Seniors enjoy walking in the Tobin Preserve woods

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KENT—In an effort to give older people an opportunity to exercise in a fun way, Kent Land Trust and Kent Park and Recreation teamed up with the New Milford Senior Center for a Senior Hike Friday, July 19.

Two dozen seniors participated in the hike, with a large portion of them coming from New Milford. Kent’s own Rufus P. de Rham was the bus driver transporting many from New Milford and Janette Ireland, who is the program coordinator/assistant director of the New Milford Senior Center, is also a Kent resident.

KLT’s program manager Melissa Cherniske welcomed everyone to the hike at the Robert and Audrey Tobin Preserve and explained that it would be a walk on the Laurel Loop. The hike was just under a mile. Several of the hikers had walking sticks to help steady themselves. A drop in humidity and temperature made for wonderful hiking weather that day.

Betty Krasne of Kent is an experienced hiker. 

“It was just right,” she said of the length and difficulty of the walk. She was drawn to the activity because hiking alone doesn’t appeal to her. “I don’t like to walk in the woods alone.”

Mary Ellen Casey of Kent said she found the hike to be “very nice.”

“I’ve never been here,” she said, which is why she took the opportunity to join the group hike. “I like to take walks in the woods.”

Two KLT interns, Erin Classey and Tim Hine, joined the hike and helped assist the hikers over a couple of tricky areas that had a few loose rocks or a steep section. Hine took the lead with the Mad About Kent Challenge, that is in the form of a Mad Libs, asking participants for various parts of speech words as they passed the 20 different markers on the trees.

At the end he read the completed story, “Gnomes, Elves, and Fairies Go Hiking: A Whimsical Play in Seven Acts.” Act three had three different inserted words: “The Mischievous Stream – They came to a stream crossing, but this was no ordinary branch (noun). Instead of calmly flowing it ran (verb past tense), splashed, and occasionally turned into a slide. Grumble slipped and landed on his gnome behind. “This stream is mocking me,” Grumble grumbled. As Elara slowly (adverb) leapt across, Flutter sprinkled a fairy dust bridge. “Water you fussed about? It’s just having a laugh!”

Ireland said the New Milford Senior Center has a club called the “Movers and Shakers” and all of the 19 people attending from the town were part of that club. They are a mobile group and enjoy hiking and activities such as bowling in the winter months. They’ve done trails at a variety of towns nearby, including White Memorial in Litchfield, Steep Rock in Washington and the Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy (NCLC).

The hikers got an introduction to the property from Tobin, who gave KLT the funding so the 241-acre property could be purchased in 2012. 

“I was fortunate that I grew up in a small town in upstate New York where we had a farm, so at a very tiny age I was into the outdoors,” Tobin said, adding he was using a chainsaw at age 10. After graduating from college he said he went into the grocery business. 

“It turned into a 40-some-year career with Stop & Shop supermarkets and I ended up running the place,” Tobin said, adding that he served as the CEO a long time ago. “Don’t complain to me because that was 20 years ago. Anything that is wrong happened after I left,” he said to laughter from the group.

For a long time he knew that retirement would lead him back to nature.

“So we were able to purchase a nearby property that was looking down a valley that is gorgeous. This property became available,” he said. “It was owned by eight people who used it for hunting. It was going to be sold for a 16-house development. I said not on my watch.”

Tobin has worked with KLT on each of the four trails that have been developed. He told hikers that he designed each one to take advantage of the natural features.

“We all ask ourselves the question, ‘will I leave the place better than I found it?’ “ he said. “I think I can answer that,” and was greeted with applause from those gathered. 

Laurie Doss, a board member and chairman of the Marvelwood School Science Department, shared that the preserve is a very important area for birds.

“It hosts one of the highest populations of cerulean warblers, even more so than River Road in Kent. There’s a lot of chestnut oak and they like it,” she said. She listed a number of other birds that travel through the preserve including a wood thrush, yellow-breasted chat, Louisiana water thrush and Blackburnian warbler.

Following the hike, the group headed to the Kent Senior Center where Park and Rec offered sandwiches and salads from Davis IGA for lunch.

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