TA Report: Rockland Preserve

Date of activity: August 30, 2010

Condition of trail(s): Dry with lots of leaves down
Trail Ambassador Name: Don Hazuka
Encounters and Observations: I had the day off so I decided to try a new venue relatively close to my house and Rockland Preserve fit the bill; I found it on the list on the CT NEMBA site and chose it because it had only one lone entry- Glenn Vernes in July 2009; Glenn had a great descriptive write up that peaked my interest so I did a search on the web and boned up on the history of the parcel- the land had been used to make charcoal many moons ago by the early settlers; downloaded a pretty good map which had many points of interest and locations on it; I started from the parking lot off Renee’s Way and headed north around Coan Pond which has almost been turned into a bog (see photo)

 by a beaver dam; the trails are incredibly varied turning from a compacted processed stone footpath to lightly technical single track to washed out access roads to rabbit paths back to single track then to access roads (etc., etc.) with many lung searing climbs thrown in along the way; I took my time and stopped to check out many of the points of interest on the map, and really looked around instead of just riding with my head down; to see some of them, you need to get off your bike and take short hikes into the woods, but it’s worth it (see photo of a collier fireplace)

 headed over to other parking lot further up route 79 to see where it was, then back into the woods for more abuse; on the way back I ran into a woman and her husband with four dogs looking for her lost eyeglasses that had fallen out of her pocket; continued back to Coan Pond and arrived at my car feeling pretty spent; this place is great for anyone who thinks they have their climbs down and don’t need to work on them; it was a very different ride today and I enjoyed it.

Email: donald.hazuka(at)covidien(dot)com

Town: Madison

Location: Rockland Preserve

Trail(s) ridden: Red/white/yellow/green/orange

How did you use the trail?: Mountain bike

What was the time of day?: Mid afternoon

Duration (hours): 1.5

Distance (miles): 7+