2021-12-28, Witek Park, Derby, Ansonia, CT

On 2021-12-28, I visited Witek Park in Derby, and the adjoining land in Ansonia.  I made an interactive map with location numbers.  Here's a link to the interactive map: https://arcg.is/1m15W40 .

1.  I parked in a gravel lot on the side of Sentinel Hill Road.  A closed gate blocked a road to a set of parking areas for playing fields.  I walked up the road to the playing fields and then turned onto a gravel road to a kayak and canoe launch.  Signs said you needed a permit to launch kayaks or canoes there.  I went northerly on a path.  

3.  After a few hundred feet, spray-painted red stripes appeared along the trail.  This "Merlin's Point" sign was on a rise on the trail with the red stripes.



4.  This looked like a valve that used to stop water from flowing through a canon-like pipe.



5.  A side trail off the trail with the red stripes led to Ansonia High School.



7.  A nicely constructed stone wall.  My guess is that this (and a similar stone wall to the north) is a post-Civil Way decorative stone wall.



Near 7.  I saw a lot of this plant, a vine. Initially, I thought it was the invasive plant Euonymus fortunei, also known as Fortune's spindle and wintercreeper, which is a vine with green leaves in the winter.  But now I think it is Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica.



Near 7.  Japanese honeysuckle fruit, I think.



Between 7 and 8.  There were several of these boardwalk/bridges on the trail with the red stripes.  They were in a state of moderate disrepair.  They appeared to have been professionally constructed maybe twenty years ago.




9.  This large (maybe four feet in diameter) tree was about ten feet from the trail with the red stripes.  The tree is some species of hickory, I think.  Bitternut hickory is my first guess; mockernut hickory is my second guess.




9.



9.  The tree was hollow.



10.  The trail with the red stripes ended at a set of athletic fields.  A trail from the mown grass led to the edge of Upper Ansonia Reservoir.  What looked like a swan swam away.



10.  More muddy than I thought near here --- I went down maybe four inches into the mud.



11.  I ventured from the athletic fields into a trail-less wilderness.  



Near 11.  One of many large white pines in the area.



12.  Another view of Upper Ansonia Reservoir from the trail-less wilderness.



Near 13.  A view of Coe Lane which apparently used to continue across what is now Upper Ansonia Reservoir.  From this gate to a point about 0.36 of a mile to the east, Coe Lane is not maintained as a thoroughfare.



13.  Hard to see in this picture, but I believe we are looking at an old cellar hole.




Near 13.  There were several of these signs in Witek Park.  They said that visitors had to get a permit from the town of Derby to enter.



8.  I went back on the trail with the red stripes.  I saw several boulders with nuggets like those shown here.  Some sort of crystal?



6.  This nut was attached to a horizontal tree.  Maybe mockernut hickory?



6.  The horizontal tree.  Young mockernut hickory, perhaps?



2.  This rock-and-concrete structure housed what looked like a spring.  Sacred water, maybe?



2.  Inside the spring enclosure.



68.  A mown-grass path led to this dam with cattails.



Near 15.  



Near 15.  The water from Upper Ansonia Reservoir going over the dam.



Near 15.  A new bridge over the stream leading out of Upper Ansonia Reservoir.



Between 15 and 16.  A view from Upper Ansonia Reservoir dam.



16.  The trail got narrow here going through the phragmites.



17.  A structure that must have something to do with the Lower Ansonia Reservoir dam.  This structure looks like other structures I've seen near reservoirs from the nineteenth century in Connecticut.



18.  There were three or four stones with inscribed information about Frank P. Witek.  Frank P Witek was killed in action on August 3, 1944 on the island of Guam.  Witek "daringly remained standing to fire a full magazine from his automatic weapon point-blank range into a depression housing Japanese troops, killing eight of the enemy and enabling the greater part of his platoon to take cover."  He continued to fight until he was killed.



Near 18.  A well-used trail led from here to Upper Ansonia Reservoir.



19.  One of many large white pines along the trail the ran along side of Lower Ansonia Reservoir to Upper Ansonia Reservoir.



20.  I think this is American holly, Ilex opaca.  Most of the American holly plants I see are only about three feet high.



20.  Distinctive holly leaves.



20.  The trunk of what I think is an American holly tree.



18.  Back at the memorial to Frank P. Witek.



18.  One sign says that boating is prohibited.  Another sigh says that boating is permitted with a permit from an unspecified entity.


















David Reik 

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