mill Inlet

After two postponements due to rainy weather, Shirley's annual Fall Foliage Walk took place Saturday under cloudy skies. A hard core of six devotees of the walk showed up at 2 p.m. Saturday at Arthur Banks' house on Center Road to start out. All elected to do the long walk, and whenever given an opportunity pressed John Rounds, the walk leader, for an ever longer walk. It was a faster-paced walk than usual and the traditional dawdlers had to struggle to keep up. In some respects it was a race against time as the National Weather Service was predicting rain for the evening and a 50% chance for the afternoon.

Although mushrooms weren't as widespread as some expected after all the moist weather, a bountiful harvest of puffballs, both young and mature, was encountered. The traditional natural wonders of Shirley were visited and John trotted out an improbable story about exploding maple trees in addition to the old potato-harvester yarn. Some ambitious beavers had built a dam across the inlet to the old Salter's Mill off Catecunemaug Brook and brought the brook to a higher level as must have been their plan.

At the end of the walk, two hours after its start, Sharon Field had warm mulled cider and cookies ready. After some conversation and partaking of the refreshments, people slowly dribbled off and the rain started dribbling down. Thank you to Arthur Banks, Bob Burkhardt, Hugh and Sharon Field, John Rounds and of course to all the walkers for making this year's walk a success.