This story takes place over 2 days. First it starts off on a saturday with myself and Mr. L and Mr. V going for a hike. We chose to go route 6 in Bristol and start the CT blue trail (Metacomet) and go south. What was funny about this was that myself and Mr. B finished a snowshoe hike here during the winter at like 1am and called his wife to come and get us because we were both too beat to hike all the way back to our car. None of that would happen on this day I tell you. We did a quick hike because both Mr. V and Mr. L had things to do that afternoon so we decieded to make it a quick out and back. It was worth. We found a cave which I will put pictures up of that we crawled inside and checked out for awhile. I said it was like being inside the womb of mother earth, I got a laugh out of both my hiking partners for that comedic relief. I tried to climb out of the top of the cave because there was an opening at the top but it was too wet and I didn't have enough skill as a climber to pull it off, but one day I tell you it will happen. So we stuck around there for awhile and then continued our hike. As we kept going we came upon a group of people climbing. Who would have thunk it but one of the instructors there was our friend we used to teach Crossfit too, Mr. S. He owns his own climbing guide company and is a very good climber. We sat there bullshited for a minute then got on our way. Again we came upon some more people climbing and being the respectful hikers that we are went around them and not under their ropes. I can say this, there is a lot of good climbing to be had along this trail and later on sunday we discovered more. So we kept on going and came upon a campsite with a wooden pen made for what we have no idea, but believe me many ideas were passed around. We kept heading along the trail beacuse we were tring to reach the Nike site. Atleast according to a trail head marker that's where we supposed to be heading. Eventually we deceided that we had to turn back around because both Mr. L and Mr. V had engagements that they had to be at a certain time and if we didn't turn around they wouldn't make them. It turns out that we made the right decision because later that day it rained and rained and rained. It was a good little exploratory hike along a part of the CT blue trail that was blazed very well. Here are the pictures from both days. The story after the pictures is about sunday, and trust me you want to keep reading it's AWESOME.
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| entrance to the womb of motherearth |
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just thought that rock sitting there was neat
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| inside the womb |
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| still inside the womb |
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| pretty big inside, i was going to try and use that log to climb out but it was wet and pretty sad |
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| looking out of the top of the womb |
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| the legend of william warren's den |
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| people climbing, those outcroppings where probably 200 feet maybe less |
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| quarry #1 |
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| towers of some sort, those are very high |
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| looking down into the quarry, that rock was very very loose |
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| people climbing on sunday |
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| Mr. V, Mr. M, Mr. B, Mrs. P |
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| the girl up top had a hard time getting over that lip, but i think she made it, the rock is very good for climbing |
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| more people climbing |
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| on opposite mountain looking i believe north, that outcropping of rock is where everyone was climbing and we could see them from our vantage point |
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| it was very windy up there and on all the mountains we came upon |
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| looking up out of quarry #2 |
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| that rock was very unstable, as we got closer to that outcropping we gave it a wide berth because it looked like a strong wind would knock it off |
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| from the floor of the quarry #2, that dark streak is water coming out of the rock, which added to its unstablness |
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| looking ahead to the skree field that we used to climb out of the quarry, at some points it was actually pretty dangerous |
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| climbing up the skree, walking up this sounded like it was hollow underneath, just tring not to break an ankle, this field of skree was probably close to 100 yards long, it only got more unstable the higher we went, if you look to the top of the pic you will notice it rises up straight from the angle of the skree field, we used that to climb out of the quarry |
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| this is where things got interesting, we climbed up as high as we could go and then moved horizantally across the face of wall of rock, once we got to that out cropping that is gray in the middle of the pic, we climbed up ridge of it and out of the quarry. the rock was very unstable on the ridge, if you would have fallen off you can see the steep drop off the ridge, that wasn't the worst part, that was you would have fallen about 25 to 30 feet followed by alot of loose rock, not good |
So here is the story from day 2 (sunday) of my adventure at rattlesnake mountain. So again we started at route 6. Mr. V wanted to start there again and just keep going till we reached this Nike site, which I would later find out was just a metal fence, which we hiked past but didn't realize we were right next to this mythical Nike site. So this time out it was myself, Mr. V, Mrs. P, Mr. M, and of course Mr. B. We headed out at about 1pm and just started hiking. We again come upon that cave which I have dubbed the womb of mother earth. This time I climbed up the front of it while everyone else just walked around the side of it and met me on top where I was ribbed by everyone for not taking the easy way up at which point I stated that because I did it my way I was now better than all of you. Now this place is called William Warren's den. I didn't pay any attention to that on day 1 but now I am going to give you a link to the story of this if I can find it, hold on I am googling it now.
I had heard of Will Warren’s Den several times in a few different contexts over my years in Connecticut. Once Hoang and I agreed to complete
the Metacomet Trail end-to-end, I knew I’d finally get to check it out. I guess you could say I was a little underwhelmed – the story is far cooler than the cave itself. (Though the occasion to play on the word “warren” is pretty cool too.)
As for the story, I’ll just let the Connecticut Walk Book tell it in a short essay titled, “Where Did Will Warren Wander?”
The cave known as Will Warren’s Den is one of Farmington’s historic landmarks. A bronze plaque dedicating the site to the town is affixed to one of the rocks above the narrow opening to the cave. In the 17th century, Warren, according to legend, tried to burn down the village of Farmington after he was flogged for not going to church. Driven out of town and pursued into the mountains, he was hidden in this cave by Native American maidens.
In the 1870’s, a skeleton was discovered in Will Warren’s Den and it was believe to be Will himself. The office of the State Archaeologist conducted a forensic examination of the skeleton, however, and it did not appear to match any of the known aspects of Will Warren’s life. Is Will Warren myth or real? We may never know.
The cave is underneath a massive jumble of boulders, just on top of Rattlesnake Mountain. The traprock ridge has crumbled over the millenia, resulting in giant square and rectangle blocks all over the summit area. It’s really a very enjoyable area – and pretty easily accessible by most anyone. We approached from several miles south (Route 372 in Plainville) but one could also park at the end of Poplar Hill Road (at 50 Cent’s house) and hike the simple 1.7 miles to and from the spot.
We contemplated entering the cave for a while – but the opening was just so small and it didn’t seem worthwhile after several crouch-downs and peer-ins. After finding the following on the Internet, I guess we made the right decision!
The large room comprising the cave has two hard-to-find entrances. The upper entrance is not visible from the trail and requires climbing up the steep boulders to the top. This small entrance drops down 15 ft. to the main room on a sloping grade. Several old manilla ropes mark the passing of long ago explorers.
A pitch-black 15-foot drop? I’m not sure Hoang would have forgiven me for that one.
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Ok so there is the story, read it and then keep reading my story because it's much better because I wrote my story. Anyway. So again we stayed around here for alittle bit and played around and then we started hiking. I am going to say again alot until I get to the part in the story where the adventure of sunday begins, bare with me. So again we come upon the same rock as we did on day 1 and again people where climbing. We stayed around there for awhile and cheered on a girl who was tring to climb one of the rock faces, but was having a good deal of trouble making it over a lip of rock right at the top, it was inspiring. We kept on going coming to the place where myself , Mr. L and Mr. V turned around the day before. So now the day 2 story begins. We hiked on from here and came upon alot of mountain tops where we had great views to the north and west and south. Man it was super windy up there, I had to hold my boonie cover to my head because I didn't want it to blow away, duh. The trail continued on and followed the ridgelines of rattlesnake mountain for pretty much the whole trail. There were some nice ups and downs to deal with but it was actually a pretty easy hike. At one point Mr. V asks how far have we gone because I haven't seen this mysterious Nike site yet. Mr B refers to his gps and says we have gone well past the Nike site. So we stopped for minute a couple of us made water in the woods and we deceided to keep going because we had hiked to route 72 in Plainville so we came a pretty good distance about 4.5 miles. We keep on going and start hiking parallel to route 72 and we come upon quarry #2. We thought this was just the other side of quarry #1 but we would find out that we were very wrong. So we hike to edge of the quarry and decide this would be a good place to make a short cut and catch the blue trail (metacomet) up on the far end of the quarry where thought we had hiked to about 2 hours before, but again we would find out we were very wrong. So we find a spot that would only injure and not kill us if we went down it and I of course being the man, or moron that I am blaze the trail down. It wasn't too bad because it wasn't that steep but the soil was very loose and the rock was horrible. So we all make it down into the quarry and realize that at any moment alot of rock from very high could come down on our heads and we would lose that game. So we hike through some pretty thick brush and briars and come out to the open part of the quarry. It was actually kind of like an optical illusion when we in there for what reason I have no idea but it made you kind of dizzy to look up and out of the quarry. The rock conditions where terrible. There was so much broken rock on the ground that we had to give the edge of the top of the quarry a wide berth because if anything did fall we wanted to have atleast 10 seconds to get the hell out of the way. So we walked around down there for awhile, decided that alot of people did a lot of illegal discharging of firearms there and looked for away to climb out. We walked to the far end of the quarry and saw this massive skree field and almost at once we were like lets climb out here it will be fun. So we walked up the skree field making sure to let each other know if some rock was falling in our direction because if one of got hit, it would be game over, call in the bird. We got to the top of the skree field and saw a spot where we could climb the face of the quarry and get out to the top. Mr. M tried to climb it but it too dangerous because there was nothing for him to plant his feet on and everything he grabbed just came out of the side of the quarry, idea #1 short down. Idea #2 was much better, we would walk parallel to the face of the quarry and use this other outcropping of rock to climb out of. This was a little better but as I said under the picture if you fell off you would take alot of rock with you and over the lip of the outcropping and fall probably about 25 feet to some nasty rock below so you had to be careful. Again me being the monster that I am blazed the trail. At one point going up this I made more progress going backward then forward because as soon as you put your weight on some rock it just dislodged and fell. You really needed to test out your holds before you put your faith in it. Once I got up and out, Mr. M followed. He got out pretty easy but then came Mrs. P who did a great job keeping her focus and not letting the fact that certain injury or possibly death was option b and option c play with her mind. Next came Mr. B who climbed up pretty easily and then Mr. V who again came up and out pretty easy. The only thing was by the time the last 2 came up and out there was nothing to hold onto becasue everything had been torn out of the side of quarry so it was a little more difficult of a climb at that point. Once we all got out we enjoyed some adult beverage and then continued on our way. Once we got to the top we realized that ya this isn't where we thought we were supposed to end so this shortcut wasn't really a short cut and Mr. B told us we should hike westish, that is technical speak, westish. We hike along until we come to a road, that has some concrete barriers blocking cars from coming into the quarry. This part of the story is AWESOME. When we get to the barries we see a blue car that has two people inside it. The car is rocking forward and back as if the people inside are making babies, which they were. At the same exact moment we come upon this whorehouse aka car a New Britain Police car drives past. At this point myself and MR. V both agree that there are sins being committed inside that car when the dude inside puts his pants on and turns the car on as if he going to escape his fate, which made a turn down the road and came back aka NBPD. This is funny shit, the Officer asks Mr. V if we are with this sketchball and he says no way, we don't even know this guy. I hear through my peripheral hearing the Officer ask the dude where he picked this woman of the night from, didn't hear his response but I can imagine this god fearing man replied , I picked her up at church NOT!!!! HAHAHAHAHA loser, they make internet porn for a reason, so I hear. So at this point we have seen enough of this guy ruining his life and decide to go on. The Officer asks us what we are doing and we say hiking. He actually wanted us to stay and talk but we had to get going. Mr. B said something funny to the effect that the Officer's dog looked better than that woman or man of the flesh that was in mister weirdo's car, I laughed because it was funny hahah. So we follow this road for a while and Mr. B tells me make a left and start heading west towards the CT blue trail. We do some bushwacking and finally I see that the tree line is going to end because we are coming to the ridgeline that we hiked in on. We get back on the blue trail and now it is just a mad dash back to the car becaue by this point we were all beat. We had been hiking for over 4 hours and we wanted to make it to Eli Cannon's and get some food and some adult beverages which we did. Overall it was a great hike with some wild stuff to see and do. A little side note, I didn't find bambi out there in the woods but I am still hunting and when I find bambi, this animal will get a golden arrow to the heart. (that was for you qm). Also another side note, Mr. L suggested that I take on a challenge. What is this challenge you ask. Well it is doing all 50 hikes of CT in 50 days. I said lets do, but after I do my jiu-jitsu tournaments which I in training for right now, so there might be some good stuff on that on the site in the near future, BUT IF YOU DON'T READ YOU WON'T KNOW. Here is the link to the gps readout of the hike, enjoy and till next time, stay loose.
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