Metacomet trail - Part 11

This hike occurred on November 16, 2013

Trail Heads:
440 New Britain Ave., Plainville, CT - We parked in a doctors' offices parking lot across the street from where the Metacomet enters the woods again after a road walk. The parking lot is very large and is not used by patients on evenings and weekends. 

Parking for Metacomet Trail, Colt Highway (RT-6), Farmington, CT - This Metacomet trail head has both a small parking lot as well as on-street parking where the trail crosses the highway. 

Length/Distance: According the Connecticut Walk book, the route between the trail heads on New Britain Ave & Colt Highway/Rt-6 was 3.7 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 4.35 miles.

Summary: We started from Colt Highway/Rt-6 and hiked towards New Britain Ave. Near the beginning of the trail, there was a tricky section of rock we had to climb over. 

After a bit of a walk, we emerged near the Channel 30 broadcast towers. 

Not too long after this, we hiked by Will Warren's Den which is a small cave with historical significance. 

We climbed to the top of a cliff with some beautiful views. 

The trail then went down and around the cliff. For whatever reason, there were hundreds of hornets flying in and around the rocks. Their bodies and wings together were about the size of a thumb.

We had to hike through a hole in the rock.

We quickly scrambled down the hill behind the cliff, trying to avoid being stung by the swarms of hornets. 

Underneath the power lines, we found what we were pretty sure was Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna). 

From under the power lines, you could see quite a ways north. 

We found remnants of an old lookout tower. 

There was a view of hill we'd climbed. 

We reached the area of Rattlesnake Mountain where many folks go climbing. 

After a bit more hiking, we reached the trail head on New Britain Ave. 

Metacomet trail - Part 10

This hike occurred on November 3, 2013

Trail Heads:
330 Long Bottom Rd., Southington, CT - We parked on Long Bottom Road at Roger's Orchard farm store. There is no roadside parking available at the trail head on Shuttle Meadow Road. 

440 New Britain Ave., Plainville, CT - We parked in a doctors' offices parking lot across the street from where the Metacomet enters the woods again after a road walk. The parking lot is very large and is not used by patients on evenings and weekends. 

Length/Distance: According the Connecticut Walk book, the route between the trail heads on Long Bottom Rd & New Britain Ave was 5.1 miles, although the route may have been redone since the book was last updated. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 5.36 miles.

Summary: We started our hike from Roger's Orchard. We walked to the Shuttle Meadow Road trail head and began our hike. The woods in this area had quite a lot of ripe rose hips (edible - first picture) and Common Bittersweet (poisonous - second picture).

The trail climbed along some cliffs. 

We saw an old fireplace near the trail. 

There was some very nice views of Crescent Lake. The fall colors were amazing.  

Near the lake's overlook, there was evidence of an old structure, long since forgotten. 

As the trail neared Rt-72, there was clearings full of rose hips. 

The trail ended out onto Black Rock Ave and we followed the blue blazes over Rt-72, and over to Main St/Rt-372. In the course of this day's hike, we started hiked in Southington, went through New Britain, and ended in Plainville.

Metacomet trail - Part 9

This hike occurred on October 27, 2013

Trail Heads:
330 Long Bottom Rd., Southington, CT - We parked on Long Bottom Road at Roger's Orchard farm store. There is no roadside parking available at the trail head on Shuttle Meadow Road. 

600 Wigwam Rd., Berlin, CT - We parked on Wigwam Road by Ragged Mountain Preserve. 

Length/Distance: According the Connecticut Walk book, the route between the trail heads on Long Bottom Rd & Ragged Mountain was 3.0 miles. Including a portion of Ragged Mountain's trail system, according to my GPS tracking program, our route was 4.36 miles. 

Summary: We started our hike from Roger's Orchard. We did a road walk for the first half mile or so. From there, we hiked into the woods and up to an overlook of Shuttle Meadow Reservoir. The trail then headed downward towards Ragged Mountain Preserve. The trail intersected with the trail system and we took Blue-Red trail out to Wigwam Rd. 

Appalachian Trail section hike - 2nd section of VT

Hike occurred on November 8th & 9th, 2013

Vermont Appalachian Trail section hike

By "Timex"

Friday, November 8th: 

VT-9, Woodford, VT to Story Spring Shelter

19.0 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Porcupine Lookout (2815 ft), Little Pond Mountain (3100 ft), Glastenbury Lookout (2920 ft), Glastenbury Mountain (3748 ft) 

Summary: I parked my car by the Bennington Town Offices after obtaining a parking permit from the town manager's office. I then was able to hitch a ride three miles up VT-9 to the trail head. I started the hike from the USFS parking lot on VT-9 (Molly Stark Trail) at 8:00am. It was lightly snowing when I started my hike. As I climbed, it began snowing in earnest. The view from the first lookout showed just how much ice and snow had accumulated on the trees. I passed a day hiker around here.  

Porcupine Lookout 

Campfire at Porcupine Lookout

Little Pond Lookout

View from lookout near Glastonbury Mountain

By the time I reached Goddard Shelter halfway through my day's hike, the snow had accumulated 2-3 inches and visibility was very poor. Right after I left the shelter, I almost ran into the rear end of a huge moose. It trotted up the trail, leaving gigantic footprints in the snow. I hiked through the snow for quite a while and reached Story Spring Shelter at 4:50pm. I quickly make dinner and bedded down for the night; including the windchill factor, it got down to approximately 15 degrees that night. I slept from 6:30pm until 6:15am.

View from Story Spring Shelter

Saturday, November 9th: 

Story Spring Shelter to VT-11/30

21.1 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Stratton Mountain (3936 ft)

Summary: I got up around 6:15am, stuck my feet into icy, frozen boots, and hit the trail by 7am. It took about an hour of hiking before I could feel my feet again. I realized quickly that I'd made a mistake in not putting my water filter inside my sleeping bag; it was frozen and wouldn't filter water. It took about two hours of being in direct contact with my skin before it began to function again. After climbing for two hours, I reached the top of Stratton. At the top of Stratton Mountain, there was a fire tower (and a TON of wind). 

 

While you can climb the tower, the top platform was not open. The view from the stairs was pretty impressive though. 

From Stratton, you can see Killington Peak, Mt Ascutney, Mt Monadnock, Mt Snow, Glastenbury Mt, and the Taconics.

View of Somerset Reservoir and Mt Snow from Stratton

View of Killington Peak

View of Stratton Pond and Mt Ascutney, one of the most popular overnight spots on the AT

On the way down the mountain, I encountered two day hikers; I also pass by two section hikers on the logging road. From Stratton onward, it was mostly downhill. I was able to make very good time and passed by Spruce Peak Shelter's side trail around 2:45pm and arrived at VT-11/30 at 4pm. 

I was able to hitch a ride after about 15 minutes. I was very lucky to be picked up by an older gentleman who was heading to Bennington anyway (~30 miles). He stopped at McDonald's, bought me a coffee, and refused to take any money I offered him. I arrived at my car by 5pm and headed home! Given the weather report I saw today, it was a good choice to shorten my hike. It looked like that section of Vermont will be getting more snow and rain today and tomorrow. 

Total miles=40.1 miles in 2 days