David Reik, Photo Blog

 On 2021-1-30, I visited the St. Francis Woods Trail in Madison, CT, another Madison Land Conservation Trust creation.  I made an interactive map of St. Francis Woods Trail with location numbers.  Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map. Here's a link to the interactive map:  https://arcg.is/1ejbyG 2.  Evidence of lots of recent clearing of fallen trees by Madison Land Conservation Trust. . 3.  This was behind a tree about 100 feet from St. Francis Woods Road.  The bottle of pink-lemonade-flavored vodka was full.  A very cold, drunken party may have been planned. 4.  You can find more information about the St. Francis Woods Trail and this cemetery at  http://www.madisonlandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MLCT_St_Francis_Woods.pdf  .  I was interested to learn that, "The first person buried here was Demetrius Crompton. Forest hikers might learn from his demise—he was killed by a falling tree limb."  An unblazed trail led from the blue trail to a bench in

 On 2021-1-30, I visited Indian Rock Shelters Trail in Madison, CT.  The trail is another creation of Madison Land Conservation Trust.  I made an interactive map with location numbers.  Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map. Here's a link to the interactive map:  https://arcg.is/DiX5C 1.  Where I parked in the turning circle at the west end of Lake Drive. 2.  A rock shelter that actually afforded some sort of shelter.  Note the layers of different sorts of rock. 2.  Proof that I was there. 2.  Proof that I was there again on 2021-2-21.  Left to right Greg the World Traveler, Mark from Orange, Susan (I think), Jeanine who taught in Guilford, and Denise from Branford, David Reik  3.  I don't think this rock formation would actually give much shelter, but it had lots of different layers and strange shapes. 3. 3.  Some of the shapes looked like they were formed by water. 3. 3.  On 2021-2-21, I attended a New Haven Hiking Club hike that included a visit to Indian Roc

 On 2021-1-28, I visited the Madison Land Conservation Trust Ironwoods Preserve Trail in Madison, CT.  I made an interactive map on which I put location numbers that I will refer to.  Here's a link to my interactive map:  https://arcg.is/1PSj4D    You can turn on and off various layers on the interactive map including aerial imagery, LIDAR, contour lines, and USGS historical maps.     Here's a static screenshot of my interactive map. 1.  Where I parked, in a long gravel parking lot provided by Madison Land Conservation Trust. 2.  I found that the configuration of the trails had been substantially changed since the maps on the Madison Land Conservation Trust website had last been updated.  I took a picture of the ravine here with a dam at its northern end. 2.  Tom Ebersold led a hike to on Ironwoods Preserve Trail on 2021-2-21.  Here's a picture of me and Mark from Orange. 3.  A closer view of the ravine near the dam. 4.  A view from the Blue Trail of Greist Pond. 5.  I spot

 On 2021-1-27, I parked in a Holy Family Retreat Center parking lot and explored the area.  I made an interactive map with location numbers to show where I took the pictures below.  Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map. Here's a link to the interactive map on which you can turn off various layers including LIDAR, aerial imagery, contour lines, and historical USGS maps:  https://arcg.is/0aif4T 1.  Next to the parking lot I parked in at the Holy Family Retreat Center there was this free-standing wall with a sculpture in a niche.  People had left candles at the feet of the statue in the niche. 2.  I was on a section of a highway interchange built in the 1970s that has never been used.  Behind me, you can see I-84 and the towers of downtown Hartford. 3.  This was along the path I followed from the Holy Family Retreat Center parking lot.  Actually, the property is owned by the State of Connecticut. 4.  This structure on the Holy Family Retreat Center property seems to b

 On 2021-1-26, I cut three blowdowns, in the Heublein Tower area, two on the Metacomet Trail.  I recorded GPS Waypoints at each of the blowdowns.  The Waypoints appear on this map. 001.  A hemlock blowdown on an unblazed trail I like to use.  Someone had already cut branches that would interfere with safely getting over the blowdown. I made two cuts, the first from underneath and the second from above. 002.  This was actually on a bypass trail that had developed around a complex blowdown that fell maybe in June of 2020.   I made one cut, but that one cut was difficult because the blowdown was embedded in the frozen ground and was a little thicker than the frame on my 36-inch Bahco bow saw could accommodate.  I had to finish the cut with my 18-inch pruning saw and then I had to lever the cut piece out of the frozen earth with a small tree I cut down for the purpose.  I used a branch as a fulcrum. 003.  This was a new blowdown that fell among pieces of a blowdown I had previously cut.  I