2021-6-19, Burnham Brook Preserve, East Haddam, CT

 On 2021-6-19, I visited Burnham Brook Preserve in East Haddam, CT, a Nature Conservancy property.  I made an interactive map with location numbers that I will refer to.  Here's a link to the map: https://arcg.is/r1aWX .  Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map.



1.  Maybe five cars could park in a pull-off on the side of Dolbia Hill Road.  


1.  A blue-blazed trail made a loop about 1.9 miles long.


2.  A mown trail branched off the blue trail and traveled through meadows.    



3.  I think the cedar trees in the fields planted themselves and were spared by mowers.



4.  The mown trail continued into the woods and, despite what was indicated on a map at location 1, stopped about 100 feet short of the blue trail near location 4.

Near 4.  I associate high stone walls of fieldstone, one stone in thickness, with eastern Connecticut.



Near 4.  American wintergreen, Pyrola Americana, was in bloom in the woods.



4


4


5.  The blue trail skirted the edge of Burnham Brook.



5

6.  I think I recall many plaques in Nature Conservancy preserves.


Near 6.  Many stretches of the blue trail were not four feet wide.  The trail was not wide enough to prevent brushing against vegetation which increased the danger of picking up ticks.


7.  The blue trail climbed up to a plateau.


8.  After the trail descended from the plateau, it arrived at a boulder with another plaque on it.



8  Was this poem written by Richard H. Goodwin?  Richard H. Goodwin was the director of the arboretum at Connecticut College.







David Reik

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