Whitaker Woods

I Do Care a Whit
Northern Connecticut Land Trust: McCann Farm Nature Preserve, Somers
August 2023 & May 2024

The Whitaker Woods Trails are contiguous with McCann Family Farm Trails… and are also 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.

Oh I’m sure something will pop up in Somers in the future for me to visit or hike or otherwise experience. But for now, for today, I can say that Whitaker Woods was the last CTMQ-worthy place or thing I experienced in the northern border town before calling the town “complete.”

And gosh darnit, I don’t think I could have chosen a better place to wrap up. Well, now that I think about it, I suppose a celebratory afternoon at Worthington Vineyard & Winery would fit the bill a bit better. If you’re soft!

I’m not soft. I go hard. So let’s get going at Whitaker Woods, one of the most popular Northern Connecticut Land Trust properties. It is fairly large itself at 266 acres, but the fact that it and its trails are entirely continuous with McCann Family Farm, that makes it even larger. I’d guess that most people just mix trail loops between the properties when they come here. Both properties and their trails are quite nice and a bit varied in their terrain.

The main Whitaker parking area is just off the main Somers drag (Route 190) on Wells Road. I walked the northern half of this place after walking all of McCann’s and came back several months later to finish up with the southern half. This place is definitely a “hike your own hike” type of place.

I set out on the white-blazed Old Forest Loop, first through an Old Overgrown Clearing, but after crossing Gulf Stream, I entered the Old Forest and began to Loop clockwise. There’s a 600-foot or so hill in the middle of this property, and the northern side of it is quite steep. The white trail skirts that and encircles the whole thing more or less. But still, you’re going to climb a bit.

Fortunately, the trails at Whitaker Woods are nearly impeccable. (They’re also used by horses, so when I say impeccable I mean from a cleared and blazed standpoint, not a clean and tidy standpoint.)

I walked up the hill and crested it before turning around and splitting off on the blue-blazed Underhill Trail. This trail, um, cuts the white loop and took me, er, under the hill. This trail is pretty great; rocky and mildly challenging, it was lush and buffeted by ferns as far as the eye could see. There are so many ferns in Somers it’s unreal. It has to the fern capital of Connecticut.

When I reconnected with the other side of the Old Forest Loop, I peered into the woods for the old ski slope remains. Yes, back in the early 1950’s, this was the site of the Somers Ski Area where a 1,000-foot long tow rope pulled skiers up the (steep!) hill, powered by an engine from a Model T. I saw no evidence of any of this, but I was tired after a long day, so just completed the white loop back to my car.

I just realized that before I did the walk describe above, I walked the western trails of Whitaker’s when I was hiking McCann’s. You see? That’s what I mean… it’s all one property more or less. But yeah, I did some of the orange-blazed Shady Brook Trail then and the red-blazed Pinecone Trail. (As you’ll read in about 10 seconds, I hiked the rest of the Shady Brook Trail… here are a couple pictures from the first time around:

It’s not all pine trees and ferns here. According to an old Hartford Courant article,

More than 300 species of trees, flowers, ferns and other vascular plants have been documented in the preserve. More than 90 species of birds — 11 percent of all species known to occur in North America — have been observed in the preserve, including seven on either the state’s endangered, threatened or special concern lists.

That sounds impressive, and I’m sure it is, but with no other data from other preserves in Connecticut, I don’t really know how impressive that is.

For my second visit here, I approached from the south, via the North Forest View Trail off of Mountain View Road. The Forest View Trails connect Whitaker Woods to the Shenipsit State Forest and all that it contains. This allowed me to finish up this property’s southern half and, ultimately, finish up with everything in the town of Somers. Sniff. I’ve enjoyed my time up here.

Again, ferns. A beautiful, endless sea of ferns.

I connected from the spur trail to the orange-blazed Shady Brook Trail, crossed Shady Brook, and hit the south end of my old friend the Old Forest Loop. It’s like I never left. My aim was to do a loop with the yellow-blazed Overhill Trail. This trail, um, cuts the white loop and took me, er, over the hill.

This hill, the same central hill I’ve now referenced a million times on this page, looked pretty daunting from below. But from the back/south side, it’s far more manageable. As I climbed it, I actually had the thought, “this is the last hill I’ll climb in Somers. I’ve climbed a lot of hills in this hilly town.” I even marked the milestone with a thumbs up when I crested this particular hill smack-dab in the middle of Whitaker Woods:

I know. That’s ridiculous. Utterly absurd. But hey, when you get around to redlining the town of Somers, let me know.

I descended off the summit and noticed again how well-maintained this place is. I can’t say the same for every Northern CT Land Trust trail, but they sure do put a lot of work in here and at McCann next door. Yet another volunteer effort that more people should appreciate.

Near the intersection with the encircling Old Forest Loop, I passed through and along some impressive old stone walls. My goodness, the amount of work these must have taken whenever they were built. Tall, thick, geometrically near-perfect. Certainly the stone wall should be one of the Mount Rushmore symbols of New England. What else? Lobsters? Red maples? Mount Washington? I don’t know.

I do know that I completed the final stretch of the major loop here and wound my way back out the spur trail to the Forest View Trail and out to my car.

And with that, Somers was done.

Northern Connecticut Land Trust
CTMQ’s Northern Connecticut Land Trust Page