Metacomet trail - Part 3

This hike occurred on July 21, 2013

Trail heads:
100 Summit Wood Dr., Berlin, CT - Parking: After our last hike, we decided to park on the side of the road on Summit Wood Drive. There were signs posted near the cul de sac saying "no parking beyond this sign" but there was plenty of space to park on the curb and the road was very quiet since it's a dead end. 

400 Park Dr., Berlin, CT - Parking: While the CT Walk book, the New England Trail website, and the Town of Meriden's website all state that Castle Craig has an auto road providing access to the East Peak from May 1st through October 31st from 10:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., it so happens they are all wrong. We attempted access via Hubbard Park Dr and Notch Rd prior to Park Dr and the roads were all blocked off with signs saying both "road closed" and "gate open 10am-4:45pm between May 1-Oct 31." We parked on Park Dr back beyond the "no parking beyond this sign." It was maybe a few tenths of a mile to walk in but it put us right where we needed to be. If you park here, just be mindful of the signs.     

Length/Distance: According the Connecticut Walk book, the route was 2.9 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 3.5 miles. 

Summary: We began our hike from Park Drive. We followed the road up to the gate (the blue trail goes to the left by the gate, btw). 

We went beyond the gate to get some pictures of the Merimere Reservoir. 

We backtracked to the gate, where the blue markings lead away from the reservoir back towards Chamberlain Highway. 

On the side of the trail, we saw what appears to be Common Selfheal/healall (Prunella vulgaris). It is in the mint family and apparently edible.

This section of the trail followed along what might have once been a creek bed. The trail was comprised of loose, unstable rocks. 

Soon after this, the trail opens up onto Elmere Reservoir. It was beautiful.  

The water tower had quite a lot of graffiti on it but looked nice from a distance. 

The pump house had a lot of razor wire (also known as barbed tape) surrounding it to discourage would-be trespassers. 

In the corner of the meadow, near where the trail reenters the woods, there was a large bush of American Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) with ripe berries. 

 

There was also some ripe Lowbush Blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) as well. 

After a bit more hiking, we passed over Chamberlain Highway; the blue trail was straight across the road and easy to see. Right after the highway, we crossed Cathole Brook.  

There was an entertaining blank sign board on the trail after the road crossing. 

The next section of trail had an assent and lots of spider webs. Ironically, I thought this section of the trail was some of the more dangerous we've hiked. When hiking near cliffs, it's fairly obvious the danger and how to avoid it. Here, the trail was very narrow and uneven with layer upon layer of unstable rocks with a sharp drop off to the left and more than once, we had the trail crumble away at the edges and fall down the hill. 

The trail was fairly well marked until the end of the section when the blazes just died out and the trail was overrun with grass and other plants. This is where the trail enters the woods from the Victoria Drive side. Note the blue blaze on the tree to the left. 

Victoria Drive may once have been a through road but is not longer, regardless of what Google Maps may tell you. 

From here, we walked up the road, though there were absolutely no blue blazes. The surrounding area was very nice, though the summer sounds were punctured with roars of half a dozen dirt bikes. 

This area was full of flowers and blossoms. We saw Early Goldenrod (Solidago juncea) [link has amazing guide to identifying different types of Goldenrod]. 

We also saw Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta).

There was a pink flower, perhaps a Small Wild Bean (Strophostyles leiosperma).  

There was also Common Daisies (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum).

Up the road, there is an intersection with another road spur, though Victoria Drive continues straight (picture is taken looking backward). 

On the upper right hand side of this intersection, we saw blue blazes on a few trees. 

We followed them into the woods. 

That tree directed us to the next trail marker. 

And then there were no more. This area needs the markings removed or covered. It was very confusing to have blue marks remaining when the trail did not travel this way anymore. We tried to follow what we thought was the trail for a bit and found a huge patch of American Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) growing on a trap rock incline. 

There were also unripe Fox Grapes (Vitis labrusca). 

After nomming on lots of raspberries, we bushwhacked our way back to the road through 7-8 foot high prickers, grass, and vines. From here, we walked further up Victoria Drive until we saw the blue trail split off to the left. The blue arrow was hard to see through all the foliage.  

From here, the trail was easy to follow though the bugs got really bad on this part of the trail for some reason. 

There was also a large fire ring that someone had made. It appears that people camp out here. 

From here, it was a fairly short hike back to the dead-end of Summit Wood Drive. Right near our parking spot, there was a large patch of American Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) so we went raspberry picking! 

Overall, this hike wasn't difficult physically. The temperature was in the mid-80's and it was sunny with fairly low humidity. The parking and road closure issues were more frustrating than anything else. The lack of trail markings (or trail markings that were not actually the trail) along Victoria Dr was also an issue. 

Mattabesett Trail - Part 14

This hike occurred on June 23, 2013

Trail heads:
705 Wallingford Rd., Durham, CT - Parking: On Wallingford Rd/Rt-68, where the blue trail enters the woods, there was side-of-the-road parking spots with enough space to park 2-3 cars. 

Meriden Rd. (Rt-66) &  Baileyville Rd. (Rt-147), Middlefield, CT - Parking: Right after Meriden Rd. (Rt-66) turns into a divided highway, there is a parking lot on the right hand side that fits 8-12 cars. We hiked from here, based on the elevation of both parking locations. It was a good choice.  

Length/Distance: According to the CT Walk book, the hike was 5.7 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 8.15 miles. This is a discrepancy of almost 2-1/2 miles. We lost the trail once for maybe 100 yards. The only other possible addition would be if the CT Walk book only counted from the Rt-68 to the intersection of Rt-66/Rt-147 and not the parking lot on Rt-66. Even so, that was only 0.8 miles from Rt-66's parking lot to where the blue trail entered the woods at the intersection of Rt-66/Rt-147; even assuming that difference, the mileage in the book was still off by over 1-1/2 miles. This difference in mileage lead to a number of issues on this hike. 

Summary: We started from the Rt-66 parking lot as we had reviewed Google's topographical maps and decided it would be less steep from this side. We followed the Blue-Red from the parking area to the intersection with the Blue trail and followed the Blue trail to the right. 

We then walked for approximately 8/10ths of a mile; some areas of the path were very muddy. 

The trail emerging next to Guida's picnic area.

We followed the blue trail markings indicating we should cross over Rt-66. 

 There is a crosswalk which was very helpful as Rt-66 is a busy road. After crossing the road, other blue trail markings were visible. 

The trail entered the woods soon after crossing Rt-66. It turns out there was parking available on the side of the road for maybe 2-3 cars. 

As the trail entered the woods, there was a trail map posted up with a warning about the cliffs.

When we entered the woods, we scared a deer and a newborn fawn. They were adorable. The walk started with a gentle uphill slope. After a bit, the trail went through a clearing created by the overhead power lines. 

There were some Tartarian Honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) shrubs with colorful, albeit toxic, berries. 

There were also some nice purple flowers. 

 As well as some unripe berries (probably Common Blackberries [Rubus fruticosus]).  

The view under the wires was nice. 

The path continued to climb. The path crossed by a stone fireplace. We saw a family with three children resting near here. 

We found a Northern Green Frog (Rana clamitans melanota) on the side of the trail. 

We crossed over a dirt road... 

And as we hiked the incline, we could see brief glimpses of Black Pond. 

 

The trail then opened up to the first of many look-out points. 

 

We continued along the ridge, taking more pictures as we progressed. 

You could see the next section of trail and cliffs we will be hiking from the top of Beseck Ridge.  

Lots of marshland! 

 

 

We saw some Ground Juniper (Juniperus communis) with berries. 

We also saw a Common Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), which is apparently an invasive species.

Another Ground Juniper had figured out a creative way to stay atop the cliffs. 

The cliffs were beautiful. 

 

There was a Little League game occurring on a distant field but the sound traveled quite a bit. 

As we began hiking again, we saw a spectacular mushroom. 

We also found some Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea biebersteinii).

This area of the trail had a lot of ups and downs, as well as many, many dirt biking/ATV trails crisscrossing the blue trail. The wheel tracks made large puddles and ponds on the trail. Most of these were easy to go around. We kept hearing bikes in the distance. At one point, we had stopped just beyond a curve in the trail and we heard a bike approaching very quickly. We shouted out and the dirt biker was able to hear us and slow down, preventing a collision. It was clear the dirt biker wasn't the first biker to be using parts of the blue trail. We eventually made it to the edge of Powder Ridge.  

The dirt biker had run over a dragonfly and we tried to help it find a new perch so it could have a fighting chance (it was being overrun by ants when we found it). 

The empty, gutted buildings made for an odd, vintage look to the area. I used to ski here as a child and it was odd being in waist high grass looking at the remains of a ski resort. 

According to the internet (and some news articles), it sounds like the same folks who run Brownstone Exploration Park bought Powder Ridge and will be reopening it this next winter. I have mixed feelings about this. While I'm delighted someone bought the property and plan to resurrect Powder Ridge, I had a season pass to Brownstone in 2010 and saw the owners verbally abuse their staff on numerous occasions. After that, I refused to patronize their business. 

By this stage of the hike, we barely had any water left and were very tired. There was a look-out point and we could see two tantalizingly large blue pools, the second of which is part of Meriden YMCA (Mountain Mist Outdoor Center).  

The blue trail markings were easy to follow around the ski resort and we headed towards where the trail entered the woods. Though I got some really nice pictures before we left.  

Further down the trail, there was another look-out spot where we could see a pond. 

In this next section of hike, we did lose the trail for maybe 100 yards (it was downhill and then we had to hike back up to find the trail again). The "trail" appeared to go to the left, while the blue trail went to the right. 

However because of the angle of the turn, you couldn't see the blue markings on the tree indicating a turn (left hand side of the picture). We highly recommend they add an arrow or some type of sign to indicate the trail change.  

After this, the trail was not very notable. It was a walk through forest for the most part. There were some ups and downs but the trail was generally flat. After the trail turned, someone (I assume young people) had marked a trail for friends follow to bring them to a bonfire and a look-out point. 

The person had marked trees underneath the blue blaze with a blue.... meat and two veg... tallywhackers... cock and balls. Those who maintain the trail may be interested in removing these "trail markings." I did not take a picture of this, sadly. In addition to this helpful trail marking, they had placed glow sticks periodically along the trail and never bothered to clean them up. As I realized how many there were, I began picking them up. 

Right after the lookout point, there was a very steep hill.

Soon after this, we crossed underneath more power lines. 

After many rests (with no water) and pep talks, we made it up the remaining inclines and crossed the railroad tracks within sight of the car. 

The trail was easy to see from the Rt-68 side. 

We piled ourselves into the car and, because nothing else was open, went to Guida's. They were kind enough to fill up a few of our water bottles for free. The water helped tide us over until we could find an open store to buy tons of Gatorade. Once we got home, we were able to take a look at my dog's feet. He'd been limping for quite some time on the hike. It turns out his paw pads had blistered and then torn. Many of the tears were not clean so I had to wash his paws and then clip the dead skin. The dog needed assistance walking for a day or so and his feet won't be back to normal for weeks.        

The weather for the hike was hot (90's), sunny, and cloudless. With a large portion of the hike being on Beseck Ridge, there was a nice breeze for much of our hike. Unfortunately, we only planned for a 5.7 mile hike so we ran out of water around mile 6. This portion of trail contained many sharp inclines and declines that were exhausting. The trail was rough and was often comprised of uneven, unsteady rocks. This was the longest hike we've done to date, both for distance and time.