Wreck Brook and its valley

Photo #1 is a wide-angled view from below the southern end of “Malcolms Brook Mountain”. Wreck Brook starts its course down the mountainside in the col left of centre. “Wreck Brook Mountain” extends from left of centre to the right of the photo. I do not know how Wreck Brook came by its name; I suspect a shipwreck occurred off its shores, but I have been unable to find any information confirming that or any other theory for its name. The mouth of Wreck Brook is very hard to see here, but if you follow the brook’s course down the mountainside, you will see that it comes out at a point sticking out into the water right of centre (if your mind can interpret the cliff face to the right as a cat’s face, the mouth is just to its left).

Photo #2 is a moderately wide-angled view that brings the Wreck Brook valley and the area at its mouth into closer focus, though the haze in the air rather obscures the upper portions of the mountainsides. The cat’s face is now at the far right low down (the flat meadow is the top of the cat’s head).

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Photo #3 is a wide-angled view taken from south of the mouth of Wreck Brook, i.e., looking north; it has also been significantly cropped to better expose the mouth, which, alas, is mostly in shadow left of centre. The ravine the brook has carved is to the right of the stand of evergreens at the left; it curves to the southeast very soon inland of the mouth. Given the lighting, I cannot tell whether any water is flowing in the brook. The reddish rock right of centre does look like a chimney, but its base is part of the coastal cliff, i.e., the structure does not sit out in the water, though the upper portion does, under magnification, appear to have separated from the land behind. Another bird can be seen at the upper left of the photo, white against the green trees of “Malcolms Brook Mountain”.

Photo #4 was taken with a longer, though not telephoto, focal length from just a bit south of Wreck Brook; it looks up at the southern end of “Malcolms Brook Mountain” and the col at the far right; the slopes of “Wreck Brook Mountain” are in the foreground and the far right. The path Wreck Brook takes can be deduced from the terrain, but is not visible. Rocky cliffs can be seen at the upper centre of the photo, with a large band of gravel/dirt/rubble descending below them, where run-off descends down the mountain (this run-off channel does not appear on the topographical map as a branch of Wreck Brook). Other gravel/dirt/rubble patches can be seen at the far left and on “Wreck Brook Mountain”, though whether they be run-off channels is not immediately obvious. At least some areas of the ridge appear to be open meadows, while others are clearly forested, as is the great bulk of the upper valley; the trees in the foreground on “Wreck Brook Mountain” and those in the lower valley below “Malcolms Brook Mountain” are deciduous, but the majority of the rest are evergreens.