Mattabesett Trail - Part 15

This hike occurred on July 2, 2013

Trail heads:  
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.

625 Country Club Rd., Middletown, CT - Parking: There is an area to park 2-4 cars off of Country Club Road, though it's like a short paved driveway so to fit 4 cars, you'd be blocking cars from leaving. Look for this sign; it's right by the parking area. 

  
Length/Distance: According to the CT Walk book, the hike was 4.3 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 4.8 miles. 

Summary: We began our hike from the Rt-66 parking lot. We followed the Blue-Red from the parking area to the intersection with the Blue trail. We continued straight on the Blue trail. 

 The initial climb for this hike started immediately after the junction with the Red-Blue. There were areas you had to scramble up rock sections to continue on the trail. These were still partially wet from the rain the previous day and were a bit slippery. After the initial climb, the trail goes through some nice flat meadows. 

There continued to be some uphill sections before we reached the peak. 

As the path evened out, we saw some cellar spiders/daddy longlegs (Pholcus phalangioides). 

We also saw some violet flowers, most likely Monkey Flowers (Mimulus ringens). 

We also saw a huge dandelion puff the size of a baseball. I'm unsure if it was from an actual dandelion or just another flower I'm not familiar with. 

 After a lot of vegetation, the trail opens onto cliffs. The view was beautiful. In the background of the below picture, you can see the location of our previous hike, Beseck Ridge. 

While it was overcast and darker, the view was still amazing. 

 

We followed the Blue trail along the cliffs. 

We saw more colorful vegetation, such as these White Birch (Betula papyrifera) trees... 

And this Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) flower.

As the path followed the cliff side, there was a section of the trail that had a significant drop. My dog was able to handle it but only barely. 

 There were some sections of the trail with substantial drop offs by the edge of the trail. 

Though the rock formations and views were awesome.

We had a good view of the next mountain on our hike. 

We found a rather terrifying spider clinging to the side of the rocks. Its body was a tiny bit smaller than a quarter. 

After this, the path lead into the forest. 

There was a spot where the Blue trail went to the right but the main path went straight. The intersection was clearly marked though. 

Sometimes the sun found its way through the clouds. 

We had one last cliff side view, right across from a huge quarry. It was incredible to realize each level was big enough to dwarf ginormous dump trucks. 

From here, the trail went through some nice but generic looking forest. 

However, towards the very end of the hike, it got more creepy. Perhaps I've just enjoyed Cabin in the Woods too much but in my defense, the lighting of the day tended towards horror movie lighting. Initially there was just a wood ladder, leaning against a tree.

Then there was the little "no trespassing" sign near the ladder.

Then we started seeing huge piles of old tires in the woods...

And then an ancient, rusted metal sign warning again "do not trespass"...

And another sign warning us to "keep out."

The final crowning glory was this sign (just in case we missed the first three)...

Looking back down the trail, you'd never suspect such wonderfully friendly signs await innocent hikers.

And that walk of terror lead us to the parking area off of Country Club Road! This area would be great for a haunted walk through the woods. It would be so easy to introduce a redneck zombie torture family to unsuspecting visitors.

The weather for the hike was not optimal. It was in the low 80's with 90%+ humidity. The mosquitoes were beyond plentiful; we had applied bug spray prior to the hike but wished we'd brought extra to apply a second (and third) time. Initially it was sunny but quickly became overcast; weather forecast said to expect thunderstorms in the area between 8-10 pm. We did not finish the hike until almost 8:30 pm but managed to avoid precipitation or storms. 

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!

Sleeping Giant - Violet trail

This hike occurred on July 14, 2012

Trail Heads: 
Chestnut Ln., Hamden, CT - Parking: There's a lot of roadside parking available here. The road is extremely quiet which was nice. 

Sleeping Giant State Park, Hamden, CT - Parking: On the weekends, Sleeping Giant charges money ($8-10) to enter the park with your vehicle. To avoid this, you can park on Mt Carmel Ave and walk in. Parking on the road isn't allowed during the week (only Sat/Sun). It is a good option during the summer but during the spring/fall when college is in session, there is often no roadside parking available. But of course, then the park doesn't charge. There is a small amount of overlap during spring/fall and it's a complete pain!  


Length/Distance: We completed the Violet trail, which according to the Sleeping Giant Park Association is 3.2 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 3.8 miles. 

Summary: This was a somewhat easy hike, especially compared with the Blue and White trails. There was a decent climb at the beginning where you had to scramble up some rocks but overall, it was fairly flat. At the beginning, there was some nice views of Mill River.   

There were also some cool ruins (more information can be read here), I believe these are either from an old grist mill or the Axle Shop. 

A bit further up the trail, there were ruins of a building that still had a roof. 

Overall, it was an easy hike with some good views. It was very nice to see parts of Sleeping Giant that we have hiked but from the ground. Considering it was 90+ degrees out, we were perfectly happy to not be climbing mountains.