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10/12/2016 08:30 AMMike Urban admits he wasn’t much a reader or even a writer in high school. Instead he preferred to be active, gravitating towards sports and outdoor activities. That is, until a new-found interest in music late in high school turned his head. So he taught himself to play the guitar and started writing songs with a friend.
“The songs weren’t great, but they kindled the creative curiosity that led to my interest in arts and literature and becoming an English major,” says Mike.
The college English major in turn was the credential that led him into a life-long career as a book editor in the publishing world.
“I edited non-fiction books, specializing in travel guides,” says Mike.
For the past 35 years, Mike has been a book editor, a packager, and more recently, a writer of books and articles. To date, he’s written and had published four books as wells as more than a dozen articles for Yankee Magazine’s digital division. They call him the seafood expert, according to Mike.
For his first step into book writing, he stuck with what he knew: travel guides and seafood. His taste for and love of seafood he dates to the two years he spent in New Orleans at Tulane University.
“My food tastes growing up were pedestrian. I didn’t develop a taste for seafood and crayfish until I went to New Orleans and tasted étoufée,” says Mike.
His first book was Lobster Shacks: Road Trip Guide to New England’s Best Lobster Joints; his second, the New England Diner Cookbook; and his third, the New England Seafood Markets Cookbook
. While visiting O’Rourke’s diner in Middletown, Connecticut for one his books, he even had a new diner recipe, Mike’s Butternut Squash, named after him.
Mike first moved to the Connecticut shore 25 years ago from the city for a job as editorial director of Pequot Press. Though both he and his wife were committed city dwellers, they embraced their new forested neighborhood in the hills of Old Saybrook. Hikes in the woods, listening for birds and seeing wildlife—it was quite a change from the city life. One open hearth fireplace and another with a wood stove meant the Urban family also had to keep stacks of split wood on hand to fuel the winter fires around which the family gathered.
Mike says that their neighborhood near Ingham Hill Road and the town of Old Saybrook in general has been an idyllic place to raise a family.
“Living back in the forest got me back into enjoying the out of doors,” says Mike who had loved camping with the scouts as a boy. “Our whole family goes hiking in these woods. That’s what holds my heart, in thinking about Old Saybrook as a magical place to be.”
That’s why Mike was drawn five years ago to join the Board of the Old Saybrook Land Trust (OSLT). For the past two years, he’s been the OSLT president and before that, spent two years as OSLT treasurer.
“The purpose of the land trust is important to me: to preserve open space is its mission,” says Mike.
A recent addition to the OSLT’s holdings, now at 78.75 acres, is the second half of the 4.6 acre Dunk Island—the first half OSLT acquired in 2006. Dunk Island is an upland in the Oyster River south of Route One that can only be accessed by small boat or kayak. Mike says that in the past three years, OSLT has acquired five properties totaling more than 30 acres of upland and marshland around town.
“We are always looking for land donations and any parcels that we may purchase affordably,” says Mike.
On Saturday, Oct. 15, at 11 a.m., OSLT members—and any member of the public wishing to join them—plan a one-hour work project at OSLT’s 6.14-acre Oyster River property (a former Maynard Farm parcel off Ingham Hill Road) followed by a shared lunch and celebration of fall. Typical land stewardship work days like this one include tasks like invasive plant species removal and trail clearing.
“When autumn comes, so many people think of going to New Hampshire and Vermont, but it’s equally nice right here to enjoy the fall leaf colors. There’s plenty to enjoy right here,” says Mike.
Where are Mike’s top town spots for fall hikes or to take in a vista of a hill aflame in fall colors?
First on his list was The Preserve.
“It’s a great place in fall with at least a dozen trails. There’s a rock ledge overlooking Pequot Swamp Pond that has a nice overview,” says Mike.
Another local hike he likes is through Great Cedars West. Parking at the Ingham Hill Road entrance, there’s a short hike past David Brown’s Hay House and farm along a trail that circles around to Lake Rockview. Hikers can also enter the area from Town Park, or through the Nature Conservancy’s Turtle Creek preserve, with forest trails and views of South Cove in Essex; parking a trail head access is off of Watrous Road.
For a great vista to which one could drive, he offered two ideas: first, the view from Barley Hill Road, the highest point in town, from which you can get views of Long Island Sound and of the town’s wooded hills; second, the views from Founder’s Park at the end of Coulter Street, where visitors get views of the Connecticut River, North Cove, and of the marshes of Old Lyme across the river. Or a drive along the town’s two designated scenic roads, Schoolhouse Road and Ingham Hill Road, to see traditional New England rock walls, streams, forests, and historic homes.
In addition to Mike’s leadership with the OSLT, he also for years has volunteered at the Soup Kitchen at Grace Episcopal Church serving lunch each Wednesday and served on the town’s Planning Commission. For six years while his sons were in school, he was on the board and even served as president of the OSW Touchdown Club.
But his heart still lies in these woods and with the work he do to preserve them for everyone to enjoy.
“I just like being out there—it’s good to walk in the woods,” says Mike.
To learn more about the Old Saybrook Land Trust and its upcoming events including the Saturday, Oct. 15 work day and the annual Thanksgiving Weekend hike scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 26 at noon, visit OSLT.org.