I have a great view from my office desk, looking southwest from the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford. Years ago, from where I sat in a different side of the building on a lower floor, I saw the iconic Heublein Tower peeking up from behind the trees of Talcott Mountain (part of the long Metacomet Ridge). That sparked years of hiking and bicycling to the mountain and tower (not bicycling to the tower, but to the path), and eventually hiking the mountains all over Connecticut.
I’d threatened a couple weeks back to find the names of the prominent mountains and ridges I could see and put them on Post-It notes for the education and edification of anyone who wandered over to my corner of the building, which is nobody as my team mates are from all over the country and the world, and none of them work near me.
I didn’t realize I was so visible in the reflection…
Anyway. The shadowy, triangular peak waaaaaay in the distance on the left is West Peak, part of the Hanging Hills in Meriden. Foreground of that is Cedar Mountain, home of one of the oldest radio towers in the country. The things you learn. I think Cedar Mountain is in Wethersfield. Continuing northward and to the right are what I believe to be Ragged Mountain (that I have climbed) and Bradley Mountain (that I have not).
The Post-it notes are a little misaligned in this picture, but the hill on the left of the picture is Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington. Right of that, the buildings on the horizon, is the UConn Health Center, also in Farmington. You can’t really see it in this picture, but starting on the right, there is a shallow slope up eventually becoming the Talcott Mountain State Park, home of the Heublein Tower.
Herr Heublein was German, so the tower name was originally pronounced as his name was, “HOY-bline”. But now it’s pronounced “HIGH-bline” for no reason. It just is.
Anyway, mystery solved, now I’ll have to deal with all the other distractions I face in the office. That one’s done, at least.
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