Mount Misery!

We had quite the weekend with Bill having three days off. Two days we went to the same place and did two different trails. I will be posting about those hikes on Thursday as part of National take a hike day.

Sunday I knew I should rest, but I am a glutton for punishment and we went to Mount Misery. It is over the border in Connecticut, so a nice little drive and as we found out, a beautiful place to hike. A lot of the names in Connecticut have strange names, another place close by is called Hell Hollow. Why these names? Because the farmers found out that the land was no good for farming and left the land for more fertile areas. They were very superstitious in those days, so a lot of ill fortune was blamed on the devil.

The park has a wonderful picnic area with lots of parking. The trail starts on an old dirt road and then into the woods and up hills, then a ridge and then a steeper climb, so I got another good workout.

It was well worth it for the views from the top. It was hard to take photos to show how beautiful it was since the trees blocked the views and we could see them, but interferes with camera shots. The nice thing was, I took a different trail down, less steep and it led to another dirt road so easier hiking and plenty of room for Bean to run back and forth.

One thing we found out was, there is a campground there. Most campgrounds in Connecticut do not allow dogs but the national park does. There are only 22 sites but they are large and mostly private, we will definitely have to camp here and there is a private camp right down the road, so we can camp there and ride our bikes in the park.

This site is big enough for a family gathering.

On the way home we stopped at the pond that crosses into both states. There is a short hike and climb and I was hoping to get a view of the foliage from the cliff. Unfortunately it wasn't high enough, but still a nice hike and views.

We got home and Bill ran out to get dinner supplies and then we headed to the dog beach to get views of the moon. I picked the wrong place, the moon rose over the ferry, but it was still amazing to watch it come up.

I did find that it was a nice place to watch the sunset, so as the sun went down, the moon was coming up.

And to top off the day, we had the kids over for dinner. Of course Nick was full of energy and Alex finally warmed up to me and started smiling. It was nice being able to hold him without getting screamed at. A wonderful day but very tiring so today was spent sitting in my chair. I did get another needle felt stocking kit and plan on giving them to the kids.