Wolfpit Nature Preserve

I have mentioned this delightful place once before when I was sharing the enchanting trail with you.  The Wolfpit Preserve is a 60 acre parcel owned by the Bethel Land Trust.  It began as a much smaller piece until a 20 acre addition was donated to the Trust by Janet Taylor, a long time resident on Wolpits Road.  A major section of the Enchanted Trail does pass through Wolfpits but that is only a fraction of this small, yet splendid tract of wild.  The preserve is mostly a mixture of hardwoods with a smattering of evergreens.  There are an abundance of stonewalls throughout since this was at one time farm land.  It is almost as if the farmers planned there stone boundaries to mark the assorted mini environments that permeate the terrain as you stroll throughout this compact park. 

One can find water in a variety of forms.  The major water feature is the Wolfpit Brook which has its “headwaters” just outside of Huntington State Park.  Its perpetual flow continues through the park eventually crossing Route 58 west of St. Mary’s church.  In the 33 years that my wife and I have lived on the brook (it bisects our property) we have never seen it dry; it always runs even during the driest years.  As it flows through Wolfpit there are numerous small waterfalls, a tiny, manmade dam, and at one time a pond formed next to one of its seasonal runoffs.  The picture of the meadow was the pond.  Our daughters used to skate there 20 years ago.  Since then beaver have blocked the water from entering the pond.  The stream now meanders through what is now a soggy meadow reconnecting with the brook further along its course.  At the end of the pond, when it still was a pond, was a huge, branched tree named by my daughters “the climbing tree” (maybe not original but very definitive).  Whenever we visited the pond, which also held fish, we would ceremoniously climb its arms nearly to the top giving us a bird’s eye view of the preserve.  When my brother, Uncle Glenn or UG as he was nicknamed by his nieces, dropped in reaching the apex of the climbing tree became a contest which he usually won.

Besides Wolfpit Brook there are numerous intermittent streams and a few wetlands allowing for a diverse population of wildlife on this small, backwoods location.  Needless to say, mosquitoes are not lacking but an abundance of birds and a healthy bat population helps deter their annoyance.  There is a resident population of turkeys roaming all year long.  As is expected, numerous deer also inhabit the woodland. I have seen possum, beaver, squirrel, chipmunks,  an occasional rabbit, a few fox, and once what I believed to be a bear print but I am probably just fantasizing.  I would like this space to seem truly wild (we can forget the mountain lion though we can get wild without this dangerous feline).

Birds constantly flutter from tree to tree to bush to rocky crag.  In the spring numerous warblers pass through on their way north.  Many thrushes, woodpeckers, and flycatchers remain all summer.  Red tail hawks can be heard and seen regularly and often nest in trees nearby.  At night both barred and barn owls can also be heard, though when hiking in the dark these haunting calls can send shills up your spine.  There seems to also be regular visits by pileated woodpeckers (think of Woody Woodpecker) even though they are relatively rare sightings.

Besides the Enchanted Trail there are also blue and yellow marked footpaths. The yellow trail is the main system throughout.  It encircles most of the land branching off of the Enchanted Trail and running along the brook.  There is also a blue trail system which branches off the Enchanted about 400 yards in from the Jennifer’s Way/Aunt Patty’s entrance.  This circles around towards Sleepy Hollow development then curls back up at a cliff to reconnect with the yellow.  Take a right on the blue here and explore the outer reaches of the upper park coming back to the yellow.  Taking a left on the yellow at the cliff will bring you to an old feldspar mine.  I have never been able to discover why this is here.  Following one of the offshoots of the yellow will bring you to the backside of what used to be the pond.  The bridge to cross the Wofpit Brook is probably not safe to cross but you can probably wade across but, unfortunately there is no longer a pond. 

Though there are numerous combinations of trails that can take you to almost every corner I will sometimes simply bushwhack my way through the trees just for a bit of adventure.  Pack a lunch or snack and spend a day here.  There are so many things to discover, so much hidden in this miniature wild land.  I believe I have yet to find it all.