Swan Preserve Trails

Swan Swoon
Swan Preserve Trails, Canton
October 2015

This is a Canton Land Conservation Trust property.

“Are they dressed warmly enough?”

“Yes, of course. Let’s go.”

Dressed perfectly warm

And off we went, northwest through West Simsbury to North Canton. This part of our little Nutmeg World, around routes 309 and 167, is one of my favorites. There are a bunch of great little trails in the area, both in Canton and in Simsbury. In the fall of 2015, I’ve been taking the boys out here as much as I can.

The Swan Preserve is the northernmost CLCT property in Canton. If you go, try to back into the little hiker’s lot. (Once there, the reason will be readily apparent.) And this is a good time to thank the CLCT for their handsome white Canton-shaped signs that are erected at each trail head.

They make life much easier.

After the traditional arguments from Damian and the round of Smith-Magenis behaviors, we hit the trail.

The Swan Preserve features 3 interconnected trails: The Yellow, Red, and Blue trails. (Interestingly, the Blue Trail was actually the Green Trail until recently. I suppose someone realized that green blazes among verdant plant life is a pretty dumb idea.)

The Yellow is the main loop at just under a mile, and the Red and Blue trails are loops off the Yellow loop. (Blue features the only real climb here and the red features a whole lotta nothin’ in its short 0.17 miles.)

All hikers start on the Yellow, with a pin-straight downhill past some private proper along a series of stone walls. The highlight of this first bit is the massive white oak at the bottom of the hill alongside the creek.

From there, a sharp turn to the left takes one along the creek over some fairly dicey rocks. I imagine this little stretch should be avoided after a major spring thaw, as its probably underwater.

A bridge took us over the creek to the southern end of the Red trail. We stuck to yellow and began the long sloping climb through the open woods.

Here, the trail took us through an amazing fern field. All the chlorophyll had drained from their fronds, resulting in a ghostly pale yellow sea of autumnal ferns. As I often think to myself, “If I was a real photographer, I could get some really cool pictures here.” As it is, I’m not, so I have a fairly boring picture of my sons in the distance, walking through ghost-ferns.

We branched off onto the Blue Trail (Calvin’s choice) and began a slightly steeper climb. Because we were climbing, I barely noticed a drop in temperature and the increase in windspeed from the northwest. The sun was still shining and the boys were content, so we pressed onward.

The blue trail actually reconnects with the yellow before tackling the steeper climb. This time, Damian decided we wanted to get back to the Yellow Trail, so that’s what we did. I was a little bummed we didn’t do the full loop, but that’s the way these land trust trails go. I am not super obsessive about walking every inch of their trails.

(Nor are you obsessive enough to want to read about every inch of every land trust trail either.)

We reached the far end of the Yellow Trail and found a rock for the traditional drink box and granola bar break. As they sat, I got a text from my wife: “It’s SNOWING here!”

Wild! The sun was still shining here in Canton but now that we weren’t moving any longer, I noticed the chill in the air more than before.

I texted back, “Boys are fine; sun shining here!”

I walked around for about 90 seconds and then… what was that?

A snowflake? And then another?

What the heck? I urged the boys to finish up and get moving, lest they get too cold.

Once it started snowing a bit harder, the psychology of seeing it kicked in and suddenly, boh of them were “freezing.” (They weren’t, and the temperature was still actually near 40, despite the snow.)

I actually kind of liked the change in the weather, as it propelled Damian all the way down the hill faster than he’s every hiked before for some reason. (He was also being difficult, but that’s beside the point.)

He practicly ran down the hill as it really began snowing like crazy. (Again, this wasn’t “real” snow as it was well over 32 degrees and actually sorta sunny. Welcome to Connecticut.)

We made it back to the car quickly and the boys were magically warmed within 10 seconds in the car.

Amazing, that.