David Reik, Photo Blog

 On, 2021-11-27, I visited the Bobcat Woods and Lombardi preserves in Bolton, CT.  Both preserves are Bolton Land Trust properties.  I made a map with screenshots from  https://hiking.waymarkedtrails.org/#?map=15!41.7493!-72.4127  . I put in location numbers that I will refer to here. 1.  I parked here on High Ridge Farm Lane.  I had started to drive down a gravel driveway when I noticed a man gesturing to me to back up.  It turned out that the man was part of a group from Bolton Land Trust.  I learned that an organized tour of the preserves would start in a few minutes.  I learned that the gravel driveway was a driveway to a private home, but was also the entrance to the preserves, but that the public should not drive down the driveway.  I joined the Bolton Land Trust group hike. 3.  There was a map kiosk here.  Our group went northerly onto the yellow-blazed trail in Bobcat Woods. 4.  The group hike was led by Jonat...

On 2021-11-24, I completed a 7.68-mile hike in Bigelow Hollow State Park in Union Park.  First, I walked around Bigelow Pond on the yellow trail, and then walked on the blue-white trail to Mashapaug Pond and back.  Here's a link to an interactive map of the route:  https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/84374270   Here's a link to the RideWithGPS presentation of the same GPS track:  https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38086540  .  I think the RideWithGPS.com version is better than the connect.garmin.com presentation because anyone, whether or not they're signed in, can download the track, and the version of OpenStreetMap that you can use as the background map is much more up-to-date. You can move your mouse pointer along the elevation graph on the interactive map to get the exact mileage for any point on the route. Mile 0.79, at the end of an unblazed trail off the yellow-blazed trail, on the shores of Bigelow Pond. Mile 2.04.  I lost track of the bl...

 On 2021-11-21, I walked from the West District Nature Preserve (owned by the Farmington Land Trust) to the Vincent H. Core Memorial and back.  I'll put in an annotated screenshot to show where the pictures below were taken.  I used hiking.waymarkedtrails.org as my base map. I sent this blog post to the Farmington Land Trust on 2021-11-22.  I got this prompt reply from Interim Executive Director Cate Grady-Benson Hi David, Thank you for sending your blog to us.  So glad you had a wonderful walk in the woods.  I am not sure you are aware that the West District Nature Preserve is a closed property only open when we have events.  Also, we are renovating the Bushley farmhouse and the barn to be our office/education center.  We are in the process of a capital campaign to raise funds for the renovation.   Would you please take the post down as we would not want someone to be injured if they are walking around the barn/house. Also, the Nature P...