Glacial erratics bring prehistoric perspective to Lynn Woods

Because of its length (7.7 miles), I did not run the Boulder Path race at Lynn Woods Wednesday night. For me, the Goat Path, Steel Tower and the heat were challenges enough. Yet the name “Boulder Path” intrigued me. Exactly what kind of boulders were we talking about?Turns out, some pretty prehistoric ones.At one point on the route, race director Bill Mullen said, “you?re skirting a couple of glacial erratics, enormous boulders right on the path, adjacent to the path.?Most folks who run don?t realize there are erratics, several throughout the reservation, big stones left over from the glacier and its mighty power.”I never thought very much about the occasional big stone I saw on the Woods trails, other than as a landmark, right up there with the picnic tables, the reservoir and the stone wall. I certainly hadn?t thought about how these rocks made it to the Woods in the first place.Glacial erratics resulted when an immovable object (a rock) met an irresistible force (a glacier) … and became movable. According to a New Hampshire tourism brochure, this most recently occurred during the Pleistocene Epoch, which began about 2.6 million years ago. It may have been hard to envision during the sweltering temperatures Wednesday, but there was actually a time when ice sheets deposited these rocks in the Woods.They have their own unique stories, too.?One, Balanced Boulder, on the right-hand side, one and a half to two miles out there, is an enormous erratic balanced on a very small base,” Mullen said. “It?s one of the neat features about Lynn Woods that folks don?t recognize and appreciate.”I have heard of similar phenomena, like the “Piedra Movediza” of Tandil, Argentina … an approximately 300-ton boulder that balanced atop a hill for thousands of years until it crashed in 1912, according to a Tandil tourism website. I first learned of it while looking up places to go in Argentina when my girlfriend Laura and I went in March (even though it is long gone, a replica has been installed in the same location … somehow, we missed going).I hope Balanced Boulder, unlike the Piedra Movediza, can stay balanced, and I plan on paying more attention to the erratics, and to the natural features of the Woods in general. During the races, the objects I keep an eye on the most tend to be man-made … the orange and yellow ribbons and white arrows that mark the routes. I know firsthand how important they are … I missed a turn two weeks ago. The one natural feature I do look for is all those challenging hills. But we can also appreciate the other natural features of the Woods that, while not directly related to running, can enhance our sense of history and geography. Who knows, maybe when the erratics first came here, the Goat Path might have been the Wooly Mammoth Path!Thursday afternoon, I returned to the Woods. This time, I saw only one runner. I headed up the notorious first hill at the Great Woods Road entrance. On my left, I saw a small boulder — a baby boulder, if you will. “Are you an erratic?” I wondered. More boulders appeared as I walked to the top. I had never really noticed them before.I don?t know if all the boulders I saw were brought by a glacier or not, but they definitely brought a new perspective to the Woods.