Ever since CTOldHouse.com began in 2013, I had been meaning to visit the 4400-acre McClean Game Refuge south of Granby. This past September, a gorgeous afternoon became available and I finally got there. Now here I am kicking myself because I hadn’t checked out the place sooner.
   Wildlife refuges are commonly made up of scrubby, swampy land that has never served a productive purpose. On the contrary, the McClean Refuge is made up of some of the finest farm and forest land in Connecticut. Now you know what the locals know.  When I was there, a sprinkling of people was taking off down themain trail that takes off from the parking lot which sits on the west side of Highway 202, just about a mile south of Granby. Me, I pulled a Robert Frost and took off down a smaller trail that took off through a broad meadow into the trees.  That entire afternoon I saw one other person, a fellow geezer, jogging his way to serenity and good health.

Senator McLean and his wife, along with President Coolidge and his wife,
visit the Refuge in the mid-1920s.