Mattabesett Trail - Part 6

This hike occurred on July 16, 2012

Trail Heads: 
Brainard Hill Rd., Higganum, CT - Parking: At this trail head, there is off-road parking available for, at max, 2 cars. The road is residential and very quiet so you could probably get away with parking on the side of the road, although the road is pretty narrow. 

Seven Falls State Park, Haddam, CT - Parking: This roadside park has a parking lot right before Me and McGee's and also has parking available on Saybrook Rd's shoulder. 

Length/Distance: According to the CT Walk book, it should have been 1.6 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, the route was 2.17 miles.  

Summary: For this hike, we ended up walking between two Blue-blazed trail heads (Saybrook Rd & Brainard Hill Rd). The entire walk was on pavement/public roads. After looking at the elevation, we decided to hike from Brainard Hill to Saybrook Rd instead of the other way around. This was a good choice. The majority of the hike was down hill. Most of the roads were residential so they weren't too busy but there was still a fair amount of traffic. The road was well blazed with lots of telephone poles being marked like this one. 

Early on in the hike, we encountered a small farm stand. At the present, they only had plants. I wonder if they have veggies later in the season. 

There were some nice Queen Anne's Lace on the road as well. 

We saw some more Verbascum Thapsus growing between some rocks at a farm. 

We also saw some very pretty flowering Staghorn Sumac. 

This was a fairly quick and easy hike which was good since it was 90+ degrees and rather humid. The bugs did try to nibble on us but thankfully, we'd sprayed down with bug repellent. At the end of this hike, as we walked through Seven Falls park, one of my ankles gave out and I fell, twisting my ankle. Hopefully, it should be back to normal in a few days. Unfortunately, it's a rather common occurrence for me. This event also encouraged me to purchase a new pair of hiking shoes with more stability.