Pachaug State Forest, Voluntown, Connecticut

July 9, 2010

With two hikes in my immediate future, one my Big one, I had better catch up with my walks.

I volunteer with my son's boy scout troop at summer camp each year. My now ex-coworker Lou and I got together on Friday to do a hike near both of us. He works over the line in Connecticut, and we had talked about doing some backpacking, so we chose Pachaug State Forest, which has a couple lean-to's we might wish to stay at in the future. This hike provided us a look-see. Yet again, no photos.

We met at the corner of routes 138 and 201, parked, and entered the woods. Normally I would follow along using my map, but my awesome Great Swamp Press map appears to be missing. Maybe it ended up with my scout gear, maybe Lou ended up with it. I'd hate to lose it. They are rather pricey.

We followed Pachaug Trail (I think half the trails in the forest are called Pachaug) until we got to the lean-to. Needed a sweeping, but in rather good shape. The area around it looked well used by hippy hiker and destructive teen alike. Next we doubled-back to take a look at mount Misery. At an astounding 441 feet above sea level, Misery provided for a significant climb. We got to the top and met up with a young family enjoying the view.

The bugs were fierce. I don't normally wear bug spray, but this day was the exception. We would wave our hands above our heads and knock away several deer flies that would return about a minute later. I've never been bitten by a deer fly but I understand they can be almost as painful as horse flies. Camp Yawgoog has lots of horse flies. My floppy brim hat kept them and the sun at bay.

We continued North because Lou wanted to see a location he had been to in his youth. The name escapes me. We got about half way there when Lou's curfew grew short. We doubled back to the start. I tried to entice him in getting a beer together, but his wife and child needed him home. We parted ways and I found a nice place that served cold beer and a better than average pub burger, by young ladies in tight t-shirts. I got back to camp to find out I missed meatloaf night.

Ben Utter Trail, Arcadia

Some work day back in June.

My wife and boys arrived at my work with the idea of doing a hike. For once, it wasn't my idea. Her favorite was one of her first. The Ben Utter trail in Arcadia. I navigated a path from Narragansett to route 165. I dropped my car off in the church parking lot and transferred to her van. We took unpaved Frosty Hallow trail to Plain Road.

I learned when I did the Shelter trail a few weeks earlier that Plain road was barred a fair ways from our trail head. I also learned that Plain road was in unusually bad shape. My wife is not in the habit of slowing down on bad roads. We stopped where Plain road did and was preparing to walk the rest of the way, when a lady in an SUV drove around the barrier. We decided to follow. Plain road got worse and had to slow a little. We found the trail head parked next to the SUV.

The camera stayed home so no pictures yet again. We followed the trail as usual and I took the opportunity to do some scout requirements for my ten year old. We hiked to stepping stone falls, had a snack, then went by the abandoned shelter on our way back. It felt good to be in the woods.

W made it back in reasonable time and drove home. The transmission work only cost me $100, so I count myself as lucky.