Border Woods

Bordering on Madness
New Roxbury Land Trust’s Border Woods, Woodstock
November 2024

None of the New Roxbury Land Trust properties are officially trailed.

The last time I experienced a New Roxbury Land Trust property, I wrote:

Look, I hear you. When did I start writing about untrailed and admittedly unexciting properties? The answer is… today. And I don’t really have a good reason as to why other than the New Roxbury Land Trust exists and protects land in Union and Woodstock and have a nice little website and… and I figured I’d throw them a bone for their efforts.

I guess I was wooed by that first property, Manchester Field & Woods, as it was very walkable and quite nice, despite having no trails. So as I was driving up Route 198 in West Woodstock on my way to something else, the large trailhead sign cast its spell on me.

The New Roxbury Land Trust erects very nice, very large trailhead signs for their properties which have no trails. Their website is excellent and their mission is admirable. Their website encourages us to walk four of their properties, including Border Woods. I pulled a uey and took a look at the materials on the sign.

A big ol’ map of the joint. That’s helpful. A statement of the Trust’s credo and mission and stuff. A little note from the 2008 dedication of Border Woods.

And just behind the sign, a clear path into the woods. I figured I was getting a bonus hike today.

Border Woods abuts a housing subdivision called Greystone Farms and is located on the east side of Eastford Road (CT Route 198), just north of the intersection with Old Turnpike Road (CT 197) in Woodstock. Border Woods is open to the public for walking and hiking; a perfect environment for the bird watchers.

The land is mostly wooded, with a mix of hardwood trees, predominantly oak and hemlock, and an understory of yellow birch and mountain laurel. It’s a very hilly site, with stony unconsolidated soils and exposed bedrock. Wetlands account for approximately 7.0 acres of the property. Significant amounts of erosion and damage to the wetlands and soils are apparent, primarily due to prior unauthorized vehicle use.

A south-running perennial stream bisects the eastern portion of the property. There are no developed trails by The New Roxbury Land Trust (the Trust) on this site.

Which is all nice to know because 100 yards up the trail it ended abruptly at several trees with very clear Private Property signage. So I went south, the only direction not walled off, and hit a thick patch of scrub and laurel. I peered into the woods.

And I then realized that I’d seen enough. Shout out to the Trust for preserving these woods. And they remain preserved from my footsteps.