Brimfield State Forest

March 15, 2020 Sunny

This state park is in Brimfield (home of the famous antique fair), and has 20 miles of trails for hiking and horseback riding, as well as several ponds.

The trail starts next to a small pond that has a stone dam, which was built after the Great Depression as part of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) projects.

We decided to take a short (about 2 mile) trail out and back, leading up the hill you see in the background.

We immediately noticed the masses of downed trees and dead trees sticking up, as well as the presence of many younger trees about the same age. It was unlike other healthier forests we had seen.

It turns out that a 1/2 mile wide tornado came through this area in June 2011, causing a huge amount of property damage and killing 3 people. That was the reason for all of the destruction and uprooted trees littering the forest.

In any case, although there is no clear peak view, you can survey the other surrounding mountains from several points on the trail.

There’s also a neat lean-to at the top, with a giant boulder that you can scramble on to look around.

This walk, although not beautiful, was memorable for the reminder of the devastation that a tornado can bring. And that the forest will always recover and flourish as time goes by.

The tornado in 2011 caused a lot of damage, which is kind of depressing even after all these years.
The landscape was desolate and there’s no view.
There wasn’t anyone here which wasn’t much of a surprise since it was the most BORING HIKE EVER with NO GOOD VIEWS and HORSE POOP on the trail.
This is the one that the tornado apparently went through and all the trees are broken.
There was horse poop at the start and the tornado went through it.