2020-7-5, Sprague Land Preserve, Franklin, Sprague, and Scotland, CT

I visited the Sprague Land Preserve on 2020-7-2, 2020-7-4, and 2020-7-5.  On 2020-7-4, I went northerly along the Shetucket River up to the Scotland Dam.

I made an interactive map of my travels.  I put in location numbers to show where the pictures below were taken.  Here's a link to the interactive map: http://arcg.is/zHLHm .

Below is a screenshot of the interactive map.


1.  As you drive northerly up Holton Road (which is paved), you come to a sign similar to this one.  You can turn into the narrow dirt road on your right and park in any of several small parking areas along the road, or park in the larger parking area at the end of the road near the Shetucket River. 


2. Or you can continue another tenth of a mile on Holton Road to a large field where you can park. 


3.  A fungus, or fungi, along the yellow trail.


4.  This waterfall is right on the edge of the preserve property.  The access path to the waterfall seems to be on private property.


4.  This bridge and bench are above the waterfall on an unblazed thoroughfare.



5.  This waterfall on the blue trail was clearly within the preserve.


6.  There were several blow-downs along the yellow trail, including this American beech.


7..Chimaphila maculata. in bloom.


8.  This waterfall did not have much water falling over the dark cliff when I visited the spot on 2020-7-4.


9.  Another recently fallen blowdown on the yellow trail.


10. This cliff is sometimes a waterfall.


11.  Wood Lily, Lilium philadelphicum, on the edge of a power cut.


12.  A scene along the trail blazed with pairs of blue circles.


13.  The Shetucket is very placid here.


14.  Heading northerly along a dirt road leading to the Scotland Dam.


15.  The Scotland Dam.  There was a plant to generate electricity from the falling water on the far side of the river.  If the goal was to generate electricity, why was so much water going over the dam, not through turbines?


15.  I zoomed in on the power plant.  The sign read, ""Danger, keep away when siren sounds.  A sudden rise in river could occur when siren sounds."  The gray, scaffold-like structure was an elevator to transport fish both upstream and downstream.  More information: https://www.firstlightpower.com/about-hydro/



16.  Above the dam.  Both above and below the dam, there were gravel paths apparently built to facilitate the launching and taking out of small boats.



17.  Someone did some research.


17.  A view of the former bridge abutment.


17  The Shetucket is not so placid here.


18.  Self portrait along the Shetucket.


19.  A new bridge on the red-blazed trail.



19.  The Konows are a local family that is very involved with Sprague Land Preserve.


19.  There were several examples of stump carving along the red-blazed trail.  This owl may have been carved by Donald Konow.


20.  A boundary marker on an unblazed trail.


21.  The Konow family owns land at the end of the road.


22.  What was this structure and fixed table built for?  It was next to a sand pit.


23.  I found stone walls but nothing that looked like an "historical foundation" to me.


24.  I only saw solid orange blazes like this.  A map posted in the main parking lot showed this trail as being blazed with orange two-circle blazes.



25.  A scene along the Beaver Tail Trail.  The Beaver Trail must be new --- it doesn't appear on the posted map.  The posted map was created by Chris Arpin in November of 2015 as an Eagle Scout project.


26.  A view of one of the several mown fields in the preserve.  The paths, where they went through the fields, had been mown more recently than other parts of the fields.


27.  Here, the orange trail was a bit overgrown.  There were overgrown stretches of trail scattered throughout the preserve.


28.This appeared to be a young pitch pine tree.


28  Note that the needles are in clumps of three.


29.  I don't recall seeing a named culvert before.








David Reik

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