Connecticut Trails Day

Connecticut Trails Day is an annual celebration of the outdoors organized by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.  Each year, during the first weekend in June, there are close to two hundred different scheduled walks in several of Connecticut's state parks and forests, including family walks, long hikes and kayak and canoe excursions.  On Sunday, the girls and I decided to join the family hike at Wadsworth Falls State Park in Middletown.  Although this state park is relatively close to our house, we had never visited it and were excited to see what it had to offer.  The Rockfall Foundation, which supports environmental education and conservation, organized our group hike and our group leader was outstanding.  The girls were at the front of the pack for almost the entire hike and really enjoyed learning about different trees, bugs, toads and seeing tadpoles in a vernal pool, up close and personal (they and I were even mentioned/photographed in two different local news blogs - the Middletown Eye and the Durham Patch (there are several photos of the girls in this set)).  Until recently, Emily has not had the physical stamina for hiking but after seeing how well she did this weekend, I definitely think that a lot more hiking is in our family's future!

Ready to hike. 

Water bottle at the ready! 

Checking out the trail map. 

Giant Mountain Laurel - I honestly had no idea that they could grow to be this big!

The girls chew on the bark of the black birch tree, which native americans used to brush their teeth.

Little Falls 

Lucy, on her way back from the vernal pool, with buckets of tadpoles. 

Emily, checking out the tadpoles through the pond scope. 

This was probably the most exciting part of the afternoon. 

The eggs of a yellow spotted salamander. 

Bark from a (fallen) white birch tree.