#hiking and biking

The Tait Section of the Billings Trail in Norfolk Connecticut

This was a nice little bike ride about a mile and a half one way with almost no intense inclines. I usually push myself with tough trails, but this time I took it easy. The only time I couldn’t ride the trail was a little patch of mud and a few hundred feet at the very end. Right before it connects to Winchester Road it turns into a small path that has to be walked. 

A little more than halfway through the Tait section of the Billings Trail, right where the trail intersects with the Mad River there’s a little rest area with a stone bench that has the words MAD RIVER deeply engraved on the top of the stone seat. I thought it was a nice touch even though the Mad River is more of a brook at this stage.

All of the red flowers you see in he pictures are the Cardinal Flower ( Lobelia Cardinalis). I’ve seen this flower out in the wild before, but never in these numbers. The brilliant deep red color is really a sight. I can’t think of another wild flower that stands out nearly as much as the Cardinal flower. More often than not I’ll add colors in Photoshop to make the reds redder and the greens greener, but this close up picture of the Cardinal Flower is totally natural.

Medicinal useofCardinal Flower:  
Emetic (induces vomiting), expectorant (helps bring up mucus and other material from the lungs, bronchi, and trachea)  and a nervine (calms the nerves). The root is analgesic (a pain reliever), anthelmintic (expels parasites from the body), antispasmodic and stomachic (promotes appetite and aids digestion) . A tea made from the roots has been used in the treatment of epilepsy, syphilis, typhoid, stomach aches, cramps, worms etc. Several Native American tribes used the leaves as a substitute for tobacco. I have also read other accounts that claim some Native American tribes actually used it in a blend with tobacco and some other herbs like Mullein. This makes more sense to me because I have smoked the leaves and though it is a pleasant smoke it’s fairly thin. It lacks the full bodied flavor of tobacco or marijuana etc.

Another interesting plant growing there is the Broadleaf Arrowhead plant(Sagittaria latifolia). It’s called the Broadleaf Arrowhead plant because the leaves look like a giant arrowhead. The leaves are about 12 inches long and about 6 inches wide. It’s also known by other names such as Duck Potato, Indian potato, or Wapato. So you may have figured out that the roots develop tubers which are like potatoes. A potato is a tuber. You can cook the Duck Potato all of the same ways that you cook a regular potato. They say that the taste is similar to a chestnut. It’s hard to make out, but they are in the second to the last picture at the edge of the bog. From the trail I could see the giant leaves, but I needed the binoculars to see the white and yellow flowers of this plant.

All Photographs by Gary Cremese.