We’re changing things up this week—instead of me welcoming you back to Ethan Allen Park in Burlington, VT, I’ll be introducing you to a unique section of my father’s 200-acre property in Danielson, CT. So, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the Vance Family Cliffs.
I have only personally visited this portion of the property a couple times in the past, but even when I came in the past I never walked below the cliffs. This time around, instead of starting at the top of the cliffs, my dad parked the truck just off the Connecticut Turnpike, right next to the Exit 1 sign, and we walked down into the swamp below the cliffs. I was amazed at how much trash had been thrown from the highway—I counted at least 10 old tires, 3 car headlights, and a countless number of soda and beer cans during my walk through the property.
Unlike Ethan Allen Park, there is only one very old, slightly-defined trail in this portion of the property. However, this trail is far more interesting to me than any trail in Ethan Allen Park because it used to be a road during early settlement years.
As we walked into the woods, there was a very steep hill on our right that led up to the highway that was covered in 30-40 year old pine trees. I believe this is a man-made hill that was built up for the construction of the turnpike, as the old carriage road that is cut off by the highway sits about 30 feet below. The hill is just too steep and abrupt, in my opinion, to be a natural feature.
In terms of tree composition in the rest of the property, most of the land is now covered with old-growth/late-successional hardwoods, like white, red, and black oaks, ash, and red and swamp maples. This composition is quite different from that of Ethan Allen Park, where the forest is dominated by common buckthorn, sugar maple, red oak, and paper birch.
We then walked a bit further into the woods and explored the edge of the swamp, which was just slightly frosted over. My dad was surprised to see any water in the swamp at all at this time of year and said that that probably means some beavers have dammed up the other side were it would normally drain into Snake Meadow Brook. My dad then showed me a spot where squatters had been living a couple years ago before my dad called the cops and had them removed. There were tons of old pots and pans, glass bottles, mattresses, and remnants of clothing and sheets strewn across the ground. It was quite an odd sight, and it gave me a slightly uneasy feeling that I would experience a few more times before the end of our adventure.
We then walked along the Eastern edge of the swamp, and I stumbled across a large rock with a perfect hole in it. Before we entered the woods, my father was almost certain that there had been no human interactions with this area besides the carriage road, but when he left the woods he was almost certain that there had been human disturbances. He said that this rock had most likely been drilled to hold a property sign/post that was made of wood and had since rotted out, leaving the perfect hole. I also found several rusted iron pieces and contraptions buried under leaves and loose soil that looked similar to many of the remnants of the Ricker Family Home and Barn we explored during lab.
Then we arrived at the base of the cliffs, and they were simply magnificent. Varying between 100 and 150 feet tall, these cliffs were just breathtaking. Little did I know, there were two caves in the sides of the cliffs, both of which were strewn with old clothing, shoes, sheets, pots, pans, coins, and other miscellaneous modern items. These caves made me quite uneasy, and I mentioned to my dad that I wouldn’t be surprised if one day he found a body on his property, and he said that though had crossed his mind many times before.
From there, we climbed up through the cliffs and onto a ledge at the top, where we could see quite clearly for at least a mile into the rest of the property. Then we walked down along the old carriage road where we found an incredibly tall birch tree that had numerous names carved into the trunk. My dad was not very pleased with this, as it means many more people have been on his property than he thought, but I found his frustration to be quite humorous. Yeah, he owns the deed to the land, but there’s nothing you can do to stop people from exploring and enjoying nature. The Earth belongs to everyone and no-one at the same time, and I hope one day we can get past the western mindset of land ownership and just enjoy the world as it is.
My exploration of the Vance Family Cliffs has made me want to explore the cliffs at Ethan Allen Park in much more detail, which will be on my to-do list for my next visit. I hope to compare the two in more detail once I have more information on the Ethan Allen cliffs. Until then, stay curious!