Where are we Boo?

Sunday afternoon Beyla and I headed out into the woods. Since we had nowhere in particular to be and nothing in particular to do, we set off to check out some new trails we hadn't been on yet. At the end of the trail we know we headed right to see where it takes us and after a few mninutes we found oursaelves emerging on a right-of-way between the houses of a neighborhood. Interesting. This is the second such trailhead out of these woods. It's actually kinda cool the way Groton has kept the rights-of-way to the conservation areas in spite of newer real estate development, but it makes me happy ot see it.

Well, that wasn't quite as long a walk as I'd hoped so we then took another trail branching off from this entrance and started to follow it into the woods. This was more my style. Not that there's anything wrong with fire road trails, but I prefer the closer quarters of a nice single track through the woods. This was such a trail. Clearly foot traffic only.

The trail meandered through the woods presumably joining the main trail later at another branch I have yet to investigate. Off we go tromping through the woods, just the 2 of us, Beyla busily checking her P-mail (as Kari calls it). After a while we passed what looked to me to be a nice vernal pool. Though not terribly uncommon, they arent' something you come across every day either. I'll have to check the web for more info on wether or not this was in fact one or not. Anyway, it was a cool depression in an open area of the woods with a bit of water still standing in the lowest part. It couldn't have been more than a foot deep. The rest was quickly being overrun by grass.

Further down the trail we crested the top of a small hill that was a large, flat rock outcrop. Cool. This is certainly a rarity around this area. The whole areas trees were different too. Almost entirely young hardwood, only a few pine saplings interupted them. It makes me wonder what happened here to leave only young trees behind. Fire? I didn't see any signs, but then these trees were still a good 15-20 years old. Looging perhaps? Hmmm... noipe, no stumps. This too requires further investigation. Beyla of course was busy in her own dog world with her usual perspective unknown to me. I really wish I could see what's going on in her head. I wonder how she perceives the things I see around us.

Next stop, another interesting rock outcrop. This time a large fractured rock. We did a bit of rock climbing t0 further examine the cracks and such. It turns out Beyla is part mountain goat as she deftly climbed up ahead of me as sure-footed as if she were on the flat trail. Must be nice to have full-time four-wheel drive, huh? :)

Eventually we came to yet another neighborhood trailhead. The nearest mailbox read "Painted Post Road". Hmmm... that doesn't sound familiar at all. "Where are we Boo?" She just continues sniffing. Perhaps she's getting directions. Now we're a good hour from home and I'm not quite sure where we came out. Not lost mind you. After all we DO know how to get home, but it's a long way around. so, I give Kari a call and ask, "Where's Painted Post Road?" After she finished laughing at us, she looked it up. Interestingly, we're not a half mile from the house... that is, if we bushwhacked straight through the woods where to the best of our knowledge there's no trail. By road, we're almost 4 miles from home. Great, an hour or more either way.

We decided to take the hit and ask for a ride home. Kari laughed at us again before responding with, "OK, loser. I'll come get you." She might have even said, "I'll come get your sorry butt." but I'm not sure now. LOL!

We walked to the end of the road to wait and as we approached I saw a familiar house and realized justhow far off track we'd gotten. HA HA HA! Oh well.

Next time out we're going to investigate the trails at the end of Lone Lane though. Looking at Google Maps, I suspect there might actually be a trail that connects to Paint Post Rd, thus giving us a much better route home next time.

That was our Sunday. Always an adventure with us. :D