A final fall hike through Belding Wildlife Management Area was a relaxing experience.. except for the downed bridge!
This will be a quick one today. We spent our last fall hike at Belding Wildlife Management Area. At this point my knee was not doing well, all the previous hikes seemed to have made it worse, so we needed to find a fairly easy spot to explore. Belding wild life, while easy, had plenty of things to see!
There were tons and tons of foot bridges, and a "dangerous" crossing with a downed bridge. A small lake with a man made waterfall, the chimney of Mr. Beldings long ruined cabin, and more all on easily navigate trails. There's no real elevation change here and no difficult terrain, making for a relaxing afternoon.
We did find that our Alltrails app attempted to take us off into a fern filled valley just behind the Chimney. I would highly recommend against doing this! The actual trails are well marked so just follow the park map instead of the app to avoid getting lost.
As for the downed bridge, I can't say that it hasn't been fixed by now. I can also say that I easily walked over it and that it was pretty safe all things considered. It just seems like a case of being safe and you know... liability.
We took a quick ride down to Valley falls afterwards as well. There's a small waterfall there so we had to go while we were in the neighborhood. That park is totally dominated by a lake with a beach and it wasn't on my list of places to explore. After seeing the small 5 foot waterfall I think a return trip won't be necessary. It does look like a great place for the locals though!
Due to the timing of my posts this fall hike is getting posted around early April. There's going to be quite a jump time wise between this and subsequent hikes. We started hiking again right on the first day of spring and I'm happy to report that my knee has recovered pretty well. Looking forward to finishing up the best trails of CT this year and look forward to bringing you all with me!
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