David Reik, Photo Blog

 On 2020-11-5 and 2020-11-6 I visited preserves in Bethany and Beacon Falls, CT.  Here's a link to an interactive map on which I have put location numbers:  http://arcg.is/0y55XD  .  You can fiddle around with the interactive map and turn off and on contour lines, aerial imagery, and LIDAR-created imagery.  Below is a static screenshot of the interactive map. 1.  On my 2020-11-5 trip, I parked at the northwest end of Northrop Road. 2.  I was near an unblazed trail here on private property. 3.  Here, I am on the Woodward Trail in the Bethany Land Trust Woodward Preserve.  I saw lots of evidence of hard work that had been done to create the trail.  At its southern end, lots of Autumn Olive shrubs had to be hacked through to make the trail. 4.  I saw this hat on the yellow-white-blazed White Birches Trail in the Bethany Land Trust Mendell's Folly Preserve. 5.  On 2020-11-6, I parked again at 1.  Here, I am on private pro...

  On 2020-11-3, I walked on trails by the Hockanum River in northern Vernon and southern Ellington, CT.  Here's a link to the northern part of an interactive map I made on which I included location numbers to show where the pictures below were taken:  http://arcg.is/0rLTXK0   .  Below is a screenshot of the northern part of the map. 1.   My route was partially on the route once used by a railroad and a trolley.  On my computer, I can right-click on any of the images in this blog, open the image in another tab, and magnify the image to see more detail. 1.  This bridge was a work of art.  It swayed as I walked on it. 2.  The Hockanum River. 3.  Much of the Hockanum that I walked along was surrounded by marshes. 4.  Here, the Hockanum made a turn. 5. Near 5. 6.  I was on my way back south when I took this picture.  I saw many benches along the Hockanum River Trail. 7.  A goose pond. 8.  Apparently, some of...

 The link to my interactive route map:  https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34552497 I'll put in a static screenshot of the interactive map. The State had mown many of the thoroughfares on the route I followed.  The route was designed by the man who blazed the Naugatuck State Forest, West Block, trails, Tom Ebersold.  This was at the 1.51-mile mark. At about the 2.17-mile mark.  Witch-hazel in bloom.  Some of the flowers have already lost their tendrils. At the 2.21-mile mark.  A probably illegal mining project. Looks like quartz crystals were what was being sought. Quite a bit of digging was done. At the 3.93-mile mark.  Look carefully and you can see some snow on the hills across CT-8. At the 4.47-mile mark.  A train went by as I was leaving. At the 4.66-mile mark.  One of the many cascades on Spruce Brook. At the 7.18-mile mark. David Reik