Wanting a change of scenery... though honestly, wanders through the woods in Winter are fairly similar wherever you are.. I headed up to New London to check off a few more of the trails on the New London Conservation Commission list, which doubles as checkmarks on my AMC South Trail Guide spreadsheet. We had a decent snowfall on Friday, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Parking on Lakeshore Drive, I crossed the road and met a runner who was just finishing up and she said snowshoes worked for her well. I had everything at the ready. At the kiosk I started in spikes as it looked fairly well packed down, and was on the initial ascent up Wolf Tree Trail to the intersection with Webb Forest Trail. These trails are all very well signed and marked with maps at each major intersection which is always helpful. Webb Forest Trail was less traveled but still broken out, probably should have used snowshoes, but I ascended in spikes. The trail has about 30 placards along the way explaining all the different types of trees and areas, which in Spring or Summer would likely be more useful than now with everything covered in snow! Moderate climb up a small hill, passing a lovely brook and a side path to an overlook.. that really didn't overlook anything. There were a couple large blowdowns along Webb Forest Trail, that required navigating around. I followed Webb Forest Trail up and once at the top decided to change into snowshoes as I could see the path was even less traveled, though still broken out. This was a good decision and I made good time over the hill to the end, where it met up with Wolf Tree Trail again, right at an area that is currently being logged. No work being done today and there was decent signage to keep you on track. I picked up Bunker Loop which continued down and met up with Cocoa's Path. This also shares the same trail as Great Brook Trail, but I just did the section known as Cocoa's Path. This was really well packed, almost a bit icy, so I took off the snowshoes and just barebooted the rest of the way back to the car. This trail followed a lovely brook and several areas with small cascades as well as a pool area with a sign "Grampas Bathtub". It was a lovely ending to a bluebird day in the woods.
Strava Activity
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| Webb Forest Trail merged with a road briefly, this was where it turned back into the woods |
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| Blowdown along Webb Forest Trail |
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| another blowdown on Webb Forest Trail |
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| Logging area along Wolf Tree Trail |
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| Trail turn at logging area on Wolf Tree Trail |
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