I rode Bennetts ages ago with my son and remembered it being a fun place. My return today--quite a few years later--was a disappointment. The park seemed disheveled and unkempt and the trails weren't as nice as I remembered them to be... Did the
Friends of Bennetts Pond Park unfriend the place?
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| A quick loop |
After a steep uphill at the entrance, you ride into the former site of Colonel Louis D. Conley’s enormous nursery (
more info >). Now, a way overgrown field with a nice view, the trail winds thru this but it has hasn't been trimmed in ages and I was ripped apart by pricklers....
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| The Field |
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| My legs and arms were ripped apart by sharp pricklers |
Once you get thru the overgrown fields (there are two of them) you enter the woods and it is pretty much a coast downhill for the next 10 minutes. There is one section nearer to the bottom where you are flying - it is wide and super steep.
At the pond, the old bridge to the trail on the north side was no longer there!
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| I remember a bridge being here... |
I rode back westward along the relatively easy trail by the south side of the pond and was rewarded by a nice view (I put a crude panorama together to demonstrate). Sadly, sections of this trail were eroded and/or strewn with branches and fallen trees.
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| Pond side trail heads thru fence |
I wasn't headed this way today but the bridge is mighty skinny!
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| Narrow footbridge that heads into the Leibowitz/Hemlock Hills section |
Looking back--I had just come along the trail on the left and was headed back out on the trail on the right...
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| Looking back at the bridge - panorama |
Once I got on the narrow single track heading upward--it felt great. This was a good trail--roots for sure but a gradual climb and obviously well traversed and maintained.
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| Nice single track going back up the hill to the parking lot |
The nice trail ends up right by the main sign.
I was hot, sweaty and scratched up from the pricklers so the cold beer waiting in my cooler hit the spot!
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