Granby - McLean Game Refuge

It was a gorgeous day and the boys wanted to go to the park to play basketball, so I decided to take a walk in the McLean Game Refuge.

The mottled bark of the sycamore is beautiful.

I crossed the bridge from Salmon Brook Park into the refuge and turned right when I got to the blue/orange/red blazed trail.  These trails run together for a bit before first the red and then the orange trail turn off.  Each trail completes a circuit with the blue trail being the longest.  I took the blue trail today.

The trail had patches of ice and mud, but nothing too serious and those disappeared altogether once I started going uphill.  At one rock outcropping, I could see through the trees to the Barndoor Hills.  The hill on the left is in the game refuge.  Boy, it looks a long way away.

Barndoor Hills in the distance.

Today, I saw my first butterfly of the year.  Actually, I saw three.  I saw two Mourning Cloaks and then a smaller orange one that I did not get a good look at as it flitted by.

Mourning Cloak.

Once the blue trail got down to the woods road, I found the trail was pretty icy.  I think more people use these trails and the snow gets packed down and doesn't melt as quickly.  It wasn't too treacherous, although I think some trekking poles would have been helpful.

Woods road was icy.

The trail brings you around to Trout Pond.  I did not see any trout today, but I did see a couple of geese tipping their tails in the air looking for food on the bottom of the pond.  I also saw a few turtles basking in the sun on a log along the pond's edge.

Senator McLean's cabin with a view of Trout Pond partially covered with ice.

After leaving the pond, I turned left on the loop back toward Salmon Brook Park.  In the lower muddy area between the game refuge and the park, I found some skunk cabbage in bloom.  Near the bridge, in a dryer, sandier spot, I saw some yellow flowers that I at first took for dandelions, but upon closer inspection, I believe they are coltsfoot.

Skunk cabbage.

Coltsfoot.