Today we bring you to Easton, Connecticut where lies a beautiful, well blazed and maintained system of trails. This history behind it was that it was once purchased* by the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company (BHC) between 1913 and 1940. The 730 acres was meant to be flooded to increase the storage of the adjacent Saugatuck reservoir. This was to meet the needs of an ever growing Bridgeport population. As time passed it became unnecessary and then in the 1990s BHC decided to sell. To whom you may ask? Developers who wanted to tranform the property to housing and also build a golf course 😩
Thanks to citizen action, the land was purchased with the help of state money to be preserved as a park. Otherwise we wouldn’t have this story.
So I roll up to the parking off Bradley Rd and there is space for 10 cars and wasn’t full yet. I could imagine it would be tough to find parking on a non-winter day as the entire street leading up to it has strict no parking signs. From looking at the map it does seem like there 3 other parking options too.
*: more precisely seized by eminent domain
Looking at the trail map taken from Aspetuck land Trust website, I traversed 6.3 miles counter clockwise going along Blue -> Orange -> White/Red -> White -> Red trails:
Amongst the trails the standout was the red trail also known as the Ordway trail. The name comes from Ms Katharine Ordway an ecologist, conservationist, and art collector. She had great wealth coming from her father who invested in 3M in Minnesota early on before they became the giant they are today. Her claim to fame is that she purchased a lot of land here and donated to to the Nature Conservancy.
Below is a legend of all the trails:
Lastly I will share some highlights from my trip:
