On this, the last official day of summer, I decided to hike one of the trails at Mansfield Hollow State Park, a recreation and wildlife management area located in Tolland County adjacent to Willimantic and a few miles east of Storrs, where our rivals, the UConn Huskies, are based.

I entered the park from the south, where North Windham Road dead-ends off Bassett Bridge Road. This photo of the Natchaug River was taken as it runs under the road.

I hiked the Blue Trail northwest as it skirts the edge of Mansfield Hollow Lake, a 500-acre body of water which was created by the Army Corps of Engineers when they dammed the Natchaug River. Boating and fishing are allowed, but not swimming, as the lake is also used as a drinking water reservoir. I was hoping to circle around the lake and cross the dam to return to my vehicle, but I wasn’t sure from the map whether or not I could do that, so I turned around at the boat ramp area and retraced my steps. There were many people like these canoeists enjoying the water today.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s website includes an extensive discussion of the Park’s geology, which of course is glacial. Twenty thousand years ago, glacial ice about a mile thick covered the state. When the glaciers began melting, they deposited sediments over the granitic bedrock in this area. Geologic formations typical of a glacial landscape include kames, kettles, and eskers, all of which are found in this park. In fact, part of the Blue Trail runs along an esker, though you can’t see it well in this photo.