Godard Preserve & Mary Edwards Mountain

Not only was Alice Godard generous enough to donate 107 acres of land to the Granby Land Trust, she also created an endowment for the construction and maintenance of trails. In addition, her daughter Barbara donated a five-acre parcel. Mary Edwards donated 250 acres of her land and was a major supporter of the GLT. We were privileged to reap the benefits of their generosity on this beautiful day.

The well-marked blue-blazed trail took us downhill to a stream, and we commented on how calming it is to hear the gentle rush of the water spilling over the rocks.

The trail took us by the water for a little while and then veered east. 

We turned left taking the yellow trail around and then back onto blue, crossing the stream on the south side, bringing us back to blue and uphill to our starting point. We'd been out about an hour and had walked a little over a mile and a half.











We then crossed Donahue Road and entered the trail to the Mary Edwards Mountain property. This is an uphill climb (but not steep) for about four-tenths of a mile. It took us a little less than 20 minutes to reach Mary's Rock, where the endless view includes Springfield, Mass and the Mount Tom range. This view can easily be reached by parking on the side of the road in the pullout provided on Mountain Road, just west of Silkey Road.

We paused there for for our devotional:

Proverbs 3:6 "In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight." 

Most great hikes of history take the same route - a big circle. When people travel to Nepal to climb Everest, they leave from the same airport at which they arrived three months earlier. So why go to all the trouble? How about a sunset glow at 6000 feet? The beauty of the glow of the horizon is doubled as you remember each step taken to reach the scene.  Hiking involves circles, and so does life. Solomon commented on this when he wrote, "All of it is meaningless" (Ecclesiastes 2:17). While the circle itself may be meaningless, the effect the journey has an us. is not. 

But what about our spiritual journey? As we press forward in our spiritual walk, we have a destination. Heaven is our home. Rather than circular, this path is straight and narrow. We have a direct path to eternity. Everything is circles in our earthly lives except our spiritual journey, which leads us to our eternal destination. Let's trust in Him on our lives' straight and narrow paths.- adapted from "With God on the Hiking Trial"by Nathan Chapman.

I had underestimated the length of time it would take us to reach this point. Since I promised the hike would be under two hours, we decided to take a shortcut and go counter clockwise on the yellow trail, which took us by (and under) some interesting trees.

Someday we will have to return and explore the rest of the trails. Preferably in the fall, when I imagine the view will be breathtaking.

Our Route - view map and stats in detail: https://runkeeper.com/user/ValleyHikers/activity/748854777?tripIdBase36=cduk1l&activityList=false&
(requires runkeeper account)

Address: Donahue Road, Granby ( about a half mile down on the east side - there is a sign, and parking is available on the side of the road)

Trail Maps: http://www.granbylandtrust.org/godard_map.pdf

http://www.granbylandtrust.org/Trail%20Guide%20Sign-4.pdf

Length: 2.8 miles

Duration: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Calories burned: 444

Difficulty level: easy to moderate

Climbs: