Bounty of Snow and Cold Brings Wide Choice of Winter Activities

By Janet Gokay

Too bad about Sochi. While Olympic athletes and spectators alike were sunning themselves in 64-degree weather there on Valentine’s Day, the real winter sports were in full swing here in Norfolk. True, the spectacular snowfalls of the past few weeks may have paralyzed anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line—but here in the Icebox of Connecticut, the fun was just beginning.

Take your pick of pleasures to be had: skiing—both downhill and cross-country; snowshoeing, skating, sledding, ice fishing and, of course, curling. “That’s the great thing about Norfolk,” commented Bill Couch, a Norfolk triathlete who gives fitness classes outdoors year-round. “It’s this quirky place where people just like to get out and have fun.”

Here there are miles of open, preserved land ideal for all levels of snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Some of the most popular trails begin in the Barbour Woods, a Norfolk Land Trust property. You can park your car at the trailhead on Lovers Lane, about 0.3 miles north of Laurel Way, to access these. The Barbour Woods Loop Trail, an old carriage road, is relatively undemanding, winding through woods and beside a brook for about 2 miles roundtrip. Another trail, about one-quarter mile from the Trailhead, connects to the North Dam, with its sweeping open fields. Bolder souls can try their luck on two routes with Wild West-sounding names: the Stoney Lonesome and the Mad River trails.

All of these—including those in the two state parks, Haystack and Dennis Hill—are what the CT DEEP calls “ski touring” trails: they are not groomed or patrolled. The notable exception is Great Mountain Forest, where forester Star Childs often grooms a path down the main Forest road for skiing and where, this year, he has packed down trails around Tobey Pond for hikers (and dogs). Visitors can grab a map of the forest at the sign-in shelter by the east gate and then ski all day.

For ice sports, people head to Wood Creek Pond, off Ashpohtag Road, where there’s usually an area cleared for skating and ice hockey, and where neighbor John Allyn has built a bench. “There’s always a great group of people who show up at Wood Creek when the conditions are right for skating,” observed Couch.

That group would include a smaller band of intrepids: the ice-skate sailors. They hoist a kite-shaped sail against the wind, lean into it—and fly across the ice. Last year West Lowe, a prominent member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, cut a handsome figure with a sail he fashioned out of an old lawn-chair umbrella.

Sledders head for the hills behind Battell Chapel or above the North Dam. And this winter the main road up Haystack Mountain has been transformed into a bobsled run.

Norfolk offers something else you won’t see at Rosa Khutur: ice fishing. Once the ice is at least 4 inches thick, people venture out onto Wood Creek, Tobey, or Pond Hill ponds to snag bass or perch. The tools are simple: a handheld ice augur for drilling a hole in the ice; a short fishing pole or a spool with live bait; a fishing license. It’s slow. It’s cold. And people love it.

The Norfolk Curling Club opened the doors to its new facility in November—and has rarely closed them since. Teams—men’s, women’s, mixed—play every night of the week but Saturday. On weekends, the club offers instructional clinics for adults and juniors, and special workshops for kids aged 6-11.

How to explain this explosion of interest in curling in Norfolk? Maybe it’s the new club, airy and warm; maybe it’s seeing this newly popular sport—an unlikely combination of intellect and skill—played by Olympians. Or maybe it’s just another way to celebrate winter in Norfolk.