Just a day after Joshua’s Trust acquired the 29-acre Regan Parcel in Tolland we christened the property with an introductory walk. John Hankins, who served as tour guide, was accompanied by Trustees Chris, Nancy and Karen, as well as friend of the Trust, Ruth. Karen snapped the following photos along the way and Karen and John have provided descriptions. Joshua’s Trust has held a conservation restriction on the property since 2008; however, because the land was privately owned we could not offer access to the public. When we got a chance to purchase the property at a bargain rate from the family-owned LLC in 2020 we jumped at the chance and closed on the deal on December 15.
East of Patten Road and within the Regan Preserve is an impressive stand of towering white pines atop a gravel knoll.
A primary feature of the parcel is a one-half mile section of the Old Connecticut Path, which began as a Native American trail that led from the Massachusetts Bay to the Connecticut River Valley. Groups of early colonists, including Thomas Hooker, traversed this path with their ox carts on their way to the Hartford area from Massachusetts in the 1600s and 1700s. Erosion from the oxen, wagon wheels, and other erosive forces created a “sunken road”, making the route of the Connecticut Path easy to identify, even 200 years later.
This is a view of the Connecticut Path before John and his stewardship crew restored the trail to its original glory by removing a thick accumulation of brush using chainsaws, clippers, and a walk-behind brush mower. There are still occasional small stumps that you have to watch out for, and John says it will take a couple of years of beating back the growth to keep it as a path, but it makes an easy way to go from one end of property to the other. At the eastern property line the Connecticut Path disappears beneath residential landscaping but the trace reportedly picks up again to the east in Nye-Holman State Forest. The Trust is hoping to host a program at the parcel that features the Connecticut Path in 2021.
In this photo you can see how the path looks now, after all that stewardship work. The property is bordered to the south and east by a residential development. This line of rocks is at our southwest property corner and was likely placed to prevent vehicles from using the abandoned road. The base of the knoll with the pine trees is to the right. There is brook and some wetlands that run across the middle of the property.
Here is an old log bridge along the route of the Connecticut Path, likely put in place during the last logging operation . Joshua’s Trust hopes to build one or two bridges at this location as part of a proposed trail network.
Below, we are walking along an esker which runs along much of the south boundary of the property. This sharp winding gravel ridge, offers views of the central portion of the property and will make a great place for a future trail. An esker is a geological feature caused when meltwaters beneath wasting glaciers deposit gravel at their base. This process last occurred about 10,000 years ago. From the ridge you can look down at a kettle hole, a closed topographic depression in the glacial landscape formed when gravel was deposited around large blocks of melting ice and a common feature in this part of Connecticut. The base of the kettle hole occasionally intersects the water table, forming a vernal pool.
As you can see from these photos, the 29-acre Regan parcel is packed with historical, geological, and conservation resources that will make this a popular destination. We’re looking for ward to leading more hikes on this property on a new set of trails in a post-COVID world.
~Karen Zimmer, John Hankins, and Nancy Silander
Remember harvesting hazelnuts in the fall with Auntie Madeline and Grandma Regan when we lived in Bolton. It was a most of the day affair but well worth the effort. Also remember the sawmill in action during the spring and summer and in early winter driving up to the house in the morning and seeing deer eating apples off the trees. My first attempt at fishing was in the brook that runs through the property.
The historic and geological significance of the property was not known by them at the time but it is interesting to find that out now.
Relieved that it is Joshua’s Trust that is taking over the woodland preservation. I trust you will do a great job.
What a nice parcel for JT to a quote and be in charge of. I look forward to walking it. Thank you!
Should read ” to acquire”. Sorry.