Pickerel Frog LbNA #17288 (ARCHIVED)

Use Mapquest to locate this address for directions: 60 Kendrick St. Needham MA.

There is a parking lot at Cutler Park just past 60 Kendrick St. Once parked locate and stand in front of the green post board. To your left you will see two granite posts follow the path between the posts to the sign that says “Vehicles Excluded”. To your right there are two trails. Follow the smaller trail to the left closer to the water. Keep walking stepping over the small tree on the trail. Once you reach the concrete wall on your left, follow the trail to the left staying near the water. Walk past 2 benches staying left when the trail splits. You will come to a small beach like area. Looking out from this beach you are looking at Cutler Pond. This is a great spot to find many types of frogs such as Bullfrogs, green frogs, wood frogs, spring peepers, and of course Pickerel frogs. I find the best way to locate the frogs is looking within a foot of the shore. Sometimes they are on land near the bushes. Other times they are looking back at you in the first few inches of water. So take a look around and I will point out a few spots along the way for you to take a look. When your done acting like you’re the crocodile hunter, go back on the trail staying to your left. Once you see the stone wall in front of you, turn left and take a few steps. You will see a lot of tree roots on the trail and some nice mud to your left. That’s a great spot to look for Green frogs not to mention Banded water snakes hunting them. Keep walking as you explore. Stay left when the trail split. Walk to the bench up ahead then sit on it. Sitting on this bench you may see a clue if you look down to the right at the leg of the bench. If you don’t that’s ok, just keep Cutler Pond on your left and you will be fine. From this bench you can look across the river to the tree line on the other side. The Charles River is located just behind those trees. In the spring when the water is high water can flow to of from the river to the pond. Ok stand up and turn around, look out for the Eastern Gray Squirrels tossing nuts down at you. It is ok to look up for wild like to, you could get very lucky and find a Gray treefrog. Now follow the trail to the left being sure to look in all that great mud along your way. Stay left and head up the trail passing under the tree leaning over the trail. Keep exploring till you reach the larger main trail. Once at the main trail look right, you will see a sign saying please stay on trail. Go stand next to that sign keeping it on your left. Just look down the trail with the wooden railing to the right. I very well could have had you walk that boring flat easy on the ankles simple trail to end up here, but what’s the fun in that, ha. Now turn so you can hear Route 128 on your right and start walking. You have to step over a new drainage ditch up ahead. Once you step over the ditch walk 35 steps. You should see a large bolder on your right. Count another 12 steps ahead and turn right. It may not look like much other then dried up dead leaves but it’s actually full of life in the spring. It’s called a vernal pool. Vernal pools fill up with water when the heavy spring rains melt the snow on the surrounding hills. The pools stay filled with water long enough for frogs and salamanders to lay eggs and hatch. By later summer most of the pools dry up. Ok Keep walking until you reach the trail on your left. Once at the trail on your left follow it to the end and have a seat. From here you have a great view. You can see the Saint Josephs Novitiate clock tower over the trees in the distance. I have seen many birds flying over the pond landing on the trees above this bench, so put on a hat and glasses and be happy Elephants don’t fly. Ok go back down that trail behind you and locate the fallen tree at the end. Behind the fallen tree is another small trail. Follow it keeping your eyes open for white tailed deer and other mammals such as woodchucks, Gray foxes. When the trail splits say left, you should see a small white sign with the number 12. Keep walking till you locate the next split and the sign with number 14 go right. Keep walking you will pass by a square pit on your right. Go down the hill and keep walking, you can see nice a hill on your left. Keep your eyes open for Black bears they are attracted to the smell of sweat, I hope your not sweating. Just in case I would walk like a Sumo wrestler and stop my feet along the way to scare them off. Just kidding, there have been no bears around here for the last 100 years or so. The only bear you might see is a rottweiler off its leash so keep moving. You know you’re going the right way when you reach the tar slab across the middle of trail and another square pit on your left. Keep going ahead down the hill staying left when the trail splits. Keep on walking, you will reach the larger dirt road. Turn right then listen. Depending on the season or time of day, you may hear the peeping of 100s of spring peepers in the large vernal pool down the hill to the right. Listen as you walk, be sure you stay right at the next split also keeping your eyes open for the small white sign with the number 22. Follow the trail down the hill to the next split and stop. If you took the trial to your right you would be walking for miles ending up at Millennium Park in West Roxbury but that’s a bit far so you will turn left. Take 10 steps then look to your right at the big brown thing in the woods. This is a space ship that crashed and the aliens now live in the woods. Ok I have no clue what that is but it’s big and round and fun to jump on so I thought it was worth pointing out. Keep walking meeting up with the larger trail staying right. Your next check point is a trail on your right, its up ahead a good distance so take your time and explore. Along your way look in the woods and up in the trees for Wild Turkeys. They blend in very will but they do feed right on the path year round. Once you’re at the trail on your right, get your camera out just incase. I have seen deer in the water crossing the river and Turkey Vultures hovering very low above. Today I see some type of small fish leaping out of the water. This is the Charles River so you could see just about anything out there. When your done sight seeing walk back up the trail and turn right and keep on keeping on. As you walk you almost don’t notice how you stepped from one habitat into another and how it has changed since you started. Starting on a paved parking lot, then to a thin trail lined with tree roots, next you went up the winding hills leading out to the forest of elm and oak trees to where you are now, this trail lined with large pine trees. Keep on walking to find out what you’ll see next. Walk until you reach the first opening on your left where you can walk to the waters edge. From here you could see water snakes swimming close to the land looking for fish and frogs. Now walk up ahead passing the stone block and sitting on the next bench. This is where I took the photo of the Pickerel frog used for the stamp of this letterbox. I first heard the rolling snore. They are nocturnal but it was still light out. They are known to have an irritating skin secretion that makes this frog unappetizing to some predators. The secretion will kill other frogs kept in the same collecting container or terrarium. Ok now start walking and staying left. Walk till you locate the green post. Stand at the far right of this post. You will see a brown post to your right. Stand between the two posts. Now look over your left shoulder and down. You should see a clue that you’re in the right spot. Now walk ahead till you see the sign on your left. From this sign count 11 steps and turn right. Count 5 steps and turn right. Make sure nobody is watching you. Look at the base of the 3rd tree in front of you; it will have a hole in it. There is a long stick at the base of the tree. Under that stick below the ground cover, rest the Pickerel frog letterbox. Enjoy