Bonus, I guess.

One Wendesday I actually took 3 different walks, the third was unplanned. As I was parking to go shopping in Putnam I heard the fire siren go off and saw smoke in the distance. Being a fire engine chaser I walked to see what was up. Somebody had set a fire in an abandoned mill and the Putnam Fire Department responded to the call. Nothing big, but after a snapped a picture or two I left and let the firemen do their job. I imagine that this was good practice for the department, but I am also sure they would rather not have had to bother.

The End of Part 1 of the Airline

I have now finished the airline from the Massachusetts boarder to the Willimantic River, one of my early goals. At the river is a railroad museum in the town of Willimantic.

This begins the start of the second "airline" goal. The Connecticut river. In the picture above you can see a station in the distance. It is actually the old station that was in Chaplin, CT and moved to this location some years ago.

At the corner of Rhode Island

Sometimes my walks take me to unexpected places. What I wanted to do was walk the airline trail to the Massachusetts' boarder. After I had gotten there I started to walk back and was seduced by a blue blazed trail (I am like a moth to flame). After a short hike I saw this obelisk with the letter Conn on it. Since I had already walked to the Mass boarder I thought I had doubled back and reached the boarder on a different route. When I looked around the stone I saw that one side had Conn, one side had Mass 1883, one side was blank, and then I saw RI 1888. I was surprised to be at the corner of Rhodes Island.
A wonderful bonus to a fun walk/hike. This trail is rather rugged and I would rate it a 6 or 7. The walk to this trail is relatively short and easy.

Markers

As mentioned below this walk took me to the Mass/CT boarder. Also on the way is the site of the world's only 4 train crack up. Oh sure, other countries have their spectacular train wrecks, but it takes a truly engineering and scheduling screw up to wreck FOUR trains at once. Makes one proud to be an American. Although I found the markers, I am not exactly sure where the crash was, though I do have two suspected places about 1/4 mile apart. The total round trip walk is an easy 4 miles. Because the rail bed undulates the walk is occasionally annoying. For that reason alone I am going to rate this walk as a 3.

Bridge to nowhere

One walk walk I really looked forward to was completing the airline trail to the Mass. boarder. One of the oddities on this trail is this bridge over the old railroad. Once there must have been a good solid bridge here, the stonework below tells that story. Later it was replaced by a flimsy wooden structure that is now failing apart. What is most interesting is there are no remains of a road that once must have been there. This bridge is literally in the middle of nowhere and on both sides it leads to nothing. Getting to this bridge is a relatively short easy walk, less than 2 miles round trip. If you are willing to walk close to 4 miles you can walk to the boarder.

Blue Blaze trails Redux

On Saturday I walked the blue blazed trail at Bigalow Hollow State Park in Union. No WONDER people get lost up there. The trail is poorly marked and the terrain is sometimes rugged. The planned 5.5 mile walk became one of 10.2 miles. The beavers marked the trees much better as can be seen by these images. For the rugged terrain I will rate this trail as a 7 to 8 out of 10. For the poor marking I will rate it an 87 or so. Sheeesh. Today I hope to connect the trail from Ashford to Union. We will see, I have been having great difficultly trying to follow the blue blazed trails.

Common Courtesy and Luck

Today was another day on the blue blaze trail. This morning I started the trail in Eastford at route 44 and walked north. The trail itself is about 2.5 miles to the next crossroad (Ashford Rd). I then completed the circuit for a total of 7 miles. The trail itself is gorgeous and a hike rather than a walk. I will rate the trail as a 7, you not only need to be fit (at least walking wise) you also need good balance and be able to scramble. As I have mentioned before, some of the trails are through private land and as a user you need to show courtesy to the landowners and stay on the trail (and of course, what comes in with you, leaves with you). The trail winds through what appears to be virgin forest, and the sounds of the forest take you back in time.

When I was done with the walk, I noticed that my glasses where missing. I had dropped them. I know I had them half-way up the trail, so I only had part of the trail and all of the rest of the walk to search. The latter I searched by car and did not see my glasses. So I had to walk back down the trail to look for my glasses. As I went I looked at the path and the ground very close to the path. Since I practiced what I preached I did not deviate from the path at all. About 3/4 of a mile into the forest I saw my glasses in the path. Great luck. But my luck was enhanced since I observed common courtesy. The glasses had apparently not made it back to my pouch after I snapped the picture above.

Blue-Blazed Trails

The Connecticut Forest and Park Association has a series of Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails throughout Connecticut. They claim that there is over 800 miles of such trails, much of it is through public land, but sometimes private owners allow walking on the trails through their land. Their website is: http://www.ctwoodlands.org/. I have already walked some of their trails in Hampton and Chaplin so today I wanted to connect into Eastford. The trails are for the most part well marked with blue blazes (see picture). This particular walk is a very pleasant forested walk. You can park at a trail-head on route 44 in Eastford and travel as far south as you wish until you hit route 97. This part of the walk is about one and a half miles. I would rate the dificulty at a 5 for it's verticle climb (on the way back) of about 300 feet and the sometimes slightly rough walking. As is usual with such trails a double blaze (see below) means to beware of changes in the trail (a turn, a fork, etc.). This would be a great trail to take with friends, but not a picnic walk as there is no place to really set a picnic lunch. You can walk this trail at a fairly quick clip if you want.

Begginings

When I started walking I usually started at home. I was hard pressed to make it to the corner of this short lane. Now this is sometimes the beggining of my somewhat longer walk. On the right are my "Finnish Sticks of Torment". Here in Connecticut I seem to be the only one using exercise sticks while I walk. On the other hand, in New Mexico many of my fellow walkers use similar sticks.

This weekend, for our 28th Anniversary I got me a personal Blackberry for my wife (yeah, I wrote that correctly, she wanted me to have a cell phone and I resisted for as long as possible). My phone has a GPS program my wife found and I am now toying with it. This morning I walked down this lane and walked 10.6 km (6.5 miles or so at 3.6 mph)). What a difference a year makes.

Connections

Sometimes my walks are designed just to make connections. Tuesday part of my walk took me further along route 244 near the Vanilla Bean. The walk involves about 2 miles along this busy road and if I didn't "need' the connection I wouldn't have walked it. Now I just need to make one more connection here and I will have walked the length of route 244.

Today I accidentally made a second connection, well it wasn't planned anyway. I had basically given up on walking the airline, as parts of it in Hampton are a swamp. I was going to make different connection and I "stumbled" across the airline in Chaplin/Hampton line. Against my better judgement I turned onto the airline. The section is absolutely delightful and highly recommended as a nature walk (how come my "better judgement" usually stinks?). The path I took is a gentle 2% slope from Chaplin to Hampton. Part of the fun today was I meet by a gentleman around my age who ws walking his "rescue" Doberman, Sheena, one of the sweetest dogs you would ever want to meet. Sadly this means I need to make the connection, the Hampton swamp. After that I will walk the path toward the intersection with the now abandoned Providence-Hartford RR. I am looking foward to that walk.

Knowing where you are is for chumps

When I am out in the car I like to adventure. I know where I am going, I just like to find new ways to get there. Frequently I have no clue where I am, but it is the adventure that is important. I know where I am going and eventually I get there after seeing new stuff. Well with walking that takes a whole different perspective. I am always interested in seeing new stuff and I want to walk a loop. This usually works out and I get a walk of 5 to 7 miles. But sometimes I am really, really off. Ever since I have lived here I have had the orientation of the green at Thompson ALL wrong, so I took a longer walk than intended because I couldn't find the road I wanted to take back (it was only a 7 mile walk so it ended well). Once in Eastford and Woodstock I wanted to walk a loop I was familiar with, I just failed to remember how long it was. I was forced to go out 4.5 miles and then walk back not completing the loop. Finally there is this, my walk in Chaplin. Ok, I actually didn't set out to walk in Chaplin, I wanted to explore the northwest corner of Hampton. I should have turned around when I saw a sign welcoming me to a "Heart Healthy Community". No, the irony is not lost on me. Well the loop was MUCH bigger than I expected and I had no idea where I was, though I knew I would eventually get back to where I wanted to be. Life is really weird when you think of route 97 as being back to civilization. Imagine my relief when I saw an active road through the trees, finally route 97. But, it was a little TOO active. And it had three lanes......uh, route 97 NEVER has three lanes. I had found the much more active route 6, 4 and a half miles from my car. I had wanted to walk about 8 miles that morning. Well it was 8 miles to route 6. Whoops.

The Airline

On of the trails in Northeast Connecticut is called the Airline. It is the leftovers from an old Boston-New York railroad. The grade on the trail is never more than 3% so it is a rather level walk. Sadly much of this old railroad is all but a swamp. The old road bed near the Audubon Bird Scantuary in Pomfret is a very nice walk. There is a parking place near the intersection of routes 44 and 169. Currently a little info area is being constructed on the west side of the road. the path at this location is an easy and very pleasant walk, though you do have to negotiate the swampy parts. This trail can be as long or as short as you want as these walks are not a circuit but rather out and back. I have highlighted on the map that part of the Airline that starts in Putnam and continues to Hampton. Despite the2 swamp I would rate these sections of the airline as a 2, it is level. The marked path is 10.5 miles long.

Sharon's Bench

Occasionally on a walk I come across a small mystery. This walk is one of them. When I first did a walk like this when I climbed up the hill on Route 169 I found a rough stone bench with "Sharon's Bench" engraved on the front. It turns out that Sharon Sama was the wife of a staff member at Pomfret Prep School and she would wait for the bus carrying her young children at this spot. Sharon died of cancer in her mid-thirties in 2005. You can sit with Sharon after the hard climb up the hill on 169 and perhaps watch the school buses drive by on a sunny afternoon.

The walk starts near the intersection of 97 and 169/44 across the street from the Vanilla Bean Cafe. The route includes 169/44, Grosevenor Rd, Wright's Crossing, Day road, Needle's Eye Rd., and back to route 169/44. It is a 5 mile walk and includes a climb of about 230 ft. For that I would rate this as a 5, the climb is hard since it is only a short part of the walk. Of course a much shorter walk would just be down to the bench and back. The bench itself is made of an attractive local pink granite gneiss.

Ostby Memorial Forest

Frequently on these walks I run across interesting little side walks. Today is a case in point. I was walking Old Route 6 East in Hampton and Brooklyn and came across the Ostby Memorial Forest which is owned by the Eastern Connecticut Forest Landowners Assoc./Wolf Den Land Trust. At the road there is a little post box with a log and maps inside. The trail is about 1 mile loop which since it goes through some wetlands and rugged short hills I will rate it as a 3. The trail is clearly marked by orange spray paint blazes on the trees. Just a reminder about blazes, one mark means the trail more or less goes straight ahead, two marks means look for a change (corner or two paths with one being the recommended path, etc.). The Map indicates that there are old foundations, wells and an interesting stone bridge. All of these I found. The map also marks a potential sawmill site, but I am not sure of that (and neither was the map maker). The map has a nice story about the property's transfer to the trust in 1999. The path goes out to Sarah Pearl Road and you must be careful to look for the entrance back into the forest. Again this would be a very pleasant and short walk on a hot sunny summer day. If you take this walk or its companion walk near the Golden Lamb think about a small donation to the trust. Their address is on the map.

Old Route 6 can be found next to the Post Office in Hampton which is on Route 97.

The new covered bridge in Brooklyn, CT

Sometimes while on a larger walk I will make a "discovery" which can be part of a smaller walk. Near the Golden Lamb Restaurant in Brooklyn is a new covered bridge. The bridge, which is all but complete is a very attractive covered bridge. To get to this path you travel south from Pomfret on Route 169 toward Brooklyn. Near the top of the hill is an orchard and farm stand, about 1/2 mile south of the farm stand (.56 miles) on the right is a road that leads to the Golden Lamb (it is marked with a sign for the eatery). Drive down this road until you get to the "T" where the Golden Lamb is, take a left hand turn and drive to the bottom of the hill. Park well off the road. The path show is a 1.5 mile circuit and has a mild up hill near Fitzgerald Rd (which the bridge is on). For the uphill I will give it a 2. I call this type of circuit and inner loop as there are no roads through it. If you are going counter-clockwise after the initial "rat-tail" take every left turn. It is a nice neighborhood with some interesting homes and properties. It is shaded and ideal for a hot/sunny day. Stop and enjoy the bridge, it has a certain New England charm that is well worth the time.

Killingly River Walk

The Killingly River Walk is longer than the Putnam River Walk (see below). This walk starts at the parking lot near the Greek Orthadox Church on route 6 in Danielson. For a round trip it is about 5.3 miles. Again it is fairly flat with the return trip being somewhat uphill. For that I am going to rate it as a 3, but just barely. This walk can be shortened by simply turning around. Both walks are very nice, the Killingly walk is more shaded (and away from trafic) and great for hot sunny days. The Putnam walk is good for almost any day.

Putnam River Walk

The first walks, and amoung the first I ever took is the Putnam, CT River Walk. The walk is about 2.3 miles if you walk "up and back". I would park at the lot near the foot bridge across the river. Currently the walk is being extended down to the farmers market. On your walk you could finish up by walking down to the farmers market and buying fresh produce.

A little about me

Two years ago I weighed in at 365 lbs and was frankly dieing (by bad habits and a car running head on into my car the previous fall). Starting in October I started to exercise, mostly walking. In the process I have lost over 190 lbs and seeing the world on foot has become one of two passions (the other, ironically, is bread baking). If you see the grey-haired bearded guy with "ski poles" in NE Connecticut honk and wave. Better yet, join me.

Walking Northeast Connecticut

This blog is about seeing Northeast Connecticut by mostly non-motorized means. It is also a personal log of the walks that I have taken. Many of the walks are along roadways, so anyone traveling them needs to be careful of traffic. The law for walking is on the far left (against the trafic) and for bikes it is the normal rules of the road. I will grade all of these walks by distance and a difficulty rating of 1-10 with 1 being flat and smooth and 10.....well climbing Mt. Manadnock in New Hampshire is a 9. Distance is not included in the difficulty. I will be happy to take any walk with anybody at their pace (anything less than 4 miles/hour) for any distance less than 10 miles.

I will also include walks in other parts of the country as I walk them. This summer I hopefully will get out to the Grand Canyon and I am already scheduled to go to New Mexico, where I hope to walk the Quamazon Trail (3000 foot vertical climb over 8 miles, starting at 7500 ft.)

Also another hobby I have taken up is bread baking, and I will occasionally talk about that, you can, of course, ignore those.

David