The forest suddenly gives way to marsh and this boardwalk to Powell's Island. There are some 800 acres of fresh-water marsh in the park.
If you look carefully, you might be able to make out a green frog, Rana clamitans melanota, in the center of the picture. This is the closest I can get to it.
The trees on the island are not nearly as tall as the ones in the forest by the lake.
The trail leads to a large clearing from which several paths radiate. There are remains of old bonfires here; perhaps woodland Elves have been feasting at night.
One of the paths leads to this tunnel under the MBTA Needham (ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford) commuter rail line. The line (and, presumably, the tunnel) dates from 1906; it was the last railroad line to be built in the Boston area. I wonder why the tunnel was put here -- surely not for pedestrians?
These wooden stairs lead up to the railroad line from a broad path running beside it.
Here is the view from the top.
From the railroad embankment the marshes stretch out southward toward the town of Dedham.
This is a view westward along the railroad line. The bridge in the distance must be Greendale Avenue, Needham. I wouldn't want to be here on any but a Sunday, when the trains don't run. They blow by here at perhaps eighty miles an hour.
I go looking for a secluded place where I might spend a few minutes feeling the sunshine and warm breezes against my bare skin, and so here, in the woods on the other side of the railroad line, well away from paths and the humans and dogs that follow them, I meet an eastern garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis.