2021-9-9, Barnes Nature Center Connector, Bristol, Burlington, CT

 On 2021-9-9, I walked a section of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association Barnes Nature Center Connector, blazed with blue blazes with black dots.  Here's a screenshot from the CFPA online map overlaid with my GPS track (no antenna) shown in pink.



Here's a screenshot of an ArcGIS map showing the GPS Waypoints that I recorded.



Here's a link to the interactive map: https://arcg.is/1LPySP .

Barnes Nature Center Parking Lot.  The kiosk says that Barnes Nature Center intends to transform most of their existing trails into "a mile-long nature trail" that "will be accessible to people using wheelchairs, strollers, walkers, and other mobility devices."  The route they show involves a lot of altitude change.  




001.  A blow-down.



002. Another blow-down.




003.  Another blow-down.  I was cutting what I could with my loppers.




004.  A section of the trail that runs by a fence that gets overgrown.  There was a lot of poison ivy in the vegetation shown.



005.  Pinesap, Monotropa hypopitys



005.  Pinesap, Monotropa hypopitys




006.  A blow-down.



007.  Where I turned northwesterly off the Barnes Nature Center Connector.




009.  I took unblazed trails to get to the waterfall.



008.  Part of my route from the Barnes Nature Center Connector to the falls was on an old, eroded trail.  I thought maybe a better trail could be made that I could have used if it existed.  The section of the old trail below 008 consisted of wooden steps that were in good shape.


 
010.  I rejoined the Barnes Nature Center Connector and hiked back towards Barnes Nature Center.  I thought that, for hikers going westerly, it would be good to have a schematic map posted near 010.  The fact that the trail goes through the JAM Service Associates, LLC, parking lot is not now clear to hikers.



011.  I think this plant is Narrow-leaved Calico Aster, Symphyotrichum lateriflorum var. angustifolium.



011.



012.  Two low blow-downs and one of many bridges (this one a bog bridge) that have been installed along the Barnes Nature Center Connector.  I was impressed that the bridges stayed in place through the recent floods.  I think there were big metal spikes driven through the bases of the bridges into the ground.










David Reik


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