Mattabesett Trail - Part 8

This hike occurred July 22, 2012

Trail Heads: 
Miller's Pond State Park, Durham, CT - Parking: There is a lot of parking available at Miller's Pond; they have a lot that holds a few dozen cars so unless you're hiking on a hot Saturday afternoon, you should be able to find a parking spot quite easily. 

Corner of Pisgah Rd and Sand Hill Rd, Durham, CT - Parking: This technically isn't a trail head but I was perfectly happy parking on the side of the road. There is a sizable shoulder (there's enough room to have the car completely off the road) and no signs saying you can't park there. We didn't have any problems and saw other cars parked there too.    

Length/Distance: This hike was rather long. We started at Miller's Pond and hiked to the corner of Pisgah and Sand Hill Roads. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 7.3 miles [I tried to edit the map and it changed my mileage; the map's mileage is incorrect. It really was 7.3 miles! Sorry!]. According to the CT Walk book, it should have been 5.9 miles. The difference between the two was substantial at 1.4 miles. This was rather irritating.

Summary: We began our hike at Miller's Pond. It was a beautiful summer day and many people were at the pond swimming, splashing, and picnicking. We went down to the water to see the areas people were using to swim. The water looked cool and refreshing. 

I grew up within 30 minutes of here and had only heard about the park online from people's reviews saying it was an excellent place to bring your dog and swim. As you can see from the sign at the top of the blog, it is explicitly listed as a "swim at your own risk" kind of place. They don't do water testing, have life guards or designated swimming areas, or charge money to enter the park. This is an awesome hidden gem. 

The trail from the parking lot to the blue trail is the white trail. It takes you part way around the lake before joining up with the blue trail which then leads around the rest of the lake. The lake was beautiful. We're planning on returning to the lake soon to do some swimming of our own.

Because of the news articles, I was on the lookout for the cliffs I'd heard about. There is a smallish section of cliffs in the middle of the northwest side of the lake. From what I could tell, it is extremely difficult to get to the cliffs; if you can walk there, it's a bare minimum of 1/2 mile from the parking lot. They seemed to be most accessible from the lake. It obviously takes quite a bit of effort to find them and jump off of them. Seems like a waste of energy to me; the rest of the lake looks so relaxing. After going around the lake, the trail heads up Bear Rock. The trail upward was rather steep.  

But the views were very nice!

After these views, we then headed back down. The trail down was... steep. It involved a lot of rock climbing and tree hugging to make sure we didn't fall to our deaths.  

My dog managed to survive it just fine but an older dog or less agile person would want to take the side trail that avoids this section (Bear Rock Bypass). The CT Walk book recommends utilizing this trail bypass during inclement weather and during the winter when the main trail may have ice on the rocks.  

After this section, the trail is mostly just little ups and downs and a whole ton of walking. There were some very cool trees that grew around a rock. Made us wonder if the rock had been moving over the past hundred years. 

There was a large rock formation made up of Milky Quartz. 

And this trail apparently goes past Coginchaug Cave. It wasn't much of a cave, honestly. It was a rock overhang with an indent. Right towards the end of the trail, there were the remains of what we thought was probably a raccoon. It was rather interesting. 

 After this, the trail came out onto Old Blue Hills Road. The trail was marked fairly well on the telephone poles. We walked almost a mile on the road, crossed Rt. 79 (where this sign was located), and arrived at our car! 

I'm also thrilled to report that my hiking sneakers arrived. I like them a lot!

Mattabesett Trail - Part 7

This hike occurred on July 19, 2012

Trail Heads: 
Brainard Hill Rd., Higganum, CT - Parking: At this trail head, there is off-road parking available for 2 cars maximum. 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. 

Miller's Pond State Park, Durham, CT - Parking: So the blue trail doesn't enter Miller's Pond State Park near their parking lot. No, it's about 1/3 of a mile down the road. The road is also littered with these signs: 

I'm pretty sure they're around because Miller's Pond is a popular place to go swimming, even though you're technically not allowed, so their parking lot fills up quickly. If you're ever interested in Miller's Pond, know that it is a walk-in park only. Though we haven't seen them yet, apparently there are cliffs surrounding the pond that young people like to use to go cliff jumping. This has resulted in numerous injuries and a handful of deaths in the past 10 years. Someone has already died there this year.      

Length/Distance: We started out at Miller's Pond and hiked to Brainard Hill Rd. Because we had to walk down the road from Miller's Pond, we added about 3/10ths of a mile to the hike. According to the CT Walk book, the hike was 3.2 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 3.48 miles. All things considered, I believe the CT Walk book was actually correct for once!

Summary: The first part of the hike is all on the road. We hiked from Miller's Pond and down Foot Hills Rd; we entered the woods approximately 9/10ths of a mile into the hike. This hike was a bit more difficult than our previous ones because we were trying to hurry since we had very limited sunlight left when we began. Once in the woods, we encountered a cool-looking rock.

We also saw the cutest tiny frog ever!

The rest of the hike was rather rushed and the light was fading so we couldn't see very much. There was one place where the trail came out to an opening in the trees on a rock ridge. It was beautiful. 

A bit after this, the trail lead out under the high power lines and we could see some open sky. 

The sun going down reflected on the clouds. 

After this, we spent maybe 20 minutes tripping through the woods. I managed to sprain both ankles about 5 minutes apart. I can't wait for my new hiking shoes to show up. I'm pretty sure they'll be more stable than my 3-year-old sneakers. Yay for ankle instability! If you have an interest in seeing what the ankle repair surgery looks like, there are pictures here. I think I may need to suck it up and wear braces on both ankles every time I go hiking.