Tuesday October 1, 2024 - Beaver Pond/Plunge Pool trails at White Memorial Conservation center - Near Litchfield CT - 3.9 miles, about 315 feet elevation gain

Brian’s boss recommended that we seek out this White Memorial area instead of (or at least in addition to) the American Legion State Forest we were staying in.  He really led us to a gem.  The White Memorial area is quite large (over 4000 acres) and has about 40 miles of designated trails.  I chose this particular loop trail because it was long enough for us to ‘count it’ on our journey to 52 hikes this year and, compared to one other hike I was considering, I thought it looked more interesting.

The weather finally was perfect.  Temps were in the 50’s in the humidity was low enough that it felt crisp and brisk out instead of clammy.  The AllTrails app had very detailed maps of the conservation area so we didn’t do exactly the walk we had downloaded but felt free to follow our noses a bit and still had the confidence we could make a loop and not end up backtracking or end up too far away from where we wanted to be.  This was the nicest scenery and conditions we’ve had in a long time.

There were numerous pieces of bright white quartz (I’m guessing) rock in some parts of the hike.  Some of them were quite large, others just a few pounds.  They really stood out because the other (more common) rocks there have moss growing on them but the quartz was completely clean and stark.  The 90% beaver chewed through tree was cool too.



















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