For the 13th year, the Heritage Corridor will sponsor an annual Walking Weekend, which has proved so popular it will actually run for two weekends this fall, with 95 free guided tours. Walks range from rambles around village greens to hikes through the highlands, with special routes planned for families, birdwatchers, and history buffs. Walk leaders include archeologists, Army Corps of Engineers park rangers, municipal historians, college professors, authors, farmers, and naturalists.
The Heritage Corridor also publishes a guide to 32 choice outings on your own, in town and country. Settle into one of the small inns that dot the region and the pamphlet will lead you to some wonderful discoveries.
The Quiet Corner alone offers 11 state parks and forests and another half-dozen preserves with miles of hiking trails, clear streams for fishing or canoeing, village greens ringed by houses dating to Colonial days, abundant farmland, and wooded roads blessedly free of traffic.
The region is divided into hill towns and mill towns. The latter developed in the lower areas along the Quinebaug River, which once powered many kinds of mills. The mill owners tended to live in the villages on the hilltops, and that is where you will find appealing towns such as Pomfret and other unspoiled villages where open land has been jealously preserved.
The Connecticut Audubon's Bafflin Sanctuary in Pomfret, located on Day Road off Route 169, has about eight miles of designated trails on some 500 acres. Especially recommended is the Golden Hill Trail, an easy two-mile loop that travels along the edge of a large hayfield, through forest, and past a wetland favored by bird watchers.
