Saturday, March 12, 2016 found a group of hardy Bioreserve explorers searching the headwaters of Mill Brook, just west of the northwest ridge extending from Copicut Hill, for Hex Spring. The explorers did find Hex Spring, but it is now a seep, not a spring ...although it may have been at one time. In their search of the area where legend has it Hex Spring should be, they instead found a cobble and boulder field with water oozing from the ground. It appears to us that Hex Spring should more accurately be called Hex Seep. Springs, such as the Bioreserve's King Philip's Spring and Boiling Spring emerge from a single point gushing or bubbling to the surface due to water pressure caused by the geology underlying the site. The walk was organized by Everett Castro of Green Futures as part of a series of walks to help people become more familiar with the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB) The mission of the SMB is to protect, restore and enhance the biological diversity and ecological integrity of a large-scale ecosystem with diverse natural communities representative of the region. The SMB now extends from Lakeville and Freetown to Dartmouth and Fall River. Click here for photos of a 2015 trail repair project. For more information, contact info@greenfutures.org (Submitted photos) 

(Top row) Everett Castro talks with the group before it checks the map and splits into two groups, the bushwhackers and the non-bushwhackers, to locate the spring. (Middle row, left and right) Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve geology expert Robert Kitchen explains how eskers were formed and the fine example we have in the Bioreserve. (Middle row, center) A close-up of the seep shows green growth where the water emerges to the surface. (Bottom row, left)  Hikers move along the Esker Trail, one of the most scenic in the Bioreserve, to reach the headwaters area of Mill Brook. (Bottom row, center) Roger Garant relates what the bushwhackers have found. (Bottom row, right) The non-bushwhackers sit on rocks at the base of the Copicut Hill ridge waiting for word from the group bushwhacking up Mill Brook.