Celebrating Mid-Autumn in Early Autumn
Tremko Trail, Ashford
September 2026
Not that anyone would ever question my commitment to this website and to you readers, but if I ever needed to “prove myself,” I could point to the little Tremko Trail in Ashford. It’s not an exciting trail; there are no views, no interesting rock formations, and no historic relics along the way. It’s just a trail that goes up and down a wooded hillside behind the town’s Senior Center.
But the fact that I’ve come here three times between 2017 and 2026 speaks to my commitment… and yes, Dad Joke, why I should be committed.
The Tremko Trail shares a few hundred yards with Joshua Trust’s Rankin Preserve Trail. I first hiked Rankin before the trail was blazed in 2017. I returned to hike the full loop in 2025, with the plan to also hike the Tremko Trail. I never saw the Tremko so I returned 10 months later to hike it from its trailhead rather than off the Rankin Trail.
In Ashford. Not exactly my backyard.
But this is what I do. And I’m happy to do it. And I’m happy to share facts like how George T. Tremko was Ashford’s postmaster in the mid 1900 – and is honored by name at the entrance to this town park/Center area at the Tremko-Stebbins House.
And happy that the Ashford Conservation Commission has erected a nice trailhead sign at the back of the municipal parking lot and has blazed the full trail up and down the hillside behind the Senior Center. The trail still seems to be a bit of a work in progress, but they’re getting there.
I walked the loop counterclockwise which took me behind some town structures and near Warrenville Pond. This first, generally flat section from the parking lot to the pond is pretty well cleared and certainly well blazed. This makes sense as I imagine if any seniors are walking back here, this is the part they’d be walking. The pond, which I remembered approaching from the other direction during my Rankin hike, is quite pretty.
I’m not even sure if the pond is a natural pond or a filled-in gravel mine pit, but whichever, it looked nice in early fall.
Once the Tremko Trail hit the Rankin Trail, I turned left and uphill along the boundary between the two properties. The Joshua’s Trust Trail heads towards some cool rock features just as the Tremko branches off to head back to the parking lot. This split is clearly blazed now in late 2026, whereas it wasn’t at all just a year prior.
This section of Tremko, which heads back down the hill through fern glades and over a bunch of hidden rocks, isn’t so nice. I assume that whomever is leading the Tremko Trail effort will be clearing this path a bit more, as there are sections that are blazed but there’s almost literally no trail. But again, if the seniors from the Center are looking for a walk in the woods, they are not hoofing it up this herd path. So it makes sense to have left it to be the last section to clear.
Not the clearest path
I was hungry so I pulled out a moon cake.
After all, today was September 25th, the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Yes, that’s right, it was Mid-Autumn Festival Day just a few days into Autumn. Take it up with the Chinese. (It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest.) My wife is Vietnamese of Chinese descent, so her family marks the occasion and we got a whole bunch of mooncakes as a result.
Also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, this is the second grandest festival in Chinese culture, following only the Lunar New Year. It’s a time for family reunions, giving thanks for the harvest, and, of course, enjoying some of the most delicious treats of the year. These round pastries are the festival’s universal symbol. They are always round to mirror the full moon and symbolize family reunion.
While the classic versions are filled with sweetened bean paste or lotus seed paste, often with a salted egg yolk in the center to represent the moon, there are all sorts these days. My in-laws stick to the traditional versions even though I have no idea what this particular one was. I know I liked it fine, whereas some others I kind of hated. (I believe this was pandan and mung bean… by the way, mooncakes are very different from Moon Pies which I grew up with in the Southern US.)
So… happy mid-Autumn Festival Mooncake Day to you and yours!
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