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.

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!!!)

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

Luther was rough today!

In the parking lot, I asked a hiker -- just emerging from the trails: "How are the trails today?" His reply "Icy under a thin layer of snow-- No dead biker bodies or bike bits strewn about so go have fun!!"

I charged on in and discovered even the South Loop was tough. A groove set by a fat bike was frozen solid ice and a good amount of random snow built up here a there on the trails made the ride a lot harder than usual. I ended up bailing halfway thru the the South Loop and headed back to do some of the trails north of the ravine instead.

Some of the trails on the north side were virgin -- I was the first to ride them!! Needless to say  despite being a bit exhausting, it was exhilarating. Luther is so peaceful in the winter.

Local TM

Nov 25th

I have been working on keeping the leaves off the trail (that's a non-stop job this season, yikes!). Today I met a park abutter who came out and introduced herself and said she likes the trails and wanted to thank me for them...

This tree fell down few years back (I think it was Hurricane Irene...)

Roots (dirt and stones...)

Dec 3rd - New Trail up on the hill completed

A little more challenging side loop at the top of the hill was finally finished today. The ramps took a long time to build but it will be a fun short section to ride :-) Met another local mountain biker in the park today who will be riding and enjoying the park as well  - all is well!

(Yellow Tint added to accentuate the trail)

Dec. 7th

I tweaked the new trail a bit (curves were too sharp).