HLCT: The Brethren

The Brethren
Hamden Land Conservation Trust
May 5, 2013

If you’ve read through these Hamden Land Conservation Trust pages – wow, really? Good for you. That makes me happy. But what I was really going to say was that you have noticed by now that their properties are often quite tiny. One is nothing more than a short trail to a waterfall. Another is .11 acre of woods behind a house. You get the point.

This one is tiny too, and it contains nothing but one giant split glacial rock. So big that, as you can see, it’s impossible to get a good picture of it. Especially for a clown photographer like me.

Known as “The Brethren,” this imposing rock formation is known as a glacial erratic. It is situated on a small parcel, approximately 1/4 acre in size. The Brethren is composed of basalt and sits on New Haven Arkose. This large boulder was carried some distance during the Ice Age, and at some point split into more than one rock.

That description is from the HLCT but its wholly unnecessary, as anyone who “climbs” the 10 feet up to it can tell that it is one giant split rock.

It’s the kind of split rock that the CFPA loves to blaze its blue trails through. I’m 100% positive that the Quinnipiac Trail, which circles just south of here, really really wanted to re-route up Shepard Avenue to walk through this rock. It would only be a one mile (or so) detour north and frankly I’m a bit surprised it didn’t do it with all the recent re-routes around the new Quinnipiac University construction.

I can’t really find much online about this rock, but it’s cool. It even warrants two “entrances” and two HLCT signs AND a mulched walkway and stairs built into the hill. All this for a property you can walk in its entirety in one minute. Literally. One minute.

Hamden Land Conservation Trust
CTMQ Hikes the HLCT properties