That Cabin Life Dismal Brook Wildlife Preserve, Granby November 2020 I see you Granby Land Trust. Trying to be clever. Why else would you include the word "dismal" in the name of your new property when in reality, it's anything but? Sorry, but the jig is up: Dismal Brook is beautiful. Stunningly so. Yes, … [Read more...]
Valley Brook Church Trails
Lift Me Up (To The Top of The Hill) Valley Brook Church Trails, Granby December 2020 As I begin to write about the trails at this large church in North Granby, I'm suddenly wondering how many mapped and blazed public trails exist at churches around Connecticut. Probably not too many, but I don't really have any … [Read more...]
Christensen Pond
Horsing Around Christensen Pond, Granby November 2020 Look, if I made the effort to "hike" here, the least you could do is spend the next 90 seconds of your life reading about it. No? You don't? Of course you don't. Why would you? You could at least look at this pretty picture though. See? It looks like a … [Read more...]
Book Review: The Invisible Island
The Good Old Days The Invisible Island, Dean Marshall This book is a joy. Written in 1948, The Great Depression and WWII were behind us and the Cold War had yet to really get going, these were the halcyon days for (wealthy, white) Americans. The world was a safe place and children were allowed to venture … [Read more...]
Lake Basile
BaSilly Lake Basile East Granby, Granby, Simsbury I'm sorry, for those of you familiar with tiny Lake Basile. I know right now you're wondering why in the world it features on this website. It's a little pond (not a lake) choked with vegetation that no one really thinks about. I get it, I do. There's just … [Read more...]
Farmington Canal Heritage Trail: Section 1
Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Massachusetts border to Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury (~11 miles) June/July 2020 Annnnd away we go! Definitely one of Connecticut's top few bike paths... greenways, rails-to-trails trails... whatever we call them. It bisects the state, right down the middle from Suffield to New Haven. … [Read more...]
Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Intro
Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Massachusetts border (Suffield) to New Haven The summer of 2020 - the pandemic summer of 2020 - sort of forced my son Calvin and I to begin riding Connecticut's rails-to-trails in earnest. Nothing was open for visits in any normal way, so why not ride our bikes. Unfortunately, Calvin … [Read more...]
Tunxis State Forest Intro
Tunxis State Forest Barkhamsted, Granby, & Hartland Although the CFPA's Tunxis Trail takes hikers south down to Southington, the state forest of the same name only covers land in the northernmost towns along the way. The forest surrounds the Barkhamsted Reservoir and always feel remote. Because it is remote. I like … [Read more...]
East-West Trail Intro
East-West Trail Bloomfield to Cornwall, ~60 miles Began: June 2019 Completed: Note: This trail does not yet exist! It won’t be the longest trail in the state and it won’t even be all new trail. But for whatever reason, I’ve been obsessed with CFPA’s proposed hypothetical East-West Trail since I first heard … [Read more...]
The Brewery at Maple View Farm
Reassessing Everything The Brewery at Maple View Farm May 2019 I’ve been thinking about the old adage, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” While I’ve been clear in my 13 years of writing everything on this website that I sometimes simply must not be so nice, something about the … [Read more...]
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