Fresh as a Fetid Swamp
Fresh Meadows, .5 mile, Wallingford Land Trust
January 10, 2015
Do not hike this hike.
Seriously.
Don’t.
This greeted me. I should have heeded it.
Now, I’m a guy who hikes any hike anywhere. I revel in the obscure, the urban, the creepy, and the strange. I am drawn to weird little land trust properties squeezed into suburbia.
But I’m also honest with my readers. So when I say don’t bother with this place, you know I’m not kidding.
I’m here for you, dear hiker readers. (Of course, IF you feel compelled to hike every trail the WLT maintains, go for it… and IF the WLT fixes this joint up someday then by all means, check it out.)
The Trailhead. For real.
First, you must park on a cul-de-sac, right in front of 5 houses. People will stare. Then you must traipse across someone’s front yard to the trailhead. There is no avoiding this, and it’s weird.
You then walk in between two houses and their well-manicured lawns. Both houses seem to currently have small children, so have fun with them staring at you in the summer.
Once in the woods, you must then try to follow the “trail.”
The problem is, there really is no trail. There are a bunch of WLT diamonds nailed into trees, but there is no real trail.
Oh, and you’re in a swamp. And always within view of houses. Angry dogs will bark at you as you essentially bushwhack through this nonsense.
Look! There are signs explaining why you’re here! I saw several!
And not a single one had anything on it at all; just a sun-faded piece of blank metal.
Then you will lose the trail. And lose it again.
At that point, you’ll say, “I just want to get back to my stupid car and get out of here before those dogs come and tear me to shreds. After all, they smell the blood on your legs that the thorns you’ve been walking through have drawn.
Then you’ll find your way back to the backyards and the stares again and drive away as fast as you can.
Fascinating
(At least I learned that from this area of Wallingford, one can get to Tuttle Avenue quickly, which takes one past Sleeping Giant’s back side and out to Route 10 with zero traffic. So that was cool. Thanks WLT!)
Enjoy!
This is on a log on some higher ground. These people deserved better.
Wallingford Land Trust
CTMQ Hikes the WLT properties
Edward Poglitsch says
May 15, 2018 at 9:20 pmOne of the trees on that land trust fell and hit our house during the storm on 5/15/18. Think that we can get someone to take the other 2 dead trees, threatening to fall, down? We live in the house on the left when facing the trail.
David B. says
September 8, 2019 at 1:43 pmIf you raise that sun-faded piece of blank metal on each post, you’ll find it’s on hinges and has an informational plaque underneath as part of a nature walk. These signs were built for an Eagle Scout project.
Dave Ellis says
January 31, 2023 at 7:00 pmThis property is best in the spring late April and early May as there are a lot of woodland flowers.