Farrington Woods - Danbury
- otomola
- Jun 15
- 3 min read
May 10 -June15, 2025
I arrived back in Danbury on Saturday, May 10, in time for my brother’s birthday on the 13th. Happy Birthday, Richie!
While in Danbury, I did a lot of bicycling on the Danbury-Brewster Rail Trail. It is the place I ride in Danbury over the past couple of years. No traffic, nice scenery.
I rode 824 miles over the 36 days I was in Danbury. Riding the rail trail is great for fitness. It has at least two other positive characteristics. One is the scenery, the other is meeting other people. Being on the trail so frequently, fifty-four hours over twenty-one days of riding, I see and pass by the same people a number of times. I wave to people. I stop sometimes and talk with them, talking about the day, the weather, the scenery, the beauty, etc. There are some people I see often, and we become engaged in conversations about other things, where we live, what we do in terms of day to day life, and so on. Everyone has a story. Frank, Michael and Stephanie, Luis, Tony, Annie, Sharon, and so on … other trail people.
Based on the layout of the trail, it seems at one time there was a dirt road or perhaps two tracks running adjacent, and the nicely paved trail was created along this section. It runs from the Danbury border for 3.5 miles. There it runs to a fence where there is a section that was not completed. The trail passes two bodies of water. Right near the border is Haines Pond, and farther down the way is East Branch Reservoir. These bodies of water add a great deal to the scenery and mood of the area. The ambiance changes with the weather, sometimes bright and sunny, sometimes shrouded in fog with sunlight playing with the vapors rising off the surface. It can be amazing.
There is also a great deal of wildlife: birds, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, and deer. There are lots of flowers, too. One morning while walking there, my Merlin app detected over thirty species of birds in twenty minutes. I have seen deer frequently, and my last week in Danbury I crossed paths with two snakes resting on the trail.
I have to mention Tarrywile Park, too. It is a great place for taking a walk, lots of birds here, too.
One last thing. Over that thirty-six day period, I had to take a week off from riding due to an injury to my heel, Achilles Tendonitis. This was likely due to some new exercises I was doing in an attempt to have a more well-rounded fitness regimen. I believe the culprit was lunges I had done in this fitness program. I was happy indeed that my heel healed in such a short time. I had gone to CT Ortho to have it looked at, and Dr. Sealy described it as hot to touch, red, and swollen. He said it could take a couple weeks or longer, even months! In a nice way, he said sit and find a good book to read. He mentioned don’t even try any stretches for it that I had read about online until the stress symptoms and pain had left. He said I could take ibuprofen and ice it often. I had to rest it, that was the best thing, and that is what I did. I don’t for a minute think that my riding had been a part of the problem. But I refrained from riding and taking walks other than occasional visits to the grocery store. After a few days, there was a significant improvement. On the eighth day, I took a short ride, about an hour, and it felt fine.
Comments