McCann Family Farm Trails

You McCann Do It!
Northern Connecticut Land Trust: McCann Farm Nature Preserve, Somers
August 2023

The McCann Farm Trails are contiguous with Whitaker Woods Trails… which are contiguous with the Forest View Trails… which are contiguous with Shenipsit State Forest and Soapstone Mountain Trails… so I’ve separated each property/trail system here, even though they can certainly be hiked together.

The trails at McCann Family Farm are nice trails. In only two or three miles, depending on your route choice, you’ll see a hay field, stone walls, a rocky stream, some hills, and typical New England forest with hemlock, white, red and pitch pines. It’s fine. Pretty, even.

Something you hike once and appreciate the volunteer effort put into it and move along with your life.

Unless you’re John Shierer.

An English and communications professor at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Shierer hiked the shorter Shady Brook Trail here 365 times in 365 days in 2005/06 and wrote a book about it. “Loop Year: A Memoir of 365 Days on the Trail,” is that book.

As much as I enjoy hiking and writing, I cannot recommend that you repeat Shierer’s effort. There are just too many other places to hike! Even here! Shierer never ventured onto the longer yellow-blazed loop! He was insanely committed, regimented, and disciplined in his efforts.

I am neither committed, regimented, or disciplined these days. So I am fine with having hiked it only once.

There is a lot of good hiking in Somers and it seems that, over time, various organizations are connecting the parcels. When Shierer did his “Loop Year,” McCann’s was a hiking island of sorts. Just after he finished, the Northern Connecticut Land Trust added Whitaker Woods on McCann’s eastern border. Then the town of Somers linked the properties to the Shenipsit State Forest and Soapstone Mountain via the Forest View Trail.

As I’ve said, McCann Family Farm has two different loop trails: the 2-mile blue-blazed Shady Brook Trail and a 3-mile yellow-blazed Jerry Stage trail. The preserve is located on the northwestern slopes of Soapstone Mountain. (A neat part about reading “Loop Year” is that Shierer often wrote about a man named Jerry Stage and his love of birds, plants, trail work, and people. He seemed like a great guy and it’s cool that the NCLT memorialized him with the trail name at a property he dearly loved.)

From the parking lot, the trail descends to a long boardwalk section next to a hay field. After crossing the pristine (looking) and walled Gulf Stream, I made the choice to hike counterclockwise.

The preserve was donated to the Northern Connecticut Land Trust in 1997 by the McCann family. Mary McCann loved her land and wanted it to remain in a natural state. With the state owning the development rights, the land will remain in its natural state forever. (The hay field used to provide the land trust some income and while it is still actively hayed, I’m unsure if that is still the case.)

Reading Shierer’s account of this trail, he admits that it is not a challenging hike, but certainly the small ups and downs took a toll on his surgically repaired knees day after day. I’m writing my account five months after hiking here and I cannot recall any difficulties on “his” Shady Brook Trail. Just that it was a nice trail.

The yellow-blazed Jerry Stage Trail, though, does contain a few ups and downs. Moreover, there are tons of twists and turns near the property boundary which did get a little frustrating. Yes, laurel. Yes, big rock. Yes, another big rock. They really cram in as much length to the trail as possible. I mean, just look at the map:

Major points for creativity… not so much for efficiency. The problem with trails like this is, if they’re popular, people make shortcuts. I will say that if you don’t know upcoming twists and turns here, you won’t know to shortcut them. So that works in McCann’s favor. Also, these types of trails are fun for little kids – and kids at heart too I guess.

After the spaghetti trail atop the hill, it’s a straight shot more or less back down to the hayfields. But that’s only if you stick to the McCann parcel only which, to be honest, is a bit of a waste if you’ve driven all the way to Somers to hike. (Unless, of course, you’ve brought little ones to enjoy the twists and turns along the Jerry Stage Trail and three miles is their limit.)

Really? They blazed this tree?

Shout out to John Shierer for hiking the short loop here 365 days in a row. Shout out to the NCLT for maintaining the trails here so well and for expanding east to Whitaker Woods. Shout out to Jerry Stage (RIP) for his tireless efforts in the Somers woods. Shout out to Somers for connecting these properties with Soapstone Mountain. And shout out to me for having only one hike left to do in Somers to “complete” the town. Oh, and shout out to you for reading about my sometimes tedious adventures! (Not as tedious as hiking the same loop trail every day for a year, but still.)