GMCT Brisk Winter Walks
Saturday, January 3rd, 4:00pm. Great Meadows Conservation Trust Brisk Winter Walks
As the sun sets in the western sky (4:32pm), meet at the Keeney Center parking lot, 200 Main Street, Old Wethersfield. Walkers will stroll down Main Street to Wethersfield Cove Park (about 1 mile), through the parking lot to the Cove channel, under the I91 overpass and out to the River’s edge. The super Wolf Moon will rise (4:46pm) above the tree line on the eastern shore, shimmering on the river below!
Dress for the weather and ground conditions, including mud or snow. Weather and water conditions may revise or cancel. These areas are used for hunting, so wear an orange vest if you have one. Call or text Jim Woodworth for the latest information, 860-808-9968.
Full GMCT Brisk Winter Walk Schedule:
Thursday, January 1, 1:00 pm, Wethersfield. About 11⁄2 hours. Meet Jim Woodworth at 160 Middletown Ave, south of Maple St, on GMCT’s Wood Parcel. Enjoy the Heritage Walk panels, new Eagle Scout installed accessible picnic table, native shrub plantings, and lush “Rays Crazy Fall Mix cover crop on the corn field! Cross the shiny bridge and follow the trail along the marsh and around the loop past the 18th century house site. Hike will continue across the culvert by the Pond, and out along the edge of the farm fields that once hosted the original “Pyquag” Native American summer camp and burial site. We’ll continue along Anderson Farm fields and the marsh, across the Frechette Field and Dowd Parcels and turf fields to the new 7Acres Flower Farm.
Saturday, January 3, 4:00 pm, Wethersfield. As the sun sets in the western sky (4:32pm), meet at the Keeney Center parking lot, 200 Main Street, Old Wethersfield. Walkers will stroll down Main Street to Wethersfield Cove Park (about 1 mile), through the parking lot to the Cove channel, under the I91 overpass and out to the River’s edge. The super Wolf Moon will rise (4:46pm) above the tree line on the eastern shore, shimmering on the river below!
Sunday, January 4, 1:00 pm, Rocky Hill. About 2 hours. Meet at the meadows gate at 78 Goff Brook Lane, off of Old Main St. Join Tim Lewis on a hike to several of our parcels in the Rocky Hill Meadows. We’ll walk the farm roads, take a turn around the Goff Brook Trail in the DiPaola parcel, and walk out into the meadows, noting the Nature Conservancy flood plain forest study transect and the planting of DED tolerant Elm Trees.
Saturday, January 10, 11:00 am, Glastonbury. About 2 hours. Meet at the Glastonbury ferry landing on Ferry Lane for a short turn around the Ferry Park trail, see the bench in memory of GMCT’s Betty Schmitt, and then cross Ferry Lane and walk upstream along the River through fields and pastures to the Walker Easement on the Coal Wharf. Nearby are archeological digs dating to the earliest settlement in Glastonbury, and a planting of DED tolerant elm trees positioned to spread their seeds on the spring freshet to the flood plain forests down-stream.
Sunday, January 11, 1:00 pm, Wethersfield. About 2 hours. Meet at 258 Elm St, at the underpass under I-91. A long hike down to the River and along the farm road, now designated a Greenway, to our Wolcott, Crilly and Zeleski parcels in the Wethersfield Meadows. From the Broad Street Green take Elm Street East, crossing Route 3. From the Silas Deane Hwy take Maple Street/Route 3 north, at the stop light, turn right on Elm Street.
Sunday, January 18, 1:00 pm, Wethersfield. About 1 hour. Meet at 412 Hartford Ave, corner of Jordan Lane, for a short walk through the gate to our Wolf Parcel and DeMille Easement on the Cove and Folly Brook. Stay for a longer walk, another two and a half hours, up Hartford Ave. and out along the Hartford dike that divides the Folly Brook Nature area from the South Meadows Industrial Park. We’ll walk through the area of the “tree removal” for the Brainard Airport approach and learn about advantages of “shrub/scrub” and early successional habitats.
Saturday, January 24, 9:00 am, Wethersfield. Meet Goodwin University’s Bruce Morton, Program Director of
Environmental Studies, at the Putnam Park parking lot, 100 Great Meadow Road, just north of the Putnam Bridge. We’ll peel away the centuries to imagine the river bank before the bridge, check out the strategically located Standish parcel, and explore the 300+ acre Crow Point property owned by Goodwin University. We’ll observe the process of nature reclaiming the land and waterways excavated for fill to build the highway across the ancient farmland and wetlands of the Great Meadows.
Sunday, January 25, 1:00 pm, Glastonbury. About 2 hours. Meet Tim Lewis at the Glastonbury Boat House, 252 Welles Street. View the beautiful River from the boat house veranda and Riverfront Park. Follow the trail through the park, past the DED tolerant elm trees, and down along the riverbank. Check out the eagles nest in Crow Point Cove on the way to the Preissner parcel, the First Church of Christ parcel and the newly acquired Botticello parcel in the Glastonbury meadows. Return along the trail or loop up to Main Street and return via River Front Park trail from Main Street.
Saturday, January 31, 9:00 am, East Hartford. Meet Goodwin University’s Bruce Morton, Program Director of Environmental Studies, at Hockanum Park, 324 High St. Explore our Wilson-Carvalho and Hockanum Meadows parcels in the “Wethersfield Triangle” of land marooned on the east side as the river meandered. We’ll observe the tree “obstruction removal” carried out by CAA on the approach to the Brainard field runway. We’ll explore the trails that Goodwin University has constructed with the help of DEEP trail grants and will soon pave from S. Meadow Rd. south along the River to connect with the Putnam Bridge trail.
Dress for the weather and ground conditions, including mud or snow. Weather and water conditions may revise or cancel. These areas are used for hunting, so wear an orange vest if you have one. Call or text Jim Woodworth for the latest information, 860-808-9968.
