2021-11-11, Cockaponset Roads, Chester, CT

 On 2021-11-11, I explored a section of Cockaponset State Forest in Chester, CT.  Here's a link to my interactive map: https://arcg.is/1eWvfX .  My GPS track is shown in pink.  A possible bike route is shown in yellow.  My GPS Waypoints are displayed with three-digit numbers.  Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map.



001.  I parked in a paved parking area that could hold two cars.

007.  From the parking area, I walked onto an unpaved road that looked to be too rough for me to ride a bike on.



008.  I was walking uphill on the rough road.  There was a mixture of loose rocks and sand.



009.  The rough road.



010.  Near here, a man, maybe thirty years old, appeared going the other directions about ten miles per hour on a bike with tires about an inch and a half wide and dropped handlebars.  Maybe this road would not be too rough for a bicyclist more adept than I am.




011.  Pickup trucks drove on this road.




012.  Firepool.  I think this was the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s or early 1940s.  Were these pools really helpful in the fighting of forest fires?



016.  I turned off onto a thoroughfare that was not open to vehicles.  I'll have to put this thoroughfare onto Open Street Map.



033. This is were Cedar Swamp Road went southerly out of Cockaponset State Forest and became paved.  I watched a pick-up truck drive through the puddle.  I saw one hunter dressed in camouflage clothes and carrying a compound bow.



Between 35 and 36.  I didn't see any cedar trees near this swamp.



036  Winterberry holly next to another swamp.



038.  A sandpit, I think.



039.  Another view of the somewhat rough road surface.



042.  I get the impression that the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is chiefly involved,  not in "habitat restoration," but in disturbing habitat.



044.  Maybe this surface would be fine to ride on for most bicycle riders.



045.  I turned around at this point on Pine Ledge Road.  According to Open Street Map, I could have continued about two-and-a-half miles to CT-80.



046.  I turned around at this point on Hoop Pole Road.



047.  Hoop Pole Road was somewhat rough here.



048.  This was posted where an acre or so of timber had been cut.  Does the state of Connecticut make a profit off these timber cuts?



050.  A quiet, paved, residential road.



051.  Apparently, children live here.




052.  Tulip tree roots by the side of the road.



053.  Cedar trees lined the side of the road.  You can see some beautiful winged euonymus plants on the other side of the road in the distance.



Between 054 and 055, I passed a commuter parking lot.


055.  Barbed wire strung across Pattaconk Brook on the south side of CT-148.  



056.  On Baker Road.  What's the significance of those stars on barns?


I walked 6.48 miles in two hours and fifty-nine minutes.













David Reik

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