Saturday, January 28, 2017

Hiking Pine and Wooster Mountain

My mountain bike was in the shop so I decided to hike Pine Mountain and Wooster Mountain located west of Danbury. I parked at the lot at the end of Pine Mountain Road.
Pine Mountain Parking Lot

Ascending the Yellow Trail

The Yellow Trail ascent is steep and littered with rock gardens - not a biking route for sure...
Glacial Erratic
Rocky Ascent
Glacial Erratic
The Rocky Ascent goes on ... and on...
Another Glacial Erratic

At Pine Mountain

Once at the lookout, the trail mellows out (not so steep and rocky).
At the Lookout
It's actually a long way down!
The main trail is well blazed
The Chimney Ruins
Kinda cool...

On the Red Trail

Going eastward from Pine Mountain you descend a bit thru a marshy valley.  I choose to head northeastward on the Red Trail.

Yet on more enormous Glacial Erratic
I turned around here

The Big Rock

I back tracked to check out a section (looking northward) with more trails. I scurried over to photograph this big rock. Very cool!!


Back on the Ives Trail

I back tracked some more and turned south on the Ives Trail. It gradually ascended on a picturesque ridge
Yep! A Glacial Erratic
Then I veered off to the right to head back down to the pond, passing a derelict tree stand on the way.




Biker's Delight

I veered of the main trail to follow a recently leaf blown biker trail. Of course now I wanna ride it!
Strange pipes ?!
Final descent...

Back on the main trail descent
(an old fire road)

North Side of Bennetts Pond

The trail along the north side of the pond must be beautiful on a warm sunny day. Although there are some really rocky sections that would be tough to bike, other sections look awesome!
This was my favorite stretch!

The battery died on my phone so no more photos. I headed west and slogged up the second Red Trail then back out on the rock-strewn Yellow Trail.


Saturday, January 21, 2017

Blue Trail in Northern Wilton Woods

It was wet and gloomy so I thought it best to hike rather than ride the mountain bike today. I headed to the northern section of Wilton Woods and revisited the Blue Trail, which - if truth be told - I couldn’t ride some of these sections anyway!

Mini Waterfalls at the first footbridge 
I hopped on the fallen log across the river (top) to take the bottom photo
Rock gardens (so many!!!)

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Woodway in the Snow

Sunday Morning Hike

What I like about the snow is--not only are the woods stunningly different and beautiful--but you can see all kinds of animal tracks...
No tracks yet on the West Trail
Animal tracks
Something is making a home under the rock
More virgin snow
The up and over and fallen tree roots
More animal tracks