Riding Reba: A Corgi-Mix's Adventures in CT

Hello again, it’s Reba here! I had so much fun with writing up our last adventure that I decided not to give my human her laptop back. So, my paws are hard at work, bringing our travels to you!

I don’t know where to start with this one.  My humans took me to see…wait for it…a tree!  I was thinking my people have finally lost their minds!  It’s located in a small park in Simsbury called Pinchot Sycamore Park.  I won’t lie, I took a nice nap on the way up because it’s a little more than an hour away from where we live.  Plus, it’s hard to get uninterrupted sleep with a little Chihuahua brother!  I woke up just in time to watch my human drive right past the park.  To be fair, the entrance wasn’t clearly visible from the angle we approached the park and can easily be missed.  That’s ok though, because we got to extend our trip as we had to find a place to turn around.

The tree was huge!  See?  This is me with my human brother.  Can you even see us?  The tree is called the Pinchot Sycamore, and it’s the largest tree in Connecticut, and is said to be the largest sycamore tree in New England.  My people looked it up and found out that it’s at least 200 years old, possible over 300, and when it was last measured in 2016, the trunk was over 28 feet around and 100 feet tall.  The branches are the size of normal trees!  And when we went it hadn’t fully bloomed, and the buds were the size of golf balls!

The park itself if pretty small.  The Pinchot Sycamore takes up most of one side of the park, and on the other side there’s another, although smaller, sycamore.  We walked around a little and found a small trail, but the humans wouldn’t go down it because it was overgrown.  They were afraid of ticks, which I don’t blame them, because my fur is so thick it’s hard to get them off of me!

There’s an entrance to the Farmington River for small boats in the park.  We didn’t see any, but there were other cars there with racks, so my people said they must have been out on the river since they weren’t in the park.  I tried to get down to the water but it was pretty muddy; the humans were no fun and wouldn’t let me walk in the mud.  I don’t mind getting my paws a little dirty!  They muttered something about not bringing towels.  I don’t get what that had to do with anything. 

Needless to say, there’s not a lot to do there.  There’s one bench, but no picnic tables where a dog can sit for a good lunch. It was a nice stop, but if you go, don’t plan to make a day out of it unless you’re going to hop in the river for a boat ride.

My humans debated taking me to Talcott Mountain, which is close by.  It was warm out though, so I was having breathing issues.  Seriously, having bad lungs is no fun!  Instead, they took me to the Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge, which is about five minutes away.  I’ve visited here before and enjoyed it!  Unfortunately, the flowers weren’t out on the bridge yet, but it was still fun.  They added more picnic tables since we were there last, and a little free library.  You can take a book and read it a one of the picnic tables along the river.  My people like to read, so they were excited about this addition. Me, not so much. I want to explore, not sit and read!

The bridge was originally built in 1892.  I’m told that’s a long, long time ago!  It was also placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.  It’s not very long, about 180 feet, but that was a perfect length for me!  When you reach the end there’s a small garden, but then a road is right there, so we turned around and walked back over the bridge.  I then walked my human brother all over the garden and picnic areas.  Like with the tree, it’s not someplace you can make a whole day out of, but it would be a good place to sit and relax by the river for a bit.  Or, if you’re like me, to walk around and side-eye the people at the picnic tables to see if they’re eating anything you’d be interested in begging strangers for.

Below is a picture of the bridge when we went, without flowers, and one that was taken the last time we were there when the flowers were out.  They have around seventy or so flower boxes along the side of the bridge, as well as hanging baskets.  We went in mid-May, and it was nice because it wasn’t crowded, but I’d recommend going in the summer when the flowers are actually out.  Unless you just want to see a bridge.  I won’t judge you if you do! 

We’ll see you at the next adventure!