West Granby - Holcomb Farm

Saturday was a perfect hiking day.  Sunny and not too warm.  Hardly any bugs.

 I decided to hike the trails on the east side of Holcomb Farm (trail map).  When I got to the farm, I was surprised to see the parking lot full and a couple of people directing cars to parking places.  It turns out that Two Coyotes (more on them later) was having an open house.

After parking the car, I crossed Simsbury Road and headed up the tractor path to the field.  I wish I was better at identifying birds from their calls because I heard an unfamiliar call as I was walking up the hill.  I spotted the bird in a tree, but he sun was such that I could really only see it's silhouette.

When the trail branched to go in opposite directions around the field, I went to the left.  I took another little trail to the left that leads to a great view over the valley and the farm buildings below.

Looking down on the Holcomb Farm barns.

I continued on the trail that goes around the field and could see The Knolls in the distance.

I entered the woods near an old gate and turned left on the Vernal Pool (blue) trail.  Before too long, I came across split logs that had been placed to keep you out of the mud.  I very nearly broke my ankle walking on these as they weren't secured and just rolled sideways.  Fortunately, the ground here was dry enough to walk on.  Not true later on.

After a short way, I came upon a couple out enjoying the day.  We had a nice chat and, since we were on the Vernal Pool Trail, talked about where it might be and what we could expect to find.  I went on ahead, but very quickly came upon an area of water.  I waited for the couple to catch up.  It was rather swampy and not very picturesque, but probably a good place for wood frogs and newts.  We parted ways again, and again I came across another wet area.  Maybe it should be Vernal Pools Trail.

When I came to the Boundary (yellow) Trail, I turned left again.  On the east side of the trail, outside of the Holcomb Farm property, there is clearly an area for deer hunting.  Trees have been cleared to allow browse for the deer and I saw two metal tree stands.  I think I would avoid this trail in the fall.

The Boundary Trail ends at the Laurel Loop (red) Trail.  I took another left, crossed a small stream and came across the orange trail that leads to McLean Game Refuge.  I have never taken that trail, but in looking at the game refuge map, I believe it is going to bring you to a horse trail across Barndoor Hills Road from the refuge headquarters.  Some future exploring is in order.

Continuing on the red trail, I came to another part of the orange trail to the game refuge and then to another bridge.  This is where things started to get really muddy.  I tried to walk along the edge of the trail or use logs or rocks to hop along, but sometimes there was nothing to be done, but get my feet wet.  The wettest areas had brambles or mountain laurel on either side that prevented me from walking around.  I came out of the woods at another field and went around it to the right.  This was the field we had snowshoed to on a full-moon hike in March. I followed the tractor path back along the first field and then back down the hill to the farm.  I think the whole hike was just shy of 3 miles.

When I got back to the parking lot, I ran into Justin Pegnataro, the Executive Director of Two Coyotes Wilderness School.  It sounds like they had a great open house.  I know Justin from many years ago when my boys attended Two Coyotes back when they held their classes at Penwood State Park.  That was probably about seven or eight years ago.  Time flies!  My kids really enjoyed the program.  It was great to hear from Justin that the program is doing really well at the farm.