Late Afternoon along the Ridge

The Ridge Trail - looking good!

Crow Hill ATV Trails - Portland, CT

After my ride in the woods east of Keeney Street - I ventured down to Portland to explore riding the abandoned RR trail and ATV trails I saw a couple of weeks ago on foot.

Bummer but going east from Williams Street Extension wasn't possible - it's completely overgrown... The AllTrails map was misleading!

After a short unpleasant ride thru the overgrowth I turned around and rode on the trail section west of Williams Street Extension...

...Once I got near the end, I ventured uphill on a prominent old dirt road.

It was uphill FOREVER and this old geezer had to walk some of it :-(

Finally when I neared this house I veered to the left and kept slogging up and up and up...

There's a cement marker here -
Probably a survey property border marker

I continued up straight for a bit (photo above) but finally realizing the uphill goes on forever, I turned around and took the trail to the right (below)

Maybe this old car was as tired of the uphill as I was!

Once back on the railroad bed, it was an easy ride back (even though it was very hot and humid)

Another old relic from yesteryear...

The dinosaurs and mini-golf are have seen better days.....

Exploration and Discovery

In the morning I explored a bit of the Parcel north of Howe and discovered the remnants of an old road.

Here's a GPS of what I rode - I continued on down south of Howe as well (not on map).

Here''s an overlay of what I rode with the crazy ATVs trail I mapped last year. North of the dry streambed I discovered an old road...

It kinda hard to tell from this photo but this is where the trail dips thru the dry streambed.

The stretch I bushwhacked...

Here's the old road...

This is the main artery - the climb back up to Howe starts here

Thoughts on this location

The missing link...

I took a short hike in the evening  on the Waterline Trail east of Keeney. It was a productive hike as I found the trail link over the stream bed.

I went right at the intersection
South Branch

There was another potential spot for a trail crossing here... Marked "Y" on map

There's a defined singletrack trail on the wide waterline "roadbed"

Where that defined trail turns to the right is where the missing link exists...

The descent takes you down to the stream crossing...

The stream crossing - not too messy!

Once on the south side of the stream, its a short messy climb to get to the former ATV trails...

I took this trail remnant up to where it intersected with the main trail

Yep - this is the main trail...

On the return back over the stream, I snapped a photo of a nice section of the old ATV trails...

Here's the crossing going back north - the water line trail is the flat section ahead...

The money shot  - grass on the waterline trail in the early evening sun...

East Of Keeney - Hike/GPS

I returned to Parcel #1 (east of Keeney and south of Howe) to GPS the main trail. It was sunny and pleasant for a nice hike.

Its an easy hundred foot difference from start to finish...

Nearing Howe, the trail squeezes thru these logs

Sunshine!

Skunk Cabbage has taken over!

Down at the Stream Crossing