Happy belated Easter everyone! With the holidays always seems to come chaos, and that is why we are always quiet on the blog end. We had a fantastic Easter weekend full of spring weather and family time. Saturday we rode the Bunny Express sponsored by the Railroad Museum of New England. They are a great little train museum that offers amazing rides throughout Thomaston and Waterville, and is a place that I highly recommend. (http://www.rmne.org/). My mom and I also took Pierce bike riding at the Thomaston Dam, where we were able to spot the train coming through, a river otter, and just an absolutely gorgeous day.
However, according to Pierce, the highlight of the weekend was a tie between the train and a state park on the eastern side of the state called Gay City State Park. Located on Rt. 85 on the border of Hebron and Bolton, this park offers picnic sights galore, a pond, river, hiking trails, and mountain biking trails. The CT DEP also states that it has swimming, but seeing as I have grown up next to this park and know that it has been shut down way too many times for high bacteria, I do not recommend it. Gay City state park is an extinct mining and industrial town, that offers plenty of history to discover and learn about. We started our hike/walk at the front gate and followed the paved road to the youth camping site where we jumped on the trail. The boys were thoroughly enjoying finding walking sticks with my mom, and Dan was having fun sticking them in the rotten stumps. There were more people walking than I had expected, but in hindsight it was a beautiful day and a holiday. Carter was having fun running, while Pierce was King of the Mud, finding every puddle to stomp in.
We came to one of the several old house sites that are still in this park. It was nice to be able to teach the boys about the history of the park, and hear what Pierce thought the house may have looked like when it was standing. The boys and my husband also had fun exploring the old foundation and seeing how it was constructed, and looking for any artifacts that may be there. (They did no digging at all. They were simply looking and moving the leaves around). Then we ventured down to the river where I had to convince my children that yes, it really is too cold to go swimming.
From the old house site, we ventured to where the old factory used to be. There is one solid wall left, with the opening where a water wheel used to be, and that water still comes out of and drains into the river. My husband found a lot of marble stones in the ground, and I can only imagine that could have been a part of the factory's past. From what I was taught growing up, the mill had served in many different capacities, including helping with supplies for the war of 1812 and the Civil War.
We ventured back out towards the pond, where we spotted some ducks, geese, and birds chirping along the pond. And from there we continued our trek back to the car. All in all, it was a short hike for the adults, and a long hike for the kids. Next time I visit my mom, we want to backpack both kids and take them through the really deep hiking trails, where you can see the different rock formations and the difference in terrain between river beds and the woods.
The boys and I are looking forward to exploring more this week, since we are going to have plenty of sunshine, and semi warm temperatures. If you are on that side of the state, or are crossing through, take a break and a picnic basket to Gay City. You never know what wildlife you are going to see, and there is always something to do. Have a great day everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment