North South Trail, Kenyon Hill to Roaring Brook Pond

Saturday, May 22nd

Maybe my interest in blogging is waning. All blogs have a life expectancy. Maybe I am seeing the end. My interest in hiking, however, has not. With my son's Boy Scout troop, we hiked 8.7 miles.

First, there are no pictures. I didn't take many, but none are included because when I asked if anybody objected to having photos posted on the internet, a couple scouts said yes. I don't know if they were serious, but then again, I didn't ask. We picked up where we left off, on Kenyon Hill Road.

Five scouts, the Scoutmaster, and I entered the forest and walked until it turned into a well groomed community. We followed streets until we reached route 138. We turned right towards the Richmond Elementary School. There was a farmers market going on, but it was across the street. The boys decided not to investigate. We turned left onto Nooseneck Hill Road, where we saw and smelled cows.

We turned left onto Buttonwoods Road. A little ways up we turned North into the woods again. Soon we stopped for lunch. The trail connects with the "New London Turnpike", which an ATV would be hard pressed to traverse in comfort. Along the way we crossed a makeshift living room, complete with couch, rug, and lamp. We joked that this is were we should have lunched, but clearly few would want to touch the junk.

A little bit more road work, then we were back into the woods. We crossed under route 95. We followed the trail until it turned onto Tuft Hill Trail, a dirt road off of which I parked. The boys and Scoutmaster chose to walk the boardwalk around Roaring Brook Pond to the paved road. I brought the van around.

There was a lot of street walking, but it was fine. Much of it was very pretty. The weather cooperated and we managed to get through the tenderfoot material for our youngest scout.