Adventures with the Ashtons

I awoke early Sunday Morning and walked to the Trapp Family "wedding platform" to play my Native American flutes. The residual fog in the valley is always beautiful.

What's cool is I actually had a musical "conversation" with a hawk. As I played the flute (with backing tracks from my cellphone channelled thru a mini battery-powered amp), I heard the strange noises that I wasn't used to hearing. I stopped the backing tracks and played solo flute. Sure enough, a hawk would call back to me only if I played a certain set of notes. If I stopped playing, no response. If I played the lower register of notes - no response.  But if I played notes in the mid to high register - the hawk would caw back!

Perry Hill

Next I went to my favorite riding spot: Perry Hill/Rasta Mtn in Waterbury. This time not to bike but to give my extended Family (my sister and the Ashtons) a mini hiking tour of the place.

As mentioned a few years back, they built a sculpted reroute of this section of the trail. Here's a comparison

Years ago

Now

this crazy steep section is now blocked off and the trail turns to the right

The ascent on a bike is still a ball buster but as you can imagine... the descent is pure nirvana!

We veered off the descent at the aptly-named Disneyland section of the park and enjoyed the incredible ambiance of trees, ferns and the play of sunlight on all of the greenery. I played flute to the squirrels and Rick generously took the time to film me - a couple of snippets will be eventually posted on YouTube.

I tried to take them down a gully I remembered that led to a very picturesque rock outcropping but there was a new trail put in since my last visit that confused me so we turned around at this point. Needless to say, the new trail is another masterpiece which I have put on my agenda to ride.

Foamers?

Lastly, Rick Ashton is such a kindred spirit and a fellow railroad enthusiast! We spotted what looked like railroad cars way down on a siding and had to go check them out.

Great fun was had by all...

Brattleboro Rocks!

On my annual end-of-August pilgrimage to Stowe VT, I decided to stop and ride the Retreat Trails in Brattleboro. I've ridden them twice before. Once, ages ago with my son we wandered around the section by Cedar St. and only a few years back I rode up from the Retreat Farm on Morningside Trail. This time I decided to start from the entrance up on Upper Dummerson Road.

It was a little weird at the start because the trail was roped off (no photo) but I ducked under the rope and rode uphill for a long stretch along the edge of a field. There were a short jaunt through the woods and over a bridge and I ended up in another field. My intention to take the Ice Road Trail all the way to the Pond. Once I hit the dirt trail tread in the woods, I realized my back tire pressure was low but I had no desire to ride back down to pump it up (I keep a pump in the car) so I forged on with caution...

short woods jaunt (there's a bridge ahead)

But where next to go was a complete confusion and I ended up down on a lower section of Morningside! There was no signage and no trail tread to follow over the fields.@$#@#@

lower section of Morningside

But after riding back up and trying another choice I didn't end up on Ice Road (my intention) but a well-traversed section of Morningside. It was stunningly beautiful so I thought: what the heck  - just enjoy the detour!  :-)

I rode up on Morningside and Roundabout (not really sure where I was half the time!) but Idid finally end up at my intended destination: the Ice Pond.

The ride back down on Ice Road was freakin' awesome - single track with many sections of serious flow. It's a great place to ride and next year I plan on spending more time here.

Whetstone

Of course any visit to Brattleboro is not complete without a burger and beer at Whetstone  - it’s an old converted mill right on the river next to the railroad tracks - very cool!!

Trapp

I arrived at the Trapp Family Lodge later than intended but I did get a short ride in on the easy lower trails. The evening sunlight on the beech trees was beautiful!!

The Serengeti Gets A Trim!

It was brutally humid and hot so I decided to do a bit a trail maintenance rather than ride. Needless to say cutting the overgrowth in the sun in mid afternoon was still exhausting...

The "Burma Road"

 Before (July)...

Today (after trimming

The Blue/White Trail Across the Field:

Before (July)

 Today (before trimming)

Trimming started...

Trimmed Section (whew!)

At the Intersection where Blue and White Diverge

Kevin Malone went in on Saturday and trimmed this section (thank you Kevin!!)

Before (July)

After

Observations Elsewhere

Before (April)

Today - Much drier finally!!!

Here's one way to cross from the Rail Trail (Hah!)

GPS-ing the Ledges Trail

On Saturday I drove up to Pine Mountain in Ridgebury/Danbury and GPSed the final Ledges Trail. Back on April 28, 2018 we scouted it out with Dave Cronin (from the RC) but the final trail varies a bit from the original GPS. Its really a marvelous trail with surprisingly lots of up and downs and there are a couple of spectacular overlooks. It has been blazed blue.

Orange Trail Climb

We (FCNEMBA) built the ascent up Pine Mountain on the Orange trail a couple of years back. It is still a 300ft haul and on a hot and steamy day it was brutal as there wasn't any wind at all! But its a magical trek nonetheless over meticulously-built rock trestles, switchbacks and slick rock. The Park is also filled with glacial erratics and the vibe at the overlook is always amazing.

At the Overlook

 The Ledges Trail

The nice thing about Pine Mountain is the thought and care put into by the Ridgefield Conservation Committee (RCC), There's signs labeling worthwhile features and the Ledge Trail ranks high on that list!

Where it branches off the Yellow Trail

Ahead is the first overlook

-At the Flying Squirrel Overlook-

Thats kinda tight for a bike!

-At the Laurel Overlook-

- Continuing On... Scenic!-

At the Kiosk

The Ledges Trail ends here. I took a break and caught my breath sitting on the wonderful flat rock. Up here there was a breeze and it felt MARVELOUS!

On the Way Back

Ooo  yeah - this will be fun to ride!

Almost stepped on him!