Do we know why LE just happened to be out driving in a rural, secluded area at that precise time of night?
I doubt your description is right. There is a LOT if inaccurate information preceding your post, so I don’t blame you but...
Both the Windsor dam entrance and the Goodnough dike entrance are right on route 9, a two-lane state road that is patrolled regularly by the state police BECAUSE it is a state road. The entrances are nearly 20 (not 10) miles from UMASS/A.C. When I hung out there some, it was a family picnic and day-trip spot around the dam and dike. People would bring sheets of cardboard and “sled” down the grass-covered Windsor dam — great fun. There were picnic areas run by the MDC and in the surrounding woods, old cellar holes (some of which I photographed). You could see old walkways that meandered down into the water. It has been decades, though, so access to the area may have been tightened up lately, esp. after 9/11/2001.
The east side of the reservior (it is a long north-south oriented valley) is extremely rural. The west side, also very rural, is accessible from another main two lane road via “gates” into land around the reservior fishermen and hunters during LIMITED seasons use to access the land and water.
Police patrolling the state road would EASILY seen people at one of the main entrances.
Thank you for adding some perspective to that. It makes A LOT more sense now!
Good info. Thanks.