Joyce Wildlife Sanctuary

No Joy at Joyce
Southington
October 2023

Unless you are reading this in preparation to go hiking here, you can stop reading. Seriously, there’s nothing of interest here.

However, if you think you’re going to go for a nice little walk at the Joyce Wildlife Sanctuary in Southington, please keep reading. Okay, you can stop after this sentence if you want… don’t bother trying to hike at the Joyce Sanctuary.

There are no trails here and despite signage and other online sources stating otherwise, I’m not sure there’s ever been trails to hike here. From the Southington Land Conservation Trust website:

This is a 8.57 acre portion of Lily Pond that sits between South End Rd. and Pondview Dr. The pond is home to many beautiful waterfowl including Swans and Blue Heron. We would like to thank Bill and Karen Joyce for their generous donation.Thank you Cub Scout pack 40 from Kelley and South End School for building and erecting two bat houses for our Joyce property. They will provide safe roosting sites for the bats. The Land Trust continues to partner with like minded groups to promote the preservation and protection of nature.

So you’re thinking, “duh, Steve, it’s the pond that’s preserved, why would you think there are trails here?”

Fair point. But I made my way to the tidy little neighborhood noted in their blurb and parked by the trailhead sign.

Trailhead sign? But there’s no trail? Yup, I said trailhead sign:

I parked, exited, elicited stares from neighbors in the rain, and plunged into the strip of woods between two houses.

This was not a pleasant plunge. I figured there would be a trail here, so I was pretty determined to get through the tangle of vines and poison ivy and deadfall. There is no trail here. There’s not even a hint of a trail. There is a lot of poison ivy though, that’s for darn sure:

I poked around for 15 minutes and almost fought my way to the pond, but decided that was idiotic and returned to my car.

As I always say on these types of pages, the fact that my experience was what it was does not diminish in any way the work of the Land Conservation Trust or the importance of protecting these acres. There are a couple cool bat houses here which are always good, and perhaps at some point in the future, there will be more to this place.

Southington Land Conservation Trust
CTMQ hikes Southington Land Conservation Trust trails