Posted By auntie on July 17, 2014

4.56 miles, stonington, ct

while barn island is one of my favorite hikes, and one of the most beautiful places i hike, in july, barn island is a distopian hellscape of blood-sucking insects. i barely made it out alive, and had it not been for a friend’s blog post a week or so ago, i would still be there, a desiccated husk drained of every last drop of blood.

used patch

dirty nail’s post about deer fly patches reminded me i was out, so i ordered more. this is what my hat looked like at the end of the hike.

bunny

the hike started off rather pleasantly, with this bunny-sighting. he scampered off right after this.

the view

while i was out on the marsh, it was fine, i think both because of the breeze off long island sound and because of the vast horde of dragonflies. you were literally walking through clouds of them. i’ve never seen so many in one place.

swamp honeysuckle (actually an azalea)

and even though the swamp honeysuckle, actually an azalea, was in bloom and smelled heavenly, once you got into the woods you were fair game for everything that sucked blood. giant mosquitos who laughed at my all-natural insect repellant. and deer flies. always with the deer flies. a more sensible person would have turned back. not me… i wanted to do the whole big loop.

wildflowers in the field

part of the loop goes through a huge meadow, and it was full of wildflowers including butterfly weed, chicory, black-eyed susans, milkweed, dog roses, yarrow… it was really beautiful. it almost made up for the torture i suffered in the woods. almost.

you can find barn island in the hikefinder, though i don’t recommend it in high summer!

Categories: Connecticut, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2–5 miles, CT, Stonington CT