Mattabesett Trail - Part 3

This hike occurred on June 19, 2012

Trail Heads:
Bear Hill Rd., Middletown, CT - Parking: There is off-street parking for 3-4 cars. The road is also very quiet and has a sizable shoulder so parking isn't an issue at this trail head. This trail head was easy to find.  

Aircraft Rd., Middletown, CT - Parking: To reach this trail head, you'll need to drive past a section of the Cockaponset State Forest. If you came off of Rt 9 and travel towards Pratt and Whitney, both Cockaponset and the trail head are on your left. Thankfully, the sign you see above is at the trail head so it's somewhat easy to find. The majority of parking here is on the side of the road. Aircraft Rd does have a sizable breakdown lane but cars travel on this road around 50-60 MPH so be very careful if you do park on the road. I found a 1 car space off the road a few hundred feet away from the trail head.   

Length/Distance: According to my GPS tracking program, our route was about 4.35 miles. According to the CT Walk books, it was only supposed to be 4.0 miles.  

Summary: We parked one car at Aircraft Rd and then began our hike at Bear Hill Rd. Very soon after entering the woods, we came out into a clearing with power lines. This is where the Blue goes one way and the Blue-Yellow (Bear Hill Loop trail) goes another. Given some of the tracks in the dirt, it appears the area under the power lines is a popular spot for ATVs, dirt bikes, and other off-road vehicles.      

After this, we went through many copses of Mountain Laurel. It could have been a bit spooky but at the time, it was just beautiful. 

After this, the path twists and turns around Bear Hill and there was some rather substantial hills and rocks to climb. For this section of the trail, we primarily walked on rock.  

 At one point, the path takes you along a rocky ridge with a sharp drop-off to your right. It was high enough to make me walk very carefully. 

After this section of trail, the path went back to being primarily woods with some water features. The trail weaves back and forth across the clear, clean stream for a mile or so. The creek was very pretty. We came upon a pool that contained many large frogs; they made some strange squeaky noises before jumping to safety in the water. 

Towards the very end of the hike, we thought we were done but then the trail took a sharp turn and went upwards again. The path led us along another ridge with a very sharp drop on the left. This portion of the trail was rather narrow to begin with and the drop made me nervous. This is the first hike we've done where I was fearful of falling. 

The hike was fairly easy but also didn't have any rewarding views. Because we never climbed above the tree cover, we didn't get to see anything very cool. This section of the trail seemed to lack much in the way of wildlife as well. Overall, it was a bit of a lackluster hike. We agreed that a bit more work for a better view would have been worth it. 

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.