May 9, 2010

My stories on bicycle trips in the Connecticut River valley from the Canadian border to the sea are the cover of today’s Living section in The Hartford Courant, with photos by Mark Mirko and Rich Messina. They can be seen on-line at: http://www.courant.com/features/travel/

The Columbia Bridge spans the Connecticut River between Columbia, N. H. and Lemington, Vt.

The 410-mile-long Connecticut River is New England’s longest river, beginning in spruce forest in northern New Hampshire, where the river is narrow and intimate. It is still bordered by scenic farms in Vermont and New Hampshire and parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut. By the time it reaches the sea at Old Saybrook and Old Lyme it is a mile-wide and heavily tidal. Along the river are covered bridges, lighthouses, historic homes and farms. In fact, it is a river so rich in history, so varied in its landscapes that it captures the essence of New England in one ribbon of water.

The Connecticut is one of only 14 federally designated American Heritage Rivers. The marshes at its mouth are designated as internationally significant under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty intended to protect especially valuable wetlands. The Connecticut has a long cultural history and rich flora, fauna and scenery that has appealed to artists for centuries.

May 7, 2010

At Salisbury, Ct.

The hike to Lions Head on the section of the Appalachian Trail that passes through Salisbury is high on my list of the best half-day hikes in Connecticut. If you like to hike and haven’t done this one, well, it is a must-do. From the little dirt parking area off Route 41 to the Lions Head lookout is 2.3 miles, 4.6 miles round trip. For many people, I’ve found, myself included, a hike of 4 to 5 miles is just right most days – not too long and tiring, but just long enough to make it worth while and get some real exercise. Lions Head is a moderately steep climb that reasonably fit adults and most children can do in a few hours. Hiking the trail today we came upon a conga-line of middle-school students with their teacher. They seemed happy. Of course, who wouldn’t be happy to be hiking the Appalachian Trail on a 70-degree sunny day in May?

Hikers Frances and Jay Knobel atop Lions Head lookout on the Appalachian Trail, Salisbury, Ct. Lions Head has outstanding views to the north, east and south.

This hike packs a lot in a comparatively short distance; a forest with a rich mix of species and some wonderful old trees; a couple of brooks to treat the eye; woodland wildflowers and birds, a terrific view from the top. Watch for some nice American beeches, old hemlocks, a big white birch and several massive oaks. Wild geranium and starflower bloomed along the edges of the trail today, and deep-pink sheep laurel blossoms brushed our shoulders in places. Our bird of the day was the veery, that cousin of the American robin, with its pleasing combination of cinnamon back and gray-white belly. I thought I heard a raven croak several times, but never got a look. Can’t count that one.

A big part of the appeal of this trail of course is the view from Lions Head lookout, elevation 1,738-feet. The view northeast to southeast is miles of rolling Litchfield Hills, Prospect Mountain and Canaan Mountain among them. You’ll see farms, country estates, and several of the state’s nicest lakes – Wononscopomuc and the Twin Lakes. You could spend an hour with binoculars identifying this or that in the distance. Yes, that’s the private Salisbury School on the hilltop off in the distance to the east.

As for the name Lions Head, I read somewhere that the exposed rock outlook in fact is supposed to resemble a lion’s head. I’ve not been able to discern the resemblance myself, but maybe I haven’t found the right vantage point. Guess that is another reason to keep hiking.

May 5, 2010

At the big pond down the street, the kingfishers have been back for at least a month. The herons and swallows are back, too. The spotted sandpipers arrived within the last week, best I can tell. Alarmed, they fly out in front of me just over the water as I approach in a kayak and circle back behind me to that narrow ribbon of terrestrial habitat – water’s edge – where they spend so much of their time. We play out this little drama over and over until fall, when they leave.

Trees are leafing out about a week early in Connecticut

In my vegetable garden by the river, the lettuce, the chard and the parsley are doing fine. Might be enough chard to pick for a dinner later this week. A row of carrots is planted, but not yet poking through. The real work remains, planting squash, bean, pepper and tomato varieties, more herbs, eggplant and a row or two of cutting flowers.

It is a mild spring so far, and the leaves are, by my assessment, a week ahead of schedule in inland Connecticut. Many trees are filled out with the buttery greens and velvet textures of young, unblemished leaves.

May is one of the great months in Connecticut with those infant leaves and the arriving songbirds, some of the birds just passing through on their way north, some settling in for the season. It is not only a new landscape; it is a new environment. Suddenly, I awake each morning to the song of a Carolina wren in the side yard. Bird songs increase by the day.

Nancy Register Splane, left, and Jay and Frances Knobel hiking along the Shepaug River, Washington, Ct

From my study this afternoon I heard a pair of pileated woodpeckers uttering their loud, distinctive, almost diabolical call. They are year-round residents, but from their squawking and aerial acrobatics the message they sent was one of May, merriment and mating. I ran out with my camera but, wanting their privacy, off they went.

I always thought during my daily newspaper journalism days that it would be wonderful some time to take the entire month of May off and just be outdoors every day. In Connecticut, May introduces summer. Now that I am a freelance writer – semi-retired, some claim – I do have more time to venture afield, often combining work and play.

I hiked for two hours along the Shepaug River one day last week with an old college friend, Jay Knobel, his wife, Frances, and her college friend, Nancy Register Splane. We hiked a little more than four miles through the Steep Rock Reservation, nodding to the common mergansers and the mallards, listening for the early arriving warblers, stopping to stare at the river, one of the prettiest anywhere.

I’ve been traveling the state, in fact, immersing myself in the month of May and working on my next column for The Hartford Courant, May 15, in which I will talk about some very special picnic sites – isolated, cozy picnic tables you can have to yourself, with terrific scenery. There are a couple of nice ones in the Steep Rock Reservation.