We hardly need research to know that spending time in nature is beneficial. In Hamden, I’ve found unexpectedly inexpensive places to do it, the kind you can pop into and out of while running an errand.
At the Hamden Land Conservation Trust’s Servoss/Mather Street property, trailheads on both Servoss Street and Mather Street lead into the 2.18-acre preserve, where a brief trail, with an offshoot that dead-ends at a restricted Regional Water Authority parcel, curves around a glacial kettle formed about 16,500 years ago. When ice chunks left behind by glaciers melted, “the surrounding gravel collapsed into the void, forming undrained depressions called kettles,” according to Land Trust signage. Each time I’ve walked this shady leafy trail, which feels more like being deep in a forest than in the middle of civilization, I’ve been the only person present, though painted rocks and figurines left at the roots of a tree offered evidence that others have been inspired by the magical feeling.
Another, shallower kettle, Johnson’s Pond, can be found in the Spring Glen neighborhood, accessible where Thornton Street U-turns back toward Greenway. Again, a trail loops around the kettle, this one filled with water. Houses back up to three sides of the land surrounding the pond, with more RWA property along the fourth. As I walked along the shallow, mud-edged pond, redwing blackbirds, robins, frogs and backyard chickens warbled, croaked and clucked. A large fallen tree that day made the trail unsuitable for baby strollers or unspry walkers, but blooming mountain laurel and wildflowers bloomed, and a bench provided a welcome place to linger.
So did Timberwood Trail, which begins along the road named Timberwood Trail. This short wooded path next to a literal babbling brook ends at picturesque Wolcott Falls, where post-rain mosquitoes kept me moving. At other times, however, wading and lingering on the rocks near the falls could be a perfect summer diversion.
Heading back toward New Haven, I stopped again in Spring Glen, this time near the entrance to the High Lane Club. On the border with North Haven, what looks like a pond is, according to a nearby resident, a “wide, slow part of a brook that passes through the neighborhood.” Standing on the sidewalk bordering one edge of the water, I watched tadpoles, frogs and turtles swim, saw other turtles sunning themselves on a fallen birch tree and admired yellow irises. Amid duckweed and the occasional stray tennis ball, loud frogsong sounded like plucked orchestral strings or a bowed cello. Other pedestrians and bicyclists stopped to enjoy the sound and the vision.
Next time I’m headed up to Stop and Shop and have a few minutes, I’ll know where to stop before I shop.
Written and photographed by Heather Jessen. Image 1 features the bench at Johnson’s Pond. Image 2 features figurines at Servoss/Mather. Image 3 features the brook along Timberwood Trail. Image 4 features a frog (lower center) and a tennis ball (upper right) near the High Lane. This updated story was originally published on June 9, 2022.
