Bike
Route #3: Lake Waramaug Area
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Route with a View
| About This Route | |||
| Approximate
Length: |
30 Miles |
Ability Level: | Easy
/ Intermediate |
| Watch Out For: | Sunday
Afternoon Traffic |
Number of Real Hills: | 1
(Strawberry Ridge Road) |
| Places to Eat or Drink: |
Doc's Trattoria, State Park Snack Stand Numerous places to picnic |
Combines with: | Route # 4 |
| Map and Directions for this Route About 58K: 6 -16 Seconds | |
| Comments | |
The route is the favorite of area bikers who do 7.7 mile "laps" around Lake Waramaug. This is a " share the road" route and most motorists do. The roads closest to the lake are narrow. When it is safe to pass, please have the courtesy to signal safe passing to the cars behind you. For the most part the route is flat except for the hill on the route up to Mountain Lake. It is worth the view even if you walk up Strawberry Ridge Road! The lake has many great restaurants: Hopkins Inn, Doc's and The Birches on the lake as well as Oliva in New Preston and The Boulders on Rt. 47. Recommendations: The best time to ride is early morning or weekdays to avoid lake tourist traffic. Do not enter the camp area at Mt Lake - since 9/11, the powers that be will ask you to leave. |
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| Tidbits of History and Trivia | |
More than 10,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians arrived in Connecticut. On the banks of the Shepaug River in Washington Depot is the earliest dated human occupation site in Connecticut. It carbon-14 dates back 10,190 years and is Site # 6LF21. Photos and other information are available at the Institute for American Indian Studies (see ACTIVITIES page). Chief Waramaug was the sachem for a group of small tribes who banded together for protection against the Mohawks. These tribes included the Bantam (Litchfield area), and Potatucks (Woodbury area). He set up look outs and communication bonfires at the tops of Mt. Tom in Litchfield, the Pinnacle on Lake Waramaug, among other hill tops. These bonfires could be seen all the way to the chiefs "palace" on the Housatonic River. More Algonquian words: Housatonic:"over the mountain"; Shepaug: "rocky water", the Mohegan word for the area now called Roxbury. In 1753 New Preston separated from the East Greenwich Society, now Warren, which was then a part of Kent. Washington Depot was at one time called Factory Hollow. There were blacksmith shops, grist mills, and an iron foundry along the Shepaug River. Marble was quarried and sawed in New Preston and Marbledale in the early 18th century. In 1779, the parishes of New Preston and Judea joined together and were named Washington after General George Washington. |
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Bliss
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