National Trails Day

The weather in CT was beautiful today: started cool (50s) and got sunny with blue sky (near 80).

We started early today with an 8 a.m. roller hockey game. This is the start of a new session (Summer). Richard's team, the Rangers, got a good start by winning 10-0.

I had seen some adverts about today (Saturday June 4, 2011) being some sort of trails day (i.e., hiking). I later learned that today was National Trails Day 2011 (see logo above) and Connecticut Trails Day Celebration 2011. 

Heublein Tower

Lynn was game and had several ideas on where we could hike. She likes to walk around some of the trails around the local reservoir. We agreed (although Richard was somewhat reluctant) to hike to Heublin Tower from a different direction than we have done previously. From the map, it looked like about 1.5 miles each way.

View from tower looking toward Hartford.

We started at the parking lot of Water Treatment Facility at MDC Reservoir #6 in Bloomfield, CT. We hiked up the hill on one of CT's blue trails, the Metacomet Trail to the top of the ridge and the Heublein Tower which is part of Talcott Mountain State Park.

Richard and I climbed the 120 steps to the observation deck and got great views (see picture above). As you can see from the postcard (at the left), the Tower is located on the edge of a long ridge; look carefully, and you will notice the city of Hartford in the background.  As part of Trails Day, the Friends of Heublein Tower were there selling hot dogs and hamburgers and snacks. So Richard and I had a burger to fuel us for the descent back to the car. Lynn wanted to show us the Talcott Mountain Science Center, a private school a "short" walk down the traill; it is located at a former Nike missile/radar site what seemed like miles from the route. But what the heck, it was a nice day.

Who knows how far we actually hiked today but it was probably at least 5 miles. And boy were we hot & tired, stiff, and sore by the time we returned to my car.  Richard enjoyed it too; see how happy he looks in the picture (clicke by Lynn) at the right? What kept him going was thought that at the completion of the hike was Dad's car that has "max A/C" (versus Mom's car with "green A/C" [i.e., windows]).

Of course, all the walkin' caused Richard to work up an appetite, so Richard and I returned to Angelina's Pizzaria for a salad and slice of pepperoni pizza. They had the Red Sox game on while we ate (see picture below). We dropped Lynn at her apartment so she could catch a nap since see had been up since 5 a.m.

Inside of Angelina's Pizzaria.

What a good day. Thank you God.