Wolf Den Campground Weekender - July 9th, 2023 - July 10th, 2023

This trip is an example of a local bikepacking weekend. You don’t have to go far or on a very long trip to experience the pleasures of bikepacking. It might even be less overwhelming at the beginning. And it gives an opportunity to test any new gear as well.

I spotted a bikepacking post in the Meetup App and decided to sign up. It was a local adventure with one of the Thread City Cyclers Club’s members. I immediately received an email from Cory (Coryn) with questions. Her trip was planned for three days, and I only could do two days. I explained to her that I will ride up with her on Saturday, stay the night and then ride back by myself on Sunday.

The morning of, I rode my bike from home to the arranged meeting place on CT Greenway. Cory was already awaiting me, and we headed out right away. The ride was very easily paced, and we had a chance to converse a lot. I found out that Cory is a nurse practitioner at the University of Connecticut and that she loves to read (I love to read too). Our talks included many topics, from outdoor survival to her in-office cases.

We stopped for an early lunch in Willimantic at ‘That Breakfast Place’ on Main Street. I ordered delicious avocado toast with eggs and chocolate milk. Of course, we continued our conversation, which digressed more to teenagers and pets. After lunch, we continued on the Airline trail. It was a very muggy day.

Of course, we had to stop for ice cream at ‘We-lik-it’ in Pomfret. Yummy! From there we had only about two miles remaining to the camp. The total mileage for the day for me was fifty miles. We arrived at the Wolf Den Campground. I imagined it to be more wooded. And there were not many people camping, which really surprised me.

We set up camp and hiked to the park’s brook to soak our sweaty feet.

It was a very peaceful experience. After that we ate and showered. We were still enjoying a nice conversation, when suddenly mosquitos started attacking with vengeance. It was time to retreat to relax inside mosquito protected camping establishments. For me it was just a mosquito net and for Cory, it was a tent. I could see the mosquitos gathering around outside the net.

I fell asleep soon and my sleep was quite light as I was afraid to touch the screen with any part of my body. I kept covered under my sleeping bag and was a little bit hot. Made a note to myself that the net worked better on cooler nights, but I was grateful that I brought the net after all. It kept me safe from the New England vampires, and being a little warmer was a very low price to pay.

I woke up around 6am and looked at Cory’s tent and our site. She was nowhere in sight, and I decided to snooze for a little bit longer but got bored quickly. I got up and went to the bathroom. I sat on the bench and read my book or stared at the birds that were exploring the space close to the bench.

Soon Cory got up. She informed me that she was up very early and read for a while, and then decided to take a nap and as a result overslept a bit. It was fine with me. We had nowhere to be so early in the morning. We soon were ready to head out to Woodstock. Cory wanted to see the Roseland Cottage. The tours started at 11am.