Red-backed Salamander LbNA #16887 (ARCHIVED)

From Rt.20 Waltham MA.

Follow Rt.20 (Main St.) to Moody St. Follow Moody St. ¼ mile turning right onto Crescent St. Follow Crescent street 1 mile turning right onto Woerd Ave. follow Woerd Ave. to the end parking at the rotery.

After parking locate the large green post board. Stand behind this board with it to your back. Walk down the trail between the 2 large trees. Turn right at the trial. Go down stream keeping the river to your left. Next you will pass a trail on your left, take a walk down and look across the river that’s where you should be in the near future. Go back to the trail staying to the left; you will pass by a stone wall on your right and a small beach like area on your left. Keep walking close to the water you will see the trail a few feet ahead. When the dirt trail splits, stay left. (If for any reason you can’t make the trail on the left follow the trail to the right instead keeping the river to your left.) Either trail will take you to cobble stone at the edge of the road. You should also see a black and yellow hydrant behind you. Now stand on the road, turn left, start walking till you reach a large green sign. From here look ahead counting telephone poles as you walk to the 5th one. Once at the 5th pole, keep heading straight do not turn. Count 11 more poles. At the last pole you can see the river to your left. Walk in the parking lot and stand on the wooden dock. Take a look around, keep looking until you locate 2 granite posts. Stand between the 2 post then head down the path. As you walk take some time to explore the next few short trails on your left that lead to the river. Keep exploring till you reach the green cast iron fence at the end of the trail. Pass through this fence walk along the black curb along the river heading down stream. When you reach the end of the black curb, look out over the river. You can see a bunch of post sticking out of the water. In 1914 C.P. Nutting opened Nuttings Dance Hall at the canoe boathouse. The hall burned down in 1961; the pilings can still be seen in the river today. Now that you had a history lesson follow the white curb heading to the 2 large brick posts. Turn left. Walk till you reach a fire hydrant. Count 20 steps and turn left. Walk past the stone posts. Start walking keeping Nuttings dance hall to your left. As you walk up stream you will reach a large tree stump. Walk 10 steps towards the river till you are standing on the stump. From here you have a great view of the watch factory across the river. Now turn around so the watch factory is to your back. On the ground ahead of you is a woodchuck hole. Crouch down behind the tree stump and play the stump like a drum slowly, wait a few seconds then try it again. Doing this will not only make you look silly, you wont ever see a Woodchuck making all that noise, so get back on the trail. As your still walking take a look to your right up the hill. You could get lucky and see a great Horned owl or some coyotes. Don’t worry both would run if you play a tree stump drum. You will come to a split in the road, turn left. Keeping the river on your left AT ALL times, walk till you pass this list of clues. All clues will be on your left. This is the order of how you will walk past them. Stone post next to a water spicket. Black cast iron fence with 23 points. Do not feed geese. Bolder in front of a cement post. From this bolder you have a choice. (A)Follow the path ahead till you find the black and yellow hydrant or (B) look to your right across the grass and there’s the same hydrant. Walk about 25 steps past the hydrant and turn left. Now walk to a sign that says no smoking on it. Standing with this sign to your left. Look for another black and yellow hydrant over in the corner to the left. Once you find it, stand between the water spicket and the hydrant with the tree to your back. Walk 22 steps to the woods. You will see a very small trail; follow the trail keeping the river to your left. Go down the small rocky hill with a clearing looking out over the river. That’s where you started from. Don’t think the trail ends here, it’s over to your right, look around you’ll find it. As you walk looking for a tree in the middle of the trail, I’ll take this time to let you this is where lots of salamanders live. They live under the moist leaves in the hills to your left. Now you know why it’s the name of the letter box. Once at the big tree in the middle of the trail. Stand to the left of this large tree and put your hand on it, the put your hand on the smaller tree to your right. Look up the hill to your right; you will see a large tree. Go up the hill to this tree and stand in front of it so your right side is pointing down the trail you just came up. Take a look around to see if anyone is watching. You will see a hole under the large roots at the base of this tree. Looking in this hole all you see is a stick to the right side under some leaves. Use this stick to make sure nothing is living in there. Then crouch down and look UP under the root. Here rest the Red backed Salamander Letter box. To put the box back lift it up back in place then rotate till it holds then replace the stick and cover with some leaves.