Norwich Next

The group didn't walk today but I walked with a friend in Norwich, Vermont.  There is a great hike near the swimming hole called the Ballard trail.  It is steep in places so you need hiking poles but it is a great and scenic hike in the woods,  ravines, waterfalls and a well marked trail.  About 2 hours round trip to a service road.  Probably should classify this is a moderate hike, not long but steps and a rope in one area.

Hope the group can do this hike in a few weeks.

Paradise Park

There were 13 of us and 4 dogs to walk in Paradise Park in Windsor, VT.  We went by Lake Runnamede and walked around the second pond,  into the town of Windsor and back and then around the Lake and spent time at the gazebo before going back to our cars.  This was an easy walk of about an hour until we stopped to chat in the gazebo.  The park is noted for bird watching and is a great place to snowshoe in the winter.  There are lots of trails we didn't explore up to the hospital and over to the Juniper Hill Inn so we will return at a future date.

The park is part of the estate of the William Maxwell Evarts who was a former attorney general of the US in the late 1800s.  Windsor is the site of the signing of the Vermont Constitution and the first capital of Vermont so the lake is named for the location where the famous Magna Carta was signed in 1215.  Writing this blog, I learn a lot of local history.

We have two walkers leaving for Nepal this week and one going to Australia and Thailand the week after so quite the world travelers. One walker just returned from Southern Spain.  I seem to be one of the mundane US traveler!

Here we are walking down the beginning of the path. Several with orange hats since hunting season for birds has started.

Waiting at the start point for the whole crew to arrive!

Thanks to Barb for taking the photos.  Several of us went to Boston Dreams for coffee after to start routing for the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.  Their  general manager Ben Cherington is a  local home town hero for those of us who live in Meriden.  Go Bosox!!

Cornish Forest Fiasco

Well I said my next post would be about the hike in Windsor tomorrow but today five of us hiked in the forest, it was the second time for me and others had been more. However this time we got lost so a 1 1/2 hour hike turned into a 2 1/2 hour hike.  Once the leaves are down it is hard to track the trail and we got off the trail going up briefly but the mistake we made was taking the wrong trail down from the summit. We realized it was different, then it dawned on us that we were going in the wrong direction so we turned around and then followed a maintenance road for awhile and realized this wasn't right either.  So back up to the summit we went to go down the right way.  So two summit trips in one hike!  Going down was fine except it is a bit tricky towards the end, luckily all of us had hiking poles.

Tomorrows walk will be better!  Lessons learned!  Bring water and some food, a compass, a cell phone, and maybe extra socks or a blanket.  It was drizzling on the way down and if we got soaked that would have made it much worse. Oh yes, there were maps at the start and they would have made a hike less adventurous.

September/Mid-October Summary

I was away all of September to go on a cross country trip to Glacier and Yellowstone and see states I'd never been in before mainly North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington.  If you haven't been to Montana, go, it is beautiful once you arrive in the mountains.

The group hiked MT Ascutney in VT and MT Cube in Orford, NH  and went on some other hikes where
I had never been including the "Top of the World" hike in Cornish, NH.

We went to the "Boston Lot" in mid-October which is in Lebanon and we hiked up to the reservoir and then around it.  I think there were 13 of us and a few dogs.  The trees were near peak and with the blue skies quite stunning.

I am only adding new walks as we do them from now on.  If we repeat a walk, it won't be added but this week we are going to Paradise Park in Windsor so I'll add the details and photos on Wed or Thurs of this week.

So we are back in business!!

Boston Lot photo - October is so nice