
Subject:
[cohp] Digest Number 5189
From:
cohp@yahoogroups.com
Date:
11/7/2015 2:33 AM
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County High Pointing in all 50 states
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Digest #5189
1
NE CT Trip Report by baxbarnowl@att.net

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NE CT Trip Report
Fri Nov 6, 2015 4:03 pm (PST) . Posted by:
baxbarnowl@att.net
I was back in the NYC area with wife to watch our NYC residing daughter run in the NYC Marathon on Sunday Nov 1. Great day that was, and the whole 8 days was filled with seeing old friends, as I lived there (Princeton NJ, NYC, Westchester County) for 26 years.


Of course, I had to reserve one day for highpointing, which I did with a car rental on Nov 3rd. I thought the daughter would be too fatigued from her 26.2 mile run but she insisted, as did Mom, so early Tues Nov 3rd I went to LaGuardia airport, rented a car and off we went. My primary goal was to turn CT green by summiting the 3 NW CT county HP's (which I did). Secondary goal was to finish RI (I have only the state HP). I probably could have done this if solo, as I am as fanatical as many of you. Frankly, though, I rather enjoyed just finishing CT. A great experience with wife and one daughter, which I did not have when I previously finished my only other green state, California. Slow to start, slow to walk, long restaurant stops, but with the family so very worth it!


HARTFORD COUNTY CT 11/3/15
All previous reports are very good. We were the only car (a Tuesday) in the parking area. The first backroad junction reminded me so much of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" that I stopped there to download it onto my iPad and read it:
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."


And yellow it was! Most leaf fall was long gone, in October, but here the woods were breath-takeningly yellow. For a drought-stricken Californian it was gloriously beautiful.
We turned left up the hill, went to the smaller Jeep-road type road, worried about ticks and poison ivy (saw neither), followed Mike Schwartz' advice to stick to the road to the highest ground.
Here my advice alters. Go down the slight downslope about 50 yards or so. Then your bushwacking will be minimal. I used my iPad's Topo map to go right to the cairn at the presumed HP. Looking around I saw nothing higher.
No benchmark. No register. No view at all. Yet still a pleasant walk in the woods - 95% on forest roads, then a very easy brief bushwack. Very, very, enjoyable!


TOLLAND COUNTY CT COHP


En route I called the Bradway family, and talked to the son of Wesley Bradway, who passed away in 2009. He was quite pleasant, and gave me permission to summit Burley Hill same day. Per the summitPost page I called 845-855-5929. He asked me to stop by his daughter's residence on Burley Hill Road if I went that way, but I did not as I went via the route described by Mick Dunn, on New City Road 0.3 miles north of Burley Hill Road. The route was exactly as described by Mick Dunn.
We attempted to use the old track described by Dave Covill. We found the jeep road at the high on the trees snowmobile route, and followed it perhaps 200 yds, down slope but ever leading away from the COHP. We reached a junction where it continued away from the COHP, with no discernable route to the right to the COHP, so we gave up and returned to the upper field, where 50 ft or so from the corner was a jeep road with snow mobile signage, which we followed to about its end, which is vague. From there we dropped down about 10-15 ft in elevation, then headed to the HP area as per my iPad's excellent GPS settings with the Topo app. It was early November. We had no problem with brush, nor poison ivy. nor at end of day did we find any ticks.


The HP was likely the small cairn, with no register nor view, nor any visible prominence. It was, however, only 3 to 5 minutes of bushwacking from the last road. Not a big deal. In early November the previously described difficult bushwacking was quite easy.


WINDHAM COUNTY CT HP


I must say, as a native Californian who moved east for college, and stayed 26 years, then moved back to California, that I still find the east coast COHP'ing to often be somewhat trivial. Agreed, the woods are often dense. The deer ticks formidable (yes, I got Lyme disease 3x while volunteering years ago building trails in N Westchester County NY). Yet it and Calif. Co.Hp'ing has led me to appreciate prominence over highest elevation.


I completed CT and turned the state "green" on 11/3/15, yet I felt nothing of the accomplishment that I did with California on North Palisade with Dennis Poulin.


In fact, this COHP was dreary, depressing, ugly, trivial, dirty, and I recommend it to no one to complete the CT COHP's.


It was an easy drive from the Burley Hill COHP, perhaps 30 minutes or so. We drove to where the radio towers are visible and parked. I made the mistake of following the advice of a previous poster who recommended going to the longer south (right) route around the tower fencing. This way has since overgrown, and had considerable more brush, vines, thorns, and poison ivy than the shorter route to the left (north).
The high point is ugly. It is probably the rock described by Adam Helman, five feet or so outside the tower fence. The area is filled with brush, and trash, and garbage, and filth, and has absolutely no view whatsoever. I was very sad to have turned the CT state "green" at this horrible place. Yet I was with wife, and daughter, and hence it was still a remarkable event. I have only two state completions, California and Connecticut. So I guess I should count my blessings!


ADDENDUM


HANGING HILLS, CT


One of two contenders for the most prominent point of CT.


And how I have learned to appreciate prominence, rather than highpoints, as a mark of excellence!


On this day I completed the COHP's of Connecticut, on an ugly trivial place called "Snow Hill", the HP of Windham County CT! How I wish it were here! This place with GRAND views SHOULD be the state HP, not just some side-of-slope bullsh*t point like Frisell slope!


We were there Nov 3, three days after the seasonal closing of the drive to the West Peak Towers. Oh well! So using the Hubbard Park Trails website we started rather late in the day at Mirror Lake. We walked on the trail along Crow Hollow, then across the Interstate, then up the blue trail to the pavement road, and left on pavement to the radio towers area and on to the HP just south.
Earlier I completed the county high points of Connecticut on an ugly trivial place. How I wished it were here! Great views. Prominence. Trails with effort.


Climb on!


Dan Baxter
Fresno Ca






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