Back at it again on the May trip to CT for the Brimfield Antique Show. But first, well, after a town wide yard sale and a Sunday of toy hunting at the flea markets, I managed to squeeze a little hiking in there. This was my first mountain of the year, second hike after doing a quick trail to a waterfall a couple days earlier while out yard saling in the area. After having Case Mtn and Falls on my radar for a while, and hearing about a nearby unofficial trail to a nice cascade, my brother-in-law and I headed off to Manchester CT. The tiny Case Mtn lot was full but we found a parallel parking spot on the street, which put us a little closer to the unofficial trail to Wyllys Falls, about 0.25 mile from the lot. Sure enough, the trail was there, overgrown but clear as day beyond a break in the wooden guardrail, starting right beside a boulder with a plaque on it.
The trail led rather steeply downhill where a small stream emerged from a drainpipe we could hear rushing through sewer grates on our way down the hillside. It emptied into a larger babbling brook with a pair of fallen trees we'd need to tightrope across to reach the falls. Me from a decade ago would've been able to hopscotch across it no problem but the me of today was a little trepidatious, needlessly though, I turned back the clock a decade and scooted right across, no hopscotch though.
A faint trail followed the brook upstream through a steep ravine where the unexpectedly impressive Wyllys Falls could be seen roaring through the trees just a few hundred feet ahead. Driving through the residential neighborhood, this was the last thing you'd expect to find beyond the immaculately manicured lawns. The falls must be close to 30 feet tall, splitting at the top of a cliff and forming two horsetails, ending up in a small rocky pool at the base. The few pictures I'd seen did it no justice.
My brother-in-law regretted leaving his good camera and tripod in the car, neither of us expecting something so spectacular, so we tightoped back across the log bridge, up the steep hill, to the car and then back again to get some real photos. And no, we didn't fall in on any of our stream crossings, I did carry his camera for him though since my balance is a little better and he relied on a couple handy, and really tall, walking sticks in order to keep his feet out of the water.
After getting our fill of the slightly foul smelling falls and photos from every angle, with me standing awkwardly on boulders to keep errant branches out of his shots, we headed back to the the Case Mtn lot and admired the much more well known falls there. He'd been there before but it was a first for me. As opposed to the wild falls we just came from, this was more of a man-made wonder with an arched bridge and beautiful stonework set into the hillside.
We consulted the map with its spiderweb of trails and started our way up the mountain, one neither of us had climbed before. Hell, growing up in CT and going to Manchester nearly every weekend, I never even knew it was there. We started on a carriage path before switching to a hiking trail and made short work of the mountain with no sweating or heavy breathing. That may not all be entirely true but we made it to the top where there was a lovely view of the Hartford skyline. I relaxed on one of the many conveniently placed benches while JR got his zoomed-in photos that made Hartford look like more than the blurry blocks my camera is capable of. Man, it's amazing I've made so many hiking guides with this thing.
We took a different path back down for a change of scenery and explored the stone pathways and arches of Case Falls some more. A group of tree swallow birds were flying through the arches of the bridge at warp speed and catching bugs on their way through. I love those crazy little guys, we get a family every spring and it's always fun to watch them zip through the air erratically like bats on their hunt for insects.
Time for lunch, which meant a quick trip over to the Buckland Mall on the other side of town, where I of course got Cajun Cafe, a staple of every trip to CT. It's not actually cajun food, it's regular mall foodcourt Chinese food but it's my favorite ever, sometimes I have wet dreams about it. Did I say that out loud? I've been going there since high school when we'd all pile into the car and head to the mall on weekend nights. We even ate in the food court by the windows for old time's sake.
We did a loop through the mall after, even came across a store I hadn't noticed last time, mostly Lego but in the window I spotted some MOTU Origins from across the hall and nearly broke a sweat running over to it, which would have been my first time sweating today. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Nothing I needed there but it was a glorious sight seeing all those action figures in person.
Don't tell my sister because JR is on a diet but we got some dessert that was not on his list of approved foods. He got a cinnamon pretzel at Wetzels and dipped it in caramel, I had a few bites and oh my god I fell in love. With the pretzel, not my brother-in-law for sharing it with me, though maybe a little of that too. It was one hell of a pretzel. I thought about grabbing one for myself as we sat on a bench to enjoy it but I'd had my eye on Cinnabon since we walked in. I planned on getting whatever they had on their promotional sign when we passed by earlier but then I saw a Reese's ice cream sundae and plans changed. I ate it in the car while he drove home and dare I say, there might have been too much peanut butter in it, but whoa was that good, at least the half I ate in the car was, I had to save the rest for later so that got a little freezer burnt. When we got back I helped him pull out some stumps from bushes that had been chopped down at their new house.
Well that was the perfect way to kick off the hiking season. After doing practically none last year, too busy getting our new author pen name up and running, it was great to hit the trails, and non-trails, once again. The miles I put on my shoes today were nothing compared to what I'd be doing the next few days at Brimfield; a mile long stretch of road with flea market fields on both sides the entire way. Might just make a post about it because the toys I picked up deserve to be honored, I had some insane finds.
