Goochy
Bethany Land Trust’s Ida Carrington Lowell Land, Bethany
May 2024
There’s just something about trails that start across people’s lawns. On the one hand, a huge thank you is owed to the folks who allow this. On the other, it’s often a very awkward thing to walk so closely to someone’s house and yard.
Here, at the end of a cul-de-sac in Bethany, not only does this trail walk alongside someone’s driveway and back yard, it takes in a nice view of the family pool. So… yeah, if you’re here on a sunny July Sunday, you might get a view of a sunbathing family.
And if you’re like me, you will put some pep in your step and avert your eyes while trying to get into the cover of the woods as quickly as possible. But here’s the catch: you have to pass by the same scene again after your one mile loop hike.
And it’s a nice hike. The Ida Carrington Lowell Land was the first piece of property given to the Bethany Land Trust. In fact, the Trust was created in 1968 for the express purpose of receiving this parcel.
A parcel that was owned by the Carrington family for quite some time. Abram Carrington had purchased the land in 1867 as a cow pasture from Jay Andrew, and the so-called “Jay” land was given to Abram’s granddaughter Marion and her husband, Tom Jenkins, in 1943 as a weekend and summer retreat. The couple, who both held doctorates in psychology, eventually built a cabin, barn and root cellar on the property, where they spent weekends writing and wandering through the woods.
Note to self: spend more weekends writing and wandering through the woods.
The property features a more-or-less rectangular trail with two cut-off trails inside of it. The cut-offs contain nothing of interest and were not was well maintained as the main yellow-blazed loop. Go for the whole thing; it’s not taxing and it provides a better overall experience.
I walked it counter-clockwise, walking straight through the Carrington’s old cabin foundation. There isn’t much left of it – just some concrete slabs. A helpful sign is needed to alert you to the fact that you were traipsing across what was once a cabin floor.
There are other helpful signs here, like the one pointing out a little chunk of milky quartz. Hey, did you know quartz is a mineral and not a rock and that you shouldn’t call minerals “rocks”? I didn’t.
It appears the entire property is bound by stone walls, which should give comfort to those of you fearful of losing your way. A massive owl took flight above my head at one point which I found kind of funny because its takeoff was so loud and disruptive, but owls are known to be silent fliers.
There’s a nice sign about our New England stone walls and how here, the larger stone wall probably meant there was farming done here – for which they had to remove a ton of rocks, and a smaller wall likely meant pasturing livestock. That is, the soil could remain rocky, but some sort of barrier was built to keep cows from roaming the endless Bethany woods.
Ferns! A field of ferns!
The ferns were nice, but as I continued onward, they gave way to grasses! A lovely woodland patch of (probably tick-choked) grasses!
While you can’t see a well-defined trail above, don’t worry. In reality, it’s easily followed. Perhaps this is where Abram Carrington planted an orchard – to to right of the stone wall, there appeared to be some ancient apple trees still there.
Once around the far end of the place, the trail took me across two seasonal streams which were flowing pretty heavily after a wet spring. From the stream crossings, the walk remaining is slightly uphill but not terribly so. I quickly did an up-and-back walk on the aforementioned cut-off trails and decided they were not important to anyone.
Also unimportant is that each section of trail here has its own name. Names like Center Trail, Upper Trail, Lower Trail. You’d never know it. You’d also never know that one is named Gooch Trail. I don’t know why.
According to the Wiktionary, “gooch” means “to blunder or bungle.” According to the Urban Dictionary, it is a term for the perineum – you either know what that is or you don’t. I recall Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane saying “goochgoochgooch” often. I can tell you that early in anyone’s northbound Appalachian Trail thru-hike you walk through Gooch Gap and may stay at Gooch Gap Shelter. I walked right on by it on my hike, as it was super crowded. (I wasn’t a shelter-stayer until New York.)
Provide your own Goochiness to this short trail in Bethany.
Bethany Land Trust
CTMQ Hikes Bethany Land Trust’s Trails
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