David K. Leff “Hidden in Plain Sight” Trail

Nothing Leff Unexplored
David K. Leff “Hidden in Plain Sight” Trail, Hartland
July 2024

David would love this short trail. I love this short trail.

And I really love that this short trail exists in David’s honor.

I met David K. Leff on two occasions and on the second, we had a fairly long and winding conversation about, well, about Connecticut and what it has to offer and why not enough people appreciate it (See: this website’s tagline). David passed away in the summer of 2022, leaving quite a legacy.

I presume many know him for his poetry and florid writing about the backroads, woods, nooks, and crannies of our state, but he was also a legal advisor for the Connecticut General Assembly’s Environmental Committee. In 1994 he was tapped to be Deputy Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He was the primary writer of the state’s first green space plan and negotiator of Connecticut’s largest land acquisition, more than 15,000 acres, known as the Centennial Watershed Forest.

Leff was Canton’s town historian and a 26-year volunteer firefighter, serving as their safety officer. He was the inaugural National Park Service New England National Scenic Trail Poet in Residence and New England Beat Poet Laureate. He served on numerous boards, including Connecticut Forest and Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Connecticut Maple Syrup Producers Association, and Audubon Connecticut.

A true polymath and most interestingly, to me, he was a pretty funny guy. One of the few to specifically note the sheer brilliance [rolling eyes emoji] of my many pun titles on this very website. And to think, I am none of those things in the preceding paragraphs and never will be, yet he spoke to me as an equal.

Knowing all of the above, it should come as no surprise that several organizations – Hartland and Barkhamsted Historical Societies, CT DEEP, Friends of People’s State Forest, Friends of American Legion State Forest, Farmington River Committees, etc., all came together to clear, blaze, and sign the David K. Leff “Hidden in Plain Sight” Trail.

The trail is not challenging or long, but that was never the point for David. It’s historic, and takes walkers past clear evidence of the area’s industrial past. Heck, the trailhead is just past the former Hitchcock Chair Factory right on the west branch of the Farmington River.

(For record keeping’s sake, the hiker/fisherman lot at the end of School Street is in Barkhamsted, but the entire trail is in Hartland.)

I first attempted to hike the half-mile loop trail on the evening I was to speak with the Barkhamsted Hisotrical Society. It was drizzling, dusky, and I would have had to jog the whole thing in pants and shoes not suited for such things. I wound up turning back, realizing David deserved better than a quickie run-though of “his” trail.

And I’m glad I did. I returned a few weeks later with all the time in the world. I watched fly-fishermen ply their trade for a few minutes before returning to the woods along the trail.

Hike the the trail counterclockwise, and the signs along the way will (more or less) take you through time. The “hidden history,” if you will. From how the river formed to how the Native Americans fished and farmed here… and on to more recent history.

Saw mills first harnessed the river’s power here in the late 1700’s before famous chairmaker Lambert Hitchcock took over the area and began producing furniture in 1818. After Hitchcock moved downriver, a fabric printing mill took over the spot in 1837. To this day, the Ward Family Mill remains the largest employer to ever exist in Hartland.

That mill existed until it burned in 1941, supposedly having produced the first paper towels in the world – a claim I’ll let slide. The whole site was flooded and mostly lost in the 1950’s and finally deeded to the state by the Ward family in 1990.

Today, the raceway still exists, as does much of the infrastructure built to create it. There are some stone foundations of mill buildings as well. The signs along the way help paint the picture of this land over time; how it was clear-cut for charcoal and then again for the mills. How the river was fished before Europeans, polluted beyond recognition for a couple hundred years, then reclaimed by nature again today.

If anything, I hope that when people take walks through the woods – wherever they may be – they will take the time to see how humans have reshaped certain areas. How to notice charcoal burning platforms or old raceways and mill sites. These things are all over Connecticut and David K. Leff would be happy for you to notice.

And I would be happy for you to discover this little trail on the Barkhamsted/Hartland border, right near the lovely little village of Riverton and the former Hitchcock Chair Factory. This is Connecticut: history combined with natural beauty.

Rest in Peace, David. I only wish I got to know you more.

CTMQ Hikes Hartland’s Town Trails