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.