Steve Fagin

The group has carried out this annual ritual since 1987. About 50 spectators hiked up a rocky trail in pre-dawn darkness, using headlamps, to witness the show.

With thunderous torrents that showcase nature's roaring power, waterfalls typically attract huge crowds, especially on sunny weekends in early spring, when melting snow and thawing ice swell rivers and streams.

More than a century ago, two popular waterfront destinations — Harkness Memorial and Rocky Neck state parks — were home to, respectively, one of the nation's wealthiest couples and a fish fertilizer factory.

When friends and I set out the other morning to hike at The Preserve, a 963-acre expanse of protected forest that spans Westbrook, Old Saybrook and Essex, we didn't bother studying a trail map — even though our group has a tendency for taking wrong turns.

After traipsing half a mile down a steep mountain bike trail in Rhode Island the other day — bypassing several makeshift wooden jumps that daredevil cyclists had constructed — friends and I crossed a shallow stream, clambered up a hill, and dashed across an unpaved road while looking out for speeding dump trucks that were hauling gravel from a quarry.

After tramping about a mile along a winding trail, I spotted a broad swath of bright green leaves that poked through the ground in a ravine a hundred yards or so away.

At times the other day, when friends and I tramped along a hilly trail between Preston and Ledyard, we envisioned Native Americans treading this route hundreds of years ago. Other moments, while we passed beneath power line towers, crossed busy streets and meandered through neighborhoods, reminded us that we remained ensconced in the 21st century.

Ospreys circled and a bald eagle sprang from the branch of an oak, as our kayak group paddled into Lyme's Hamburg Cove last week. New foliage glowed in late afternoon sunlight; the rustle of leaves mingled with splashing paddles.

Last week, I joined a volunteer crew that finished building a sturdy wooden span across Cowslip Brook at The Merritt Family Forest, a 75-acre nature preserve owned and maintained by the Groton Open Space Association (GOSA) near the top of Fort Hill.