2020-11-12, Dismal Brook Wildlife Preserve, Granby, CT

On 2020-11-12, I visited a new Granby Land Trust preserve, Dismal Brook Wildlife Preserve in Granby, CT.  I made an interactive map with location numbers that I will refer to below.  Here is a link to the interactive map: http://arcg.is/1PyTGa .

Here is a static screenshot of the interactive map.



1.  Where I parked in a large, gravel parking lot.

2.  The view from one of two wildlife viewing platforms.



3.  Note that this new bridge is curved.


4.  The Day family farmed the land that is now the preserve for centuries.  Here, there is a cemetery where five people were buried from 1795 to 1850.  On my computer, I can right-click on any of the images in this blog and open the image in another tab to see more detail.  You can get more information about the cemetery at https://granbylandtrust.org/glt/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Day-Cemetery-May-2008-SBHS-Report.pdf .


4.  Who was the artist who produced this image?


4.  It appears that the same artist produced this image.


5.  This cabin had been recently restored.  The cabin was used as a vacation home by the Glazier family who owned the land that is now the preserve before the land was bought by Jamie Gamble, the man who donated the land to Granby Land Trust.


5.  Visitors are welcome to sit on the newly restored porch.


5.  David Reik on the porch.


5.  I didn't check the doors to see if they were locked., but I took pictures through the windows.  This looks like a pump organ.


5.  There were two chimneys.


6.  Visitors are welcome to sit and enjoy the view of the beaver pond.


7.  An orange-blazed trail, newly cut through the mountain laurel, led to this view of the the beaver pond.


8.  Information posted near the parking lot said there may have been a mill on the property at one time.  Here, there appeared to be the remains of an old mill dam.


Near 6.  This is were water left the beaver pond.  The pond was regulated not by a beaver dam but by a man-made dam.  It looks like the bars in this picture are designed to be lifted periodically to remove any wood and mud that beavers have put into place.  I believe that beavers are instinctually drawn to the sound of rushing water which they try to stop by building a dam.


9  A plaque to Jamie Gamble who apparently bought the land with the idea of donating the land to the Granby Land Trust.  Before he donated the land, he did a lot of work to make the land inviting.


David Reik

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2022-6-5, Metacomet Trail, East Granby, CT.

Image
On 2022-6-5, I hiked a section of the Metacomet Trail in East Granby, from CT-189 to Holcomb Street. I made an interactive map of my route --- my GPS track is shown in pink.  I put in location numbers to show where the pictures below were taken.  Here is a screenshot of the southern part of the map. Here's a screenshot of the northern part of the map. Here's a link to the interactive map, where you can zoom in and out, and turn on and off various layers. https://arcg.is/1aDPiq 4.  The view of Tariffville Gorge. 6.  I don't think there was ever a structure connected with this chimney. 8.  A large Striped Maple leaf. 9.  Carolina Rose (Rosa carolina), I think.  A wild native rose. 11.  Evidence of some recent mowing of plants in the sunlit power cut. 12.  The first blow-down I came to.  This was about 100 feet south of the cemetery. 12.  The cemetery.  As I recall, the three grave stones are reproductions of the original grave stones which are now embedded in the foundation o
Read more

2022-6-3, Lake Compounce Area Trails, Southington, CT

Image
 On 2022-6-3, I hiked a loop on various Lake Compounce-area trails in the Tunxis Trail family of trails.  I made an interactive map with location numbers to show where the pictures that appear below were taken.  Here's a screenshot of the southern part of the interactive map. Here's a screenshot of the northern part of the interactive map. Here's a link to the interactive map:  https://arcg.is/0eO88G  . 3.  I wasn't going to record blow-downs, but I came to this big, double blow-down on the blue-red Steep Climb Trail and changed my mind. 4.  Now, we're on the blue-yellow Compounce Ridge Trail. 5.  Somebody cut this blow-down on the blue-yellow Compounce Ridge Trail but wasn't able to complete the job. 5.  Another blow-down on the Compounce Ridge Trail. 6.  It used to be that the best view on the Compounce trails was at Julian's Rock, but the trees below Julian's Rock have grown, and now I think the best view is from a point near where the chair lift used
Read more

2020-8-2, Highlawn Forest, Middletown, CT

Image
On 2020-8-2, I re-visited Highlawn Forest in Middletown.  Highlawn Forest is a preserve managed by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.   I made an interactive map showing where locations I will refer to here.  You can zoom in and out, pan around, and turn off and on various layers including LIDAR, contour lines, aerial imagery, and my GPS Waypoints and GPS track.  Here's a link to the map: http://arcg.is/1yCzTf0 Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map. 1.  I turned from the Blue Trail to a network of unblazed trails.  Too bad this is not a three-dimensional picture --- you can't see here that this was a hole.  Was the hole the work of man? 2.  At first I thought that this trail, which is raised above the surrounding ground because dirt and gravel have been laboriously deposited, was the work of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, but it seems that neighbors have constructed this raised trail and many other features along the unblazed trails. 3. 
Read more