Cockaponset Trail

Cockaponset Trail
We began and finished this hike on May 18, 2012. 

Trail Heads: 

Beaver Meadow Rd., Haddam, CT - Parking: at the trail head, there is maybe 2 parking spots. As recommended in the Connecticut Walk Books, we parked in the commuter parking lot approximately 2/10ths of a mile away. The road is very narrow so make sure you hug the shoulder.   

West Main St. at State Forest Rd., Chester, CT - Parking: directly across the street from the trail head, there are about 6 spots.  

Length/Distance: 

The CT Walk Book listed the trail as being 7.1 miles. Using a GPS tracking program (Map My Run), I would say the trail is a bare minimum of 7.5 miles, thought probably closer to 7.75 miles. This doesn't include the walk from the commuter lot to the trail head. Here's my route. If you want to hike the entirety of the trail, I would advise to do what we did: park one car at each end of the trail and make it a through-hike.       

Summary:

The hike was very nice. It has a few sections with hills but overall, it was a flat trail. The ground was firm and didn't have many rocks. There were some sections of the trail that were muddy; in addition, a few sections went through swamp land. I would advise wearing boots, although if you're careful, you could navigate the trail with sneakers or hiking shoes with minimal mud being transferred to your person. Also, there were a few places on the trail where there weren't any blue blazes and we had to try multiple trails to find the Blue Trail. 

We started in Haddam at the trail head on Beaver Meadow Rd and finished in Chester on Rt. 148/West Main St. At approximately 3 MPH, we finished the hike in roughly 3 hours, which included water breaks and searching for the trail. If you are allergic to poison ivy, keep a close watch. There was a lot of poison ivy growing on the edges of the trail. Also, maybe a quarter of the way down the trail, we found a section of forest that had a lot of Pink Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium acaule). They are native to CT and in some places are listed as endangered.

We saw chipmunks, squirrels, toads, frogs, and millipedes on our hike, as well as Mountain-Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) and wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) and raspberry (Rubus strigosus) plants.