Day 51: 100 Days of Central Mass Features Wolf Swamp

Now we have a funny story to share about Wolf Swamp. James and I live on Molasses Hill Road in Brookfield and down the street there is the entrance to Wolf Swamp. Wolf Swamp is a 90 acre wooded site that slopes down to the banks of Trout Brook. It is full of trails and woods, old foundations and tons of streams and brooks. One late afternoon, James had decided to take the boys outside to blow bubble gum on the farmer's porch in the rain. After about 10 minutes of peace and quiet, I decided to look outside to see what they were up to. To my surprise, they were gone. A few minutes later I started getting picture messages on my phone of the boys jumping in puddles in the woods. I called James and he told me they went for a walk in Wolf Swamp. That was fine. I figured I'd use the time to catch up on some recorded tv while it wasn't being hijacked by toddlers watching Noggin.

After 30-45 minutes went by, I decided to give James a call to see where he was. He said they were still hiking through the woods and after a few minutes he unwillingly admitted that he was lost on some trails in the swamp. I asked if he'd like me to call for some help, but he said "no, I think we'll be fine". The rain started to come down harder and the boys weren't wearing rain suits or boots or anything fancy, so I began to worry. It started to get dark and they have now been gone over 2 hours so I decided he should call 911 and have them try and find his GPS location on his handy little phone with a compass he couldn't figure out how to use...LOL

The rescue team asked me to sit at the top of the hill where we could see into the swamp and where we could see his light on his phone flashing from the other side of the deep swamp. Somehow they ended up on the other side and could not cross and it was too dark to see which trails would get them back around. The kids were soaked, muddy and tired of walking. We easily spotted their location, but now they had to figure out which side to go in on with the ATVs to rescue the kids and James. No kidding there were at least 4 cop cars, a firetruck and an ambulance out on Molasses Hill and more on the other side of the swamp on Rice Corner Road. Within 45 minutes we had all of them back safely and full of excitement for the journey they had just taken and from the awesome ATV ride back to safety. This was a story they were proud to tell to all of their friends and family, so proud, James made them all Wolf Swamp badges for braving the storm and the wilderness. My boys will forever be grateful to the Brookfield Police, Fire-department and rescue crew that saved them from dad's crazy adventure!