LITCHFIELD SEASONAL TRAIL (10K-EC99/0515)

Connecticut Valley Volkssport Club, AVA-784

DIRECTIONS

COMMENTARY

Start: County Seat on the Green, 3 West Street. (Rest Rooms available at start/finish) Note: there is a 2-hour limit for on-street parking. A free municipal lot can be found by turning off West
  1. Exiting the County Seat facing the green.
Turn Right crossing South Street, then Turn Left crossing West Street to the Green. 		Street between Talbot's and the Village Restaurant, just a few building down from the County Seat .
  1. At the green, the Litchfield Historical Society
  1. Cross Route 118, carefully, toward the church,
    2. Turn Left to North Street (first right)
(Noyes Memorial Building -1901) is on the corner and can be toured afternoons.
  1. Turn Right on North Street (Route 63)
  1. Note the Timothy Skinner House (1785) and
  1. When Route 63 curves away to the left, cross (at the grassy triangle) at Norfolk Road and
Turn left following the sidewalk down North Street back to the green. 		Congregational Church parsonage. Note hewn overhangs at the second and attic levels, and building technique harking back to medieval Europe (when taxes were based on ground floor
  1. At the green, cross Route 118 and continue straight across the green, past the information booth to the gray stone courthouse.
    2. Turn left for a few steps back to the West Street entrance to the County Seat. Turn right and proceed down South Street (Route 63)
square footage). Also on this street: the Apothecary Shop (1760; the original was located on North Street as an apothecary for Dr. Reuben Smith - it later was a grocery shop; the oldest commercial building still standing in town); John Collins house (1782), located on the 15-acre plot of land originally set aside for Timothy Collins, first
  1. Bear right on Old South road, which quickly bears right onto Gallows Lane (a steep hill down). Stay on the left side of the street.
minister of the Congregational church)
  1. 50 North Street - Julian Deming (1790-93) house
  1. At Prospect Street, note the homesite of Lyman
  1. At the bottom of Gallows Lane, at the T, turn left on South Lake Street (no street sign) until you come to the end of the road. You will see three large boulders and an information sign on your right, indicating the entrance into White Memorial Conservation Center (this is a "back entrance"). Pass through this entrance.
Beecher on the right, birthplace of abolitionist writer Harriet Beecher Stowe. Also, note the site of the Litchfield Female Academy. 1792-1833, founded by Sarah Pierce (who is featured on the A-award)
  1. Note the Tapping Reeve House and Litchfield Law School, the country's first law school, on the right
  1. Proceed along the path, which goes along Tanner Brook and then becomes a boardwalk. When the boardwalk comes to a T, turn right. You will be walking around the pond counterclockwise.
side of South Street (Judge Tapping Reeve is featured on the A-award)
  1. You may see a couple of mules grazing in the pasture on South Lake Street!
  1. When the main boardwalk ends, continue following the dirt path over two smaller sections of boardwalk. Watch carefully for a tree on the left with arrows pointing both straight and right. (About 15 yards ahead of you, you can see the boardwalk restarting). At this point, turn right (do NOT go on the boardwalk), passing through 3 large boulders and continue along the grassy path marked with a black dot on a white square blaze. Shortly the path ends at Whites Woods Road. (not marked).
  1. Swans, blue herons and mallard ducks can be sighted along the trail.
  1. At Whites Woods Road, turn left, and then right onto Bissell Road. Walk past an unmarked road coming in from the left. Go about 50 feet more and turn left onto a dirt road.
Checkpoint 1: What is the speed limit on this road? 		      Please record your answer on your walk card.
  1. You will be walking along the Bantam River (on your left). At the junction (on the left is a gate blocked by boulders and flanked by two stone and cement pillars), turn right on the gravel road and proceed toward the Museum.
  1. On the right, note the large sugar maple and white ash trees
  1. as you come to an open grassy area, you will see an outhouse on your left. Bear left walking thought this field toward two brick pillars just down from the Museum building. Straight ahead of you, you will see two large cages, hoe for some injured birds of prey.
Checkpoint 2: What type of birds is in the cages? After viewing the birds, walk to the right back to the gravel road that passes the Museum and Gift Shop. Turn Right on the Gravel Road.
  1. You may wish to tour the small White Memorial Natural History Museum.
    Please record your answer on your walk card.
  1. Now starts the return route to the pond and the start point. Follow the gravel road east from the Museum (in the direction you came from). Turn left onto the gravel road at the gated entrance, following the Bantam River (on your right this time). When you come out on Bissell Road, take a right and then left onto Whites Woods Road.

 

  1. Shortly you will see the map/information sign and wooden bar on the right, marking the start of the trail blazed with the black dot on a white square (which you were on previously). Turn right on the boardwalk.

 

  1. Follow this trail, which leads you back to the Ralph T. Wadhams Memorial Boardwalk circumscribing Little Pond. Soon the trail seems to fork - stay left following the blazes.

 

  1. When the path ends, turn right, following the boardwalk counter clockwise around the pond. Now you are in "new territory" You will soon cross a foot bridge over the Bantam river. Continue, crossing over a second bridge. The dirt path bears around to the left a few feet and then the boardwalk begins again.

 

  1. Watch carefully for a Junction, with a Boardwalk going off to the right. Take this right and proceed until you come to the three large boulders you passed through from South Lake Street.

 

  1. When you pass through the three large boulders, turn left onto South Lake Street and turn right on Gallows Lane, walking up Gallows Lane to Meadow Street.

 

  1. Turn left on Meadow Street and proceed to West Street (no sign), the main street through Litchfield center. The Aspen Garden Restaurant will be on your right, at the corner of Meadow and West Streets.

 

  1. Turn right on West Street, walking past shops and restaurants, until you reach the Start Point on the corner of West and South Streets.
We hope you enjoyed your visit to Litchfield! If you have any comments, please pass them on to us c/o Bob McDougall, P. O. Box 251, Glastonbury, CT 06033-0251 (860) 342-3062

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Last Updated: 04/21/1999

© Copyright 1999 Bob McDougall