2021-11-2, Higganum Reservoir State Park, Haddam, CT

 On 2021-11-2, I visited Higganum Reservoir State Park in Haddam, CT.  I made an interactive map of the State Park.  I put in location numbers that I will refer to.  Here's a link to the interactive map: https://arcg.is/1Xz5OX .  Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map.


1.  Where I parked, alongside a gravel park road.  I got to the gravel road by taking North Dish Mill Road from CT-81 and going right (northwesterly) after I crossed Ponset Brook.

2.  A view of the southern end of Higganum Reservoir.



3.  There were lots of black cherry (Prunus serotina) saplings here. 
 


3.  Prunus serotina.  When black cherry trees get older, their bark gets to look like burnt cornflakes.



3.  Black cherry leaves.  Break the twigs and you can smell a bitter almond aroma.



3.  Ponset Brook where it is widening into Higganum Reservoir.



4.  An old dam.



4.  The old dam.



4.  103 feet downstream from the dam.




5.  Some sort of foundation from before 1900, I would guess.  Maybe an old dish mill.



6.  The beginning of this trail, which branched off a gravel road, was blocked by branches.



7.  More obstructions on the trail.




8.  A view from above Higganum Reservoir.



9.  Are we looking at one white pine tree, or three?



10.  Looking northerly towards the dam that forms Higganum Reservoir.



10.  I think this is sweet pepper bush, Clethra ainifolia.  The seedpods look like peppercorns.




11.  American chestnut, Castanea dentata.  This is about as big as these trees get.  They come up from the roots of pre-chestunt blight American chestnut trees and die when their bark cracks and lets in the deadly fungus.  Or maybe this is some Asian species of chestnut and so will not necessarily die.



11.  American chestnut leaves (probably).




11.  The tree.



12.  I followed a dim trail to this small stream.
















David Reik

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