CONNECTICUT TRAILWAYS

AUGUST 3, 2021 – Connecticut is a cornucopia of parks, nature preserves, bubbling brooks, secluded ponds, and old growth trees. It’s a nature-lover’s paradise. Yesterday, as our son Byron and his wife, Mylène headed out for work, I Googled, “How many state parks in Connecticut?” Answer: 139.  I had to narrow it down to “State Parks near Chester, CT.”

Before long, my wife and I were on our way to Chatfield Hollow State Park near Killingworth, 14 minutes away. The park is a beautiful corner of precious earth, teaming with natural delights.

At one end of the park lies a mill pond and an active mill wheel. With her eye for photos, my wife searched for a suitable vantage point. Soon she found it and snapped a pic, whereupon a woman approached from a nearby parking lot. “What were you taking a picture of?” she asked with a tone that invited conversation. Her husband then sauntered our way.

What ensued was an extended conversation with a couple every bit as delightful as the natural beauty around us.

Retired but hardly retiring, Jeff and Caroline brim with wit and warmth, good stories well told, a world view that circles the globe, and humor enough to carry people past the troubles of our times.

High school sweethearts, they went off to Mount Holyoke (Caroline) in math and UMass (Jeff) in engineering. As Jeff told it, immediately after Sputnik was launched in 1957, his homework tripled. “I became an engineer,” he said, “and one thing or another I touched is still up there.” He pointed skyward. Caroline, meanwhile, taught math before becoming a social worker in a world with all too few of them.

Given Jeff and Caroline’s gracious connections with foreign students over the years, I recounted my parents’ sponsorship of two Vietnamese brothers—my brothers—who became aeronautical engineers, following the lead of my mother (with roots in Lyme, CT!), who was herself an aeronautical engineer. How she would have enjoyed yesterday’s conversation!

By way of one of their foreign student connections, Jeff and Caroline had become closely acquainted with Basque country and Basque cuisine. As natural raconteurs, they entertained us with travel stories for which we would’ve gladly paid admission.

Our new friends are intrepid hikers and stewards of the land. Every day, weather permitting, they hit the trail among the countless opportunities within an easy drive.  They’re active members of the Meshomasic Hiking Club, which partners with no fewer than 13 land trusts and conservancies. Connecticut, it turns out, is the nation’s heart and soul of conservation.

After we’d exchanged contact information and parted ways, I reflected on our serendipitous encounter. However troubled our country, as long as people like Jeff and Caroline are on the trail, all will be well down the track. By their inspiration, I said to self, I’ll strive to emulate their graceful example.

May the reader take to the trail as well, celebrating nature’s beauty and meeting people like Jeff and Caroline. Such walks calm our collective soul by easing our individual struggles.

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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson