There area directly behind the house is wetlands which flow into a small brook. I had to walk parallel to the road for a little bit before I could find a good place to cross the brook. After that there are a bunch of ridges that slowly climb upwards. When we were kids staying with my Grandparents, my Grandpa would take us up there somewhere, to show us historic spots, or on treasure hunts. But that was a long time ago and I have no idea what is actually up there.
I slowly made my way up, at first following the path of least resistance, then following a small stream up. There was several small streams, and plenty of water, and I imagined that must be a spring somewhere, the source of all the water. If the trail (the AT) was near here there would be no lack of water. I soon abandoned my quest for the spring and instead just started trying to find the high ground. Technically I was bushwhacking, although my only real problem was thorn bushes, which would block my way several times. I hiked past several stone walls, of which there are miles of around here. I love stone walls. They mean history and usually old boundary markers. But the amount of walls around here was crazy. Usually you just see one long line. I saw stone walls intersecting and one spot where I was surrounded by stone walls. They were decent walls too, some four feet tall, and well built. The other feature I saw throughout my hike were what I would call "woods roads". In spots you could clearly see where the tire ruts were but you would follow it for a while and then it would just disappear, completely overgrown. I loved finding spots like this on the AT. What was interesting to me was that the roads would pass through the stone walls, meaning there was a gap in the wall. Now was the wall built that way originally or did people move the stones for the road?
Now I didn't expect to find any sweet views when I finally reached the high ground, but I did come across a stone quarry. Not the view I was expecting but oh well. I found a stump to sit down and after an hour of hiking and maybe 300 feet of elevation, I ate my lunch. And read Game of Thrones. A nice peaceful lunch on a hill in the middle of the CT woods. Well it did get a little breezy but it was all good. I was unsure exactly where I was in relation to roads and such so I decided to use GPS to check it out. I was on the highest hill in my immediate region, but there was a slightly higher hill nearby. Next time I will head for that hill! But for now I would focus on getting back.
I didn't want to go the same route back; what I really wanted to do was follow the woods road back to where it came out to a small pond across from my Great-Grandma's old house. I think that was were the road originally started. After painfully traversing a wall of thorn bushes, I found the road. I quickly followed it downhill but it soon disappeared into more thorn bushes. I hopped up onto a stone wall and circled around the bushes, but could not pick the road up until I traveled downhill more. Then I saw a cool site: three connected stone walls, recessed into the side of the hill. It was an old cellar, basement, or foundation. There were some trees growing in the middle of it, so I'm sure it is fairly old. Very cool though.
I finally made it down to the small pond, which feeds the stream and wetlands behind my Grandma's house. The woods road starts there and connects to the roads. Some day I may try to follow the road from there, but hopefully my time here is growing short.
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