Pygmy Village

If you've ever gone passed the DMV in Plainville, you end up in a weird place. I went there one time in high school with my friend Bobby and it was our mutual opinion that it was weird. Later, I learned that it's the site of the Pygmy Village on Rattlesnake Mountain. While some dispute its spookiness, the rest of the internet is convinced of it spookitude. I had never been from the New Britain direction, so I set out that way on Saturday. 

Crossing the I-84 overpass on to west side of the highway, there are these walls made of giant concrete blocks that are about eight feet high on both sides of the road, creating an Escape from New York aesthetic. The blocks end and there's a fenced off area with a lot of no trespassing signs where someone was mowing followed by two rundown occupied houses and one abandoned one. My goal was to ride down North Mountain road back into Plainville, but what appears to be North Mountain road is just a cut for powerlines. Perhaps that's where the Pygmy Village lies, but it did not particularly possible to ride that way. Instead, I continued on what was sort of Long Swamp Rd up Rattlesnake Mountain and eventually came out at the Tilcon quarry. There was some very impressive corduroy.

I'll admit that the spookiness of the area discouraged me from checking out the powerline cut further. Perhaps that's where the Pygmy Village is, but I'll never know for sure. I am interested in exploring more of the ATV trails on Rattlesnake Mountain. I once rode the Metacomet over Rattlesnake, but it was mostly unrideable, hike-a-bike stuff. It looks like it would be possible to do a Tour de Talcott-type ride, but south from the West Hartford Reservoir. I rode once from there to Southington and the Rattlesnake section was the most discouraging. Other than that, it was ok. Discovering these ATV trails and dirt roads make for a pretty good alternative.