Local hike

Today I took a hike with my 10 year old to explore a section of the Metacomet Ridge, which runs from Long Island Sound to just south of Vermont. It’s a separate geological feature from the Appalachian Mountains, made up of trap rock formed by ancient volcanic activity. Definitely makes for challenging hiking at times. We entered at the bottom of the trail through a right of way in between a couple houses. After about 45 minutes of scrambling over boulders we reached the top. The trail we followed brought us right behind Lake Compounce, which is America’s oldest continuously running amusement park. At the top we found the remnants of an old control tower. Until about 5 years ago, there was a ski lift type ride that brought you to the summit and back down. It was funny finding all sorts of old flip flops and bathing suits in the woods, which had fallen off the now-defunct ride years ago. From the top you can see the Hartford skyline, north towards Bradley International Airport, south to Meriden and Middletown where I work, 30 miles away. There’s another smaller ridge below us obscuring the view of the amusement park unfortunately. If you look down into the valley further out you can spot the satellite dishes from ESPN’s headquarters. The small skyscraper off to the left is Otis where they build and test elevators. Anyway, just a glimpse of the small city/big town I live in.

 

Great views from there Eric. Never have been up there myself. Ever hike the metabassett trail. Park on route 66 in Middlefield and hike South. Great views to the West and overlooks black pond. Ive camped up there during the daffodil festival fireworks and 4th of July. Also hike North to Mt Higby. Great views as well.

 

I’ve fished black pond a few times and have seen the cliffs there but haven’t gone to the top yet. I went up Mt. Higby a lot as a kid and went up there a few times with my wife years ago. We used to get off 691 on Preston Ave and go up from there. I remember there’s one section of those cliffs that looks exactly like New Hampshire’s “Old Man of the Mountain” on a smaller scale. That’s one abrupt drop to the bottom I want to check out the southern end of the ridge down by you. Apparently there’s wild prickly pear cactus growing up there in certain places. The ridge creates different microclimates, hotter and drier than anywhere else at this latitude.

 

Right on, LOTS better than sitting around playing on electronics!

 

It goes through the top of powder ridge too. When we watched the 4th fireworks we parked on 68 and hiked North. Camped above the old Mountainside resort on the ridge. Saw my old neighbors fireworks at the same time. Really cool at night seeing all the lights as well as the fireworks.

 

Nice views. Thanks for sharing!

 

Further north, Avon ct has a short hike to the top of Talcott mountain (aka Avon Mtn).
About a 40 minute hike to the top. The Hueblein Tower (in Talcott Mtn park) is open occasionally to climb.

Going up the trail affords good views to the valley, including a hangliding launching point (one of the only if not the only) in CT.
Sca

 

Cool hike, looks like a nice deer stand if you can get it out of there!

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We hike a lot, more when we're on road trips. I love scrambling over rocks, and exploring this amazing planet we live on. It's great for kids to get out and explore. Missouri was once under the sea, with a lot of sea fossils, that's one thing I enjoy teaching kids about. It's fun to watch them think about, and how different this planet used to be.

Enjoyed the pics!

 

This cemetery dates back to the early 18th century. Most of the grave markers are just unmarked natural rocks. It’s called colloquially “Green Lady Cemetery” Something about a green mist at night and an apparition of a woman in a dress…
I thought this old maple looked interesting as well. The trunk rotted and split into two trees, sharing the same root system.

 

I found miles of boxelder trees. Not a tree too commonly seen here in Connecticut. Here’s a small grove of them, which are some of the larger ones I’ve seen around.

 

We stopped in Canaan CT to visit the ruins of Beckley Furnace, which is a 19th century iron works factory on a river. At the far end of the property is a huge slag mountain, so the kids and I collected some cool looking slag “rocks” as souvenirs.








Down the road but close by is a large limestone quarry that used to supply the iron works. The quarry is still in use today. Crazy to think that limestone is the fossilized remains of ancient sea creatures from millions of years ago.

 

Back in the days of pine boxes and a graveside service.
Nonna this concrete, multi thousand dollar boxes...
What a neat spot, and cool tree find!

 

Summa those pics didn't show up.
Neat trip though.
Ever hit up Howe Caverns upstate NY.
We found a cabin to rent, and went there a few years ago. Hasn’t changed much since I was there as a kid, 30 years ago.

 

Spent a few days in the Mount Washington valley this past weekend. Hiked up to the hermit lake AMC hut. The summit will have to wait for another day.

 

We did Mount Monadnock a few weeks before. Hopefully next year he will be up for some bigger hikes.

 

Bathing suits? Well ya had the rest of the ride to figure out how to cover up!

 

That one made me laugh too. It’s pretty common to see woman’s undergarment it trees under ski lifts around here but with winter outerwear one would never know. Bathing suit not so much!

 

Wonder what was going on that a bathing suit fell off? LOL