Next to meeting new people and traveling hiking is one of my favorite pass times. Hiking alone helps me clear my mind unfortunately the more I hike in my home town (Wolcott, Ct) the more trails I find littered and closed down. It really baffles me how difficult it is to find any form secluded hiking in Connecticut. If its not a state park it is usually illegal which is sad and if its part of the Appalachian trail in CT there are usually a good amount of people there. Hiking is an escape for me the seclusion helps me think about one thing and that is hiking, and I really enjoy that mental break. I have been blessed to have a trail in my home town that is relatively empty most of the time and it has been very accessible to me and my friends over the past 10 years. Over the past 3 years we have seen the number of visitors and the amount of trash sky rocket. Finally the inevitable day came the trail is now gated up, still plastered with no trespassing signs and the newest addition it is officially a tow zone. So if you park at the service entrance to the trail you will be towed and prosecuted for criminal trespassing. Unfortunately for the DEP this is my favorite place in the entire world, and it only took me about 20 minutes to find an alternative entrance. I have camped, swam, hiked almost daily in the summer, and even taken routine trash pickups on this trail over the past 10 years. Excuse my french but I can give 2 fucks if you give me a thousand tickets for trespassing on this land. I believe if you love and care about something it is your duty to see it get what it deserves. I don't think the DEP guy who sits in his truck and never gets out to hike the trail really cares about this area. I also doubt he has hiked there as much as I have or picked up as much trash as I have. There are somethings in life you just can give up and this spot is one of them for me. I took this picture yesterday on my trip to find an alternative route into the trail. It was a twice as long as the usual hike about 4 miles each way but I saw tons of wildlife and that will never get old to me. I wish I could propose a solution to this problem but I think making this a state park would only ruin the land further. I think maybe making it a private park with seasonal permits with a hefty price would deter a large quantity of people from going there but would ensure that people that really love this place willing to pay for there visitation and for maintenance may be the best solution to getting rid of the legal and literally issues this trail has.
