Copp Park Rte 184 Groton,CT. We came here on a fine spring day. We had been here one other time, maybe last year. There is a big fenced in dog park which we skipped both times. Instead we headed out and walked an assortment of trails all blazed with different colors. On the latest walk we headed on white and soon were "kind of on purpose" lost following an old unmarked trail It ended at a rock covered little hillock, so we headed SW though a thicket of mountain laurel(Ok to walk in of you are three feet tall or lean over when walking)
We eventually hit a green b;lazed trailand headed to yellow, maybe with some red blazed trails in there. the wooded part of the park is ona series of north/south ridges and the trail followed theses. Eventually we headed west and up and down a few rocky legers, one I had to use a rock hand rail to get down. must have missed another thatw as walking up narrow ledge.
On the way back came across a couple of "No Trespassing " signs going the other way, they weren't there the last time I was there. the signs were from the reservoir. Too bad because there were nice views from the ledges just past the signs.
On the way back we followed a little stream that ended up just north of the dog park. this little stream has what looked like mill race but the trail turned away before I could find a dam dam.
Plenty of signs of spring seen too. Skunk cabbage is really filling out the swamps, we saw a butterfly but Dom tried to nail it.
Nice place to walk. surprising because of its location and proximity to 95.
Contact: town of Groton. could not find maps on line.
2. Browning trail. South Kingstown,RI
This is a South Kingstown Land Trust Holding that i had been meaning to walk. I finally got to it this week. It is a most pleasant walk and listed as 2.5 miles, 2 of them a loop. The trail follows a well groomed path through the typical sandy soiled type woods. It passes three foundations, one the Browning farm site that seemed to recently have been cleared of vegetation. very interesting.
On the loop there is an unmarked but well worn trial that goes north, to a Nature conservancy site that I could not find a map or much mention of.
There are a few interpretive signs at the beginning of the SKLT path
Nice walk with cool foundations.
Stautus: SKLT
Map: http://www.sklt.org/trailmaps/Browning.pdf
Perry Natural Area, Stonington, CT Avalonia Land Trust
Was here many years ago. Nice walk in deciduous woods. Also the place is lined with stone walls, all over the place. Lots of stone walls. Stonington.
Maps were provided at a little wooden box at the trail head. We took the first lefts, and ended up on a well worn path that signs indicated was off the Land trust property. I followed this to what i thought might be an Inn but wasn't sure so i turned around and followed unmarked trails. The boundaries of rte 2 and Rte 95 were seen. We headed down into a little hollow with a pond and swamp and then meandered back to a gas line and back on the marked trail. Eventually reached a old foundation an farm site pretty cool looking. Just past the foundation there was an old cemetery with two worn out headstones and a few unmarked graves. Followed another trail back near a maze of stone walls and open woods with only leaves for a floor. A different woods from the SK walk last week.
Don't know how long the trails are or how long we walked but it wasn't far.
Status: Avalonia Land trust
Map: http://www.avalonialandconservancy.org/files/perry.pdf
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Gettysburg
September has arrived and it has always been my favorite month, a few weeks ago it was hot August and now we are a few weeks away from cold October. Fall is in the air with the welcome coolness, falling acorns and apples and all that.
Days ago we were in Gettysburg and it was in the 90s, sultry 90s and now it like 44 outside.
I went to Gettysburg for a bike ride but am so disgusted with group rides (and what happened to me last year on this same ride) that I never even registered, still went down the the idea of pirating the metric, but even that never came to be. Instead I spent time J and Domino exploring the battlefield and the surrounding countryside.
One of my goals was to find the Appalachian trail and take Dom on that, we did that west of town and also along South Mountain in Maryland. That climb was on the bike ride have done(the one I didn't want to do this year) and that has to be one of the nicest areas around. We were conveniently lost and ended up on a AT trail head on Rte 40 and we headed south across a long footbridge over I-70? It was nice but no views that I suspect would be fabulous if not for all of the leaves.
I wanted to go to some falls at state park off of route 77, I had read about them on line and seen them on bike rides but never went there.... We got all the way to end of the road and saw a sign saying "no pets" Pissed me off that the sign was at the end not beginning of the road...saw another parking place, found a place to turn around and that place was only for handicapped parking. What is this, Rhode Island?
Heading south, I followed signs for Antietam though we weren't in the mood for another battlefield visit- plus we had been there in each of the past three years. Just before Sharpsburg, I saw a sign for Chestnut park and headed down that road, the roads seemed to go on forever and finally got to the park, which was more like a playing field complex and another sign, "no pets" No problem and we headed on.
Now pretty much lost and without looking at a map, we came across a road: Harpers Ferry rd. That sure sounded inviting since that was a place I wanted to go to but wasn't planning on it because of the dog. (dogs aren't allowed on the NPS bus) That road ended up along the C and O canal and we found a parking place, a green slice of grass to plop our chairs in so we could rustle up some lunch on the bike way between the canal and the Potomac River.
It wasn't long before we realized that we were very close to Harpers Ferry, the building across the river, a dip in the land where the other river met the Shenandoah. Even though it was very hot and the puppy was almost all walked out, we decided to take out time and head downriver.
Last year we were on the other side of the river and I wanted so much to cross the bridge to the C and O canal, but my daughter wasn't up to it that moment so we never made it. This year we did and little dom, who has developed a fear of any type of bridge, crossed it with much trepidation. I had just gotten some back pack chairs just for this occasion and after dipping the puppy in the Shenandoah River because of the heat, we sat for hours in the shade and alongside the river. I had yearned for this all year.
And, if only for a few short steps, we also hiked along the AT a bit there as well, even if it was a puppy sized walk on main street.
I bought a Harpers Ferry walk book that I regretted not getting last year and it was really good book full of walks and maybe next time we can explore even a little more of this beautiful spot.
When we got back to gettysburg, I had the chance to ride the Gettysburg battlefield at night, something I did last eyar and had the most unusual experience. It was dusk and I was riding while my daughter was jogging around the park. This was our last night there and as I was waiting for her near the Pennsylvania monument, I was overcome with the most overwhelmingly sense of doom amd sadness I have ever felt. A black depression that I had never had experienced before and one that was scary because I feared it would not go away, because it was so debilitating.
I have heard of other such thing happening here and because I have a pretty pragmatic view of the world, I chalked this feeling up to events in my life at that moment-my own personal losses that year, spending three days at four Civil War battlefields and plus it was September 10 and there was all media hype about 9/11, never mind out trip though NYC the next day.
So as this year's trip approached I had this fear-not really fear but apprehension about it. Would that same bad feeling come back? would it come and be worse? Would it come and not leave?
So here I was a year later and riding the bike at night.
Somewhere south on Confederate Avenue, which parallels the rebel attack that crossed the field in Pickett's charge, I saw a shadow along side me and it turned out to be a bat-a large bat. Apparently it was attracted by my headlight(a Light and Motion HID light) which throws out a lot of light. The bat disappeared. That never happened to me before.
I was trying to find my way around the battlefield with no planned route, and took the road between Little Round Top and Devils Den even though i knew it went through dense woods, and darkness. It was here that my battery went dead-not an uncommon occurrence with me and I had a few backups, which i put on near the Wheatfield. There were cars there and I felt more secure. I saw a flash out on the field and first thought that it was thunder but then realized that people were taking photos out there in the dark. Ghosthunters? That is why people were parked there to look around in the dark too?
The two back up lights I had sucked and their poor light only added to the spookiness. With eyes adjusted I headed out into the open fields and where there was a tiny amount of ambient light left, adding a sense of tranquility.
I headed back to the car, past the peach orchard, past the other side of the Wheatfield, below Little Round top and then to my car, which i had parked in completely dark area in the middle of now where. I got in my car as quickly as possible and took off, fortunate that nothing happened.
Another one of my goals this year was to locate monuments dedicated to RI units that were at Gettysburg, something we did not find in our last visits. I had found a few locations on line, and amazingly after turning onto the battlefield for the first time, the very first monument we saw had an anchor on it and that unit was from RI. That night we headed to find the other, which i knew almost exactly where it was. This was Arnold's battery that was at the receiving end of Pickett's Charge. It is a few steps away from the angle, Copse of Trees and just on the other side of the stone wall was a North Carolina monument, which might have been as far as that unit got.
A cannon from that site sit at the RI state house. Quite by accident I found another monument, battery E, I was just riding by and saw an anchor on a monument.
Days ago we were in Gettysburg and it was in the 90s, sultry 90s and now it like 44 outside.
I went to Gettysburg for a bike ride but am so disgusted with group rides (and what happened to me last year on this same ride) that I never even registered, still went down the the idea of pirating the metric, but even that never came to be. Instead I spent time J and Domino exploring the battlefield and the surrounding countryside.
One of my goals was to find the Appalachian trail and take Dom on that, we did that west of town and also along South Mountain in Maryland. That climb was on the bike ride have done(the one I didn't want to do this year) and that has to be one of the nicest areas around. We were conveniently lost and ended up on a AT trail head on Rte 40 and we headed south across a long footbridge over I-70? It was nice but no views that I suspect would be fabulous if not for all of the leaves.
I wanted to go to some falls at state park off of route 77, I had read about them on line and seen them on bike rides but never went there.... We got all the way to end of the road and saw a sign saying "no pets" Pissed me off that the sign was at the end not beginning of the road...saw another parking place, found a place to turn around and that place was only for handicapped parking. What is this, Rhode Island?
Heading south, I followed signs for Antietam though we weren't in the mood for another battlefield visit- plus we had been there in each of the past three years. Just before Sharpsburg, I saw a sign for Chestnut park and headed down that road, the roads seemed to go on forever and finally got to the park, which was more like a playing field complex and another sign, "no pets" No problem and we headed on.
Now pretty much lost and without looking at a map, we came across a road: Harpers Ferry rd. That sure sounded inviting since that was a place I wanted to go to but wasn't planning on it because of the dog. (dogs aren't allowed on the NPS bus) That road ended up along the C and O canal and we found a parking place, a green slice of grass to plop our chairs in so we could rustle up some lunch on the bike way between the canal and the Potomac River.
It wasn't long before we realized that we were very close to Harpers Ferry, the building across the river, a dip in the land where the other river met the Shenandoah. Even though it was very hot and the puppy was almost all walked out, we decided to take out time and head downriver.
Last year we were on the other side of the river and I wanted so much to cross the bridge to the C and O canal, but my daughter wasn't up to it that moment so we never made it. This year we did and little dom, who has developed a fear of any type of bridge, crossed it with much trepidation. I had just gotten some back pack chairs just for this occasion and after dipping the puppy in the Shenandoah River because of the heat, we sat for hours in the shade and alongside the river. I had yearned for this all year.
And, if only for a few short steps, we also hiked along the AT a bit there as well, even if it was a puppy sized walk on main street.
I bought a Harpers Ferry walk book that I regretted not getting last year and it was really good book full of walks and maybe next time we can explore even a little more of this beautiful spot.
When we got back to gettysburg, I had the chance to ride the Gettysburg battlefield at night, something I did last eyar and had the most unusual experience. It was dusk and I was riding while my daughter was jogging around the park. This was our last night there and as I was waiting for her near the Pennsylvania monument, I was overcome with the most overwhelmingly sense of doom amd sadness I have ever felt. A black depression that I had never had experienced before and one that was scary because I feared it would not go away, because it was so debilitating.
I have heard of other such thing happening here and because I have a pretty pragmatic view of the world, I chalked this feeling up to events in my life at that moment-my own personal losses that year, spending three days at four Civil War battlefields and plus it was September 10 and there was all media hype about 9/11, never mind out trip though NYC the next day.
So as this year's trip approached I had this fear-not really fear but apprehension about it. Would that same bad feeling come back? would it come and be worse? Would it come and not leave?
So here I was a year later and riding the bike at night.
Somewhere south on Confederate Avenue, which parallels the rebel attack that crossed the field in Pickett's charge, I saw a shadow along side me and it turned out to be a bat-a large bat. Apparently it was attracted by my headlight(a Light and Motion HID light) which throws out a lot of light. The bat disappeared. That never happened to me before.
I was trying to find my way around the battlefield with no planned route, and took the road between Little Round Top and Devils Den even though i knew it went through dense woods, and darkness. It was here that my battery went dead-not an uncommon occurrence with me and I had a few backups, which i put on near the Wheatfield. There were cars there and I felt more secure. I saw a flash out on the field and first thought that it was thunder but then realized that people were taking photos out there in the dark. Ghosthunters? That is why people were parked there to look around in the dark too?
The two back up lights I had sucked and their poor light only added to the spookiness. With eyes adjusted I headed out into the open fields and where there was a tiny amount of ambient light left, adding a sense of tranquility.
I headed back to the car, past the peach orchard, past the other side of the Wheatfield, below Little Round top and then to my car, which i had parked in completely dark area in the middle of now where. I got in my car as quickly as possible and took off, fortunate that nothing happened.
Another one of my goals this year was to locate monuments dedicated to RI units that were at Gettysburg, something we did not find in our last visits. I had found a few locations on line, and amazingly after turning onto the battlefield for the first time, the very first monument we saw had an anchor on it and that unit was from RI. That night we headed to find the other, which i knew almost exactly where it was. This was Arnold's battery that was at the receiving end of Pickett's Charge. It is a few steps away from the angle, Copse of Trees and just on the other side of the stone wall was a North Carolina monument, which might have been as far as that unit got.
A cannon from that site sit at the RI state house. Quite by accident I found another monument, battery E, I was just riding by and saw an anchor on a monument.
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