Saturday,
January 12, dawned sunny and warm as promised. After a
week of thawing and a day of rain, the Connecticut River
had crested at 12 feet on the
Hartford Gage, forcing Plan B on the 19 hikers, some
new to the Meadows, who had assembled on Goff Brook Lane
to view parcels of land donated to the Trust last year
in memory of Edward and Ann Hayes.
Our
walk proceeded down Goff Brook Lane as it runs through
the gate between the railroad tracks, running up on the
bank on the right, and the shallow slough of a branch
of Goff Brook on the left. Water backing up from the river
filled the slough, preventing the group from checking
out the beaver lodge we'd seen last week in the middle
of the frozen pond a half mile into the woods. Water over
the road at the Goff Brook culvert stimied Plan A—our
visit the Trust's Hayes parcels. Several Game club hunters
also turned back rather than drive through the 1 to 2
feet of water over the road.
Our
group circled around the edge of Mr. Gilbert's rather
muddy, uncut corn field, still rich with winter wildlife
food, looped back across the road, up the ridge, and across
the railroad tracks, where we picked up the white blazed
Quarry Park Trail to the ridge. There, standing on the
glacially smoothed and scarred knob of "rocky hill,"
we gazed out on the fields and woods of the Great Meadows.
We'll walk them another day.
Saturday,
January 12, dawned sunny and warm as promised. After a
week of thawing and a day of rain, the Connecticut River
had crested at 12 feet on the
Our
group circled around the edge of Mr. Gilbert's rather
muddy, uncut corn field, still rich with winter wildlife
food, looped back across the road, up the ridge, and across
the railroad tracks, where we picked up the white blazed
Quarry Park Trail to the ridge. There, standing on the
glacially smoothed and scarred knob of "rocky hill,"
we gazed out on the fields and woods of the Great Meadows.
We'll walk them another day.