FEATURES COLUMNS
Trailblazing at the Sheets Forest in North Stonington
The three-mile, figure-eight route meanders through the heart of the Green Falls Rift Valley, a hilly, rocky swath crisscrossed by streams, and dotted with vernal pools and beaver ponds just west of the Rhode Island border.
Don’t take Westerly’s Wahaneeta and Woody Hill preserves for granite
More than 175 years ago, the clangor of hammers, drills, picks and shovels echoed through the woods in an around Westerly. This proliferation of quarries can be traced to 1845.
The Carolina wren sings through the winter
This tiny bird has a loud voice, stays paired, and defends a territory year-round. Formerly a southern bird, it has expanded its range north into Connecticut.
Groton’s Candlewood Ridge and Avery Farm Preserve: Nature, close to home
“It's amazing to have a place like this so close to a densely populated area,” Maggie Jones said, gazing at a shimmering sliver of Long Island Sound, some 10 miles south.
Sebastian Lawrence’s selfie
Sometimes good stories hide in plain sight. In this case, "plain" isn’t the right adjective because I’m talking about a Tiffany stained-glass window.
MORE FEATURES COLUMNS
The best hikes and paddles of 2021: Despite losing our way, the fun never stopped
I’ve come to realize that the adventures readers found most memorable and entertaining were the ones in which I’d gone astray.
Off to a rocky start in North Stonington
Our mission: Reach an unmarked, fairly inaccessible section of Pachaug State Forest in North Stonington, to view an extensive array of stone walls, foundations, and piles of rocks called cairns, some of which Starr said may date back thousands of...
Tales of New London back in the day
Something about the Christmas season makes people wax nostalgic. The exam rooms where I see patients looks out over Howard Street and at the Shaw Street neighborhood. Many of my patients grew up there and will point out a house and tell a...
All I really DON’T want for Christmas
Judging from some of the holiday gift catalogs emailed to me, and presumably other outdoor writers, we’re a smelly, stressed-out, spaced-out band of misfits.
Welcoming the 'snow birds'
Two species, the white-throated sparrow and the dark-eyed junco are common here all winter, but the fox sparrow, often considered a “snow bird,” is rarely seen after late autumn.
When hunters and hikers cross paths
“Isn’t this wonderful,” I remarked, while friends and I gamboled over trails at Mooween State Park in Lisbon a few weeks ago. “So quiet … we have the whole woods to ourselves.” It WAS quiet —...