Today I was super excited as I was back out with my best friend Laura, who is rehabbing an injury and subsequent surgery from earlier this year. I decided to take her to New London to Kidder Cleveland Clough Trail and Extension, as I knew there was little to no elevation gain. We parked behind the New London Outing Club and made the decision to just wear spikes as the snow looked more icy than deep. You cross a field and the trail goes into the woods. This trail is never far from civilization, weaving around between a few streets in downtown New London. A lot of it is boardwalk, which I'm sure is really pretty in Spring or Summer. Today we had some pretty yucky conditions. The recent warm weather and rains have washed almost all the snow away, leaving a mix of icy/slushy mess. This actually made walking along the boardwalks more tricky than it should have been, I slipped off the sides a couple times.. it was a mixture of high water/mud/ice alongside the boardwalks. The first spur off the main trail is about a quarter mile in and goes out to Spring Ledge Farm. Not really a trail as such, it basically follows the driveway for the farm out to the road. It was a complete muddy mess today, and with the farm being in the off season, there wasn't even anything pretty too look at to redeem itself. We did the out and back and continued on the main trail to a lollipop loop called Spring Ledge Loop. Another scenario, where I'm sure it's pretty in the Spring/Summer, today was just a slog through the woods. Back at the main intersection, I suggested we call it a day since the conditions just weren't fun, but Laura said "we're here, let's just finish it off"! Bless her, being her second real hike in several months. We took the last spur that goes across wetlands out to Pleasant St. This section was almost all boardwalks, and was a real mess with debris from the recent storms. We tried to clear as much as we could. The trees gave way to tall grasses before reaching Pleasant St. We decided to cross Pleasant St and do the Kidder Cleveland Clough Extension, which was basically another loop in the woods connecting Pleasant St to a neighborhood called The Birches. It was a little snowier on this side, but we did fine in our spikes. The loop is just under a mile in length. Back at Pleasant St, we retraced our steps, just as some rain started to fall, back to the car.
Strava Activity
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| Behind New London Outing Club is the trailhead |
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| after crossing a field, enter the woods here |
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| not sure what this is/was.. it looks intriguing |
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| slushy boardwalks |
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| the 3 way intersection about a quarter mile in |
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| end of the Spring Ledge Farm spur |
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| on the spur out to Pleasant St was very messy |
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| once out of the woods it was clearer, boardwalks under the snow |
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| the Extension trail is just a loop |
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| not sure what the viewpoint is, but nice memorial spot |
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| Back at the Pleasant St side of Kidder Cleveland Clough Trail |
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