On
Thursday, August 29th, my friend, Jon, and I hiked the three mile
yellow blazed trail at the McCann Family Farm in Somers, CT. The blue blazed
trail is two miles. The McCann Family Farm is “a working farm/nature preserve,
owned and maintained by the Northern CT Land Trust.” A not-so-easy-to-see sign
on Route 190 indicates one should turn here and drive down a short dirt road
into the parking lot with space for six to eight cars.
I
picked up a map and info brochure at the trailhead and off we went…up, up, up,
up and up some more. The trail is a combination of smooth and rocky. The rocky
parts were, for the most part, solidly planted and not loose. I still had to
watch my step so I didn’t turn an ankle. I would classify the yellow blazed
trail as easy to moderately difficult. Take into consideration both Jon and I
are in our 70s…I’m further into my 70s than he is, but we are both quite agile
and the walk took us 2 hours to do 3 miles. We had to stop and rest a couple of
times…my request. Some of those endless hills were a bit much for me, but I
didn’t let them stop me.
The
worst part was, it kept going up. According to the brochure, “About one third
of the acreage (84 acres) is used to produce hay. The rest exhibits a wide variety
of habitats.” One of those habitats is hills!
Not
too long into our hike, Jon calls out, “Moos sighting!” I looked expecting to
see moose. It was a herd of beef cattle. So much for Moos sightings!
I’ve
picked out the best pictures from this hike. There were mushrooms all over the
place…all kinds, in all different arrays and colors. Also, the rock formations
were of great interest. Along the way we identified kettle ponds (or holes, as
some were just dry depressions) left over from the last glacier retreat.
Note, I finally got the date stamp on my camera corrected and now the time stamp is way off. We hiked from 10 a.m. to noon.
As you begin your walk on the blue and yellow combined blazed trails, you come to the bird sanctuary.
These were the reason for Jon's Moos sighting.
This is Happy Hiker #1...me.
Happy Hiker #2...Jon.
This was the only place to put the trail. Above it and below this spot just wasn't conducive for walking. Call this between a rock and a hard place!
The photo above shows a tree that looks like it's wearing a skirt of mushrooms. Below is a cluster.
