Mattabesett Trail - Part 4

This hike occurred on July 9, 2012

Trail Heads:

Bear Hill Rd., Middletown, CT - same as the last post 

Aircraft Rd., Middletown, CT - same as the last post

Length/Distance: According to my GPS tracking program, our route was approximately 2.75 miles. According to the CT Walk book, the route was 2.5 miles long.  

Summary: For this hike, we did the Blue-Yellow trail (Bear Hill Loop trail) that goes starts under the power lines (about 0.2 miles from Bear Hill Rd) and ends a bit shy (0.1 miles) of Aircraft Rd. This was an easy, quick hike. It was a wide trail with minimal amounts of flora encroaching on the trail. I believe it was an old road at some point in time. Fairly early on in the hike, we came upon an old car, rusting away. There were a lot of bullet holes in the car door.  

Around this section of trail, it was clear that people ride dirt bikes through here often. Thankfully, it hadn't rained for a week or so otherwise this area would have been horrible!

I was very glad it wasn't muddy. My dog would have ended up looking something like this. And I would have looked like this. 

 There was something of a summit on this trail. There wasn't much of a view but the rocks looked cool. 

On our way down from the summit, we went through this really cool rock hallway. 

Anyway, that was our hike that day! 

Things to note: this is the first place I didn't shower after completing the hike. Instead, I went out to dinner with friends. The next morning, I noted that I probably really should have, especially when I found a tick attached to my leg. I removed it and checked my dog. He had a tick on him as well. So the lesson I learned was to shower after and never scrimp on the tick check! 

Chatfield Trail

We began and ended this hike on June 1, 2012 

Trail Heads: 

85 River Rd., Killingworth, CT - Parking: across the street from the trail head, there is parking for 2 cars. The road is very quiet and doesn't see much traffic, though what traffic there is tends to drive very fast. Be wary of drivers not paying attention. 

499 North Branford Rd. (Rt. 80), Killingworth, CT - Parking: at the trail head, there is parking for 3-5 cars, depending on how well people park. This small parking area is on a curve of Rt 80 so be very careful when pulling into and out of this lot. People drive Rt 80 going 65 MPH on a regular basis and the visibility is poor leaving the parking lot. 

Length/Distance: The route we went on was listed as being 3.8 miles. Here is my route. According to GPS, it was actually 4.18 miles long.  

Summary: This was a decent through-hike. We began at Rt 80 and hiked south to River Rd. At first, the scenery wasn't very interesting. After we continued down the trail for a mile or so, we came to a series of rock ledges that the trail snakes down and around. At one point, our dog had to be picked up and carried down a small piece of the trail because the drop was too substantial and there was no way around. 

A bit after that, we came to an access road and the trail follows it for a little bit. As the trail transitioned from road to trail, there was a very nasty area of mud and muck. Make sure to utilize the rocks to cross this area....though if you have a dog, they probably won't. Mine didn't. ^_^  

This is where the trail became awesome! I have a love of cliffs and, more importantly, caves. This trail would have been boring without these but with them... I might actually think about hiking it again. The huge rocks were amazing! 

There was some massive rocks that had broken off from the main cliff and created caves. 

I was like a small child in a candy store!

Growing up, perhaps I read too many survival-oriented fiction novels like My Side of the Mountain, Moccasin Trail, or Sign of the Beaver. But these caves and cliffs made me want to run away into the woods....except for all the mosquitoes in the nearby swamp.   

The trail also takes you right by Deer Lake Camp's Lean-to sites. These were very cool, especially since it was early enough in the season that it wasn't milling with small children. Later in the season, it might not be so quiet. I believe Deer Lake also takes their campers for hikes so this trail might see more foot traffic during summer camp sessions.    

On the hike, we saw some frogs, millipedes, and birds. We also saw a lot of Mountain Laurel. Towards the end of the trail, there was a Mountain Laurel forest where the trail walked through this enchanting archway made entirely of Mountain Laurels. It was quiet and mysterious, with the sound of a bubbling brook in the background. 

One other thing to note: near the end of the trail close to River Rd., there was a lot of barbed wire near the trail, between the trail and the river. Be careful and if you do get scratched, make sure you're up on your tetanus shot (booster shot every 10 years). As far as blue marks go, this trail was pretty straightforward. At the very beginning of the trail, it was somewhat difficult to find the blue trail, as the main trail is a shortcut/side trail. There weren't any issues with staying on the trail.    

Trail Safety

Things to Know about Ticks

From a young age, I've always had an interest in wilderness survival. I have some small amount of practical knowledge from my years of reading survival books as a child. True wilderness survival training takes much more than being an armchair general. It takes an intense amount of work, time, and physical fitness. Thankfully, most of us will never encounter a time that we need that kind of training (especially while doing through-hiking in CT). All of us carry on the trail the one thing we need to get help: a cell phone. Most places in CT have cell service of one kind or another. This would probably be a good time to say that if you don't carry a cell phone with you, you really should. Even if you leave it turned off during the hike, it's always good to have a method to call for help if needed. You never know what could happen. Each year there are at least a handful of news clippings about people wandering off the trail and needing park rangers to come rescue them. While embarrassing, it's a whole lot better than wandering around in the dark looking for the trail and falling off a cliff. Don't be a hiking fatality, please. 


However, beyond more drastic things like wilderness survival, I think there is some information that everyone who lives in New England should know: basic information about ticks. Since I grew up here in CT, ticks and Lyme disease were an accepted part of life. I spent a lot of time in the woods and have had more tick bites than I can remember. I've had Lyme disease at least once and everyone in my family has as well. I also know a number of people whose lives have been permanently altered by the disease when it wasn't caught quickly enough and had symptoms that continued long after the initial round of antibiotics. At the same time, ticks are simply a part of life. If we integrate certain strategies into our lives, we significantly decrease the risk of acquiring Lyme disease.  


Prevention

1. When outdoors (especially while hiking or in wooded/grassy areas), wear bug spray with DEET [20% or more]. I really don't like to wear DEET bug spray for mosquito prevention; I hate the smell and taste (it always seems to get in my mouth). What I do is spray my upper body with a plant-based repellent and my lower body with DEET, since I pick up most of my ticks by brushing against grass or plants.
2. Dress in "tick-aware" clothing. This could mean wearing light-colored clothing to make it easier to spot ticks crawling on you or wearing pants and long-sleeve shirts. It can also include wearing a hat and/or putting your hair up to make it harder for ticks to latch on.
3. During outdoor activities, be aware. If you feel something crawling on you, check it out. It might be your imagination or it might be a tick. If it is a tick, you can either kill it or flick it off.  
4. After being outdoors/hiking, go home and shower. This will help with both ticks and poison ivy. Also wash the clothes you wore; putting your clothes in the dryer on high heat for 60 minutes will kill any ticks that might have been on your clothes.
5. After being outdoors/hiking, do a body check. After showering, you should check your whole body; hair, armpits, groin, backs of knees, and chest seem to be favorite places for ticks. They like warm and creased areas. If possible, have someone else check the places you can't see. There are even country music songs about it.
6. Know what they look like. There are two types of ticks common in CT. One is the Dog tick and is about the size of an apple seed. The other is the Deer tick and is about the size of a sesame seed. The smaller, sneakier Deer tick is most likely to be a carrier for Lyme.   

Tick bites

If you do find a tick, don't panic. If the tick has been attached for less than 36-48 hours, your odds of getting Lyme from the tick bite is microscopic. Ticks cannot transmit anything to you until it has been attached for about 2 days. So the best way to prevent Lyme is to be aware of ticks and check yourself regularly. So if you do have a tick attached, here's what you do:

1. Don't panic (grab your towel. It might help).
2. Find tweezers. The best type are fine-tipped with no ridges.
3. Grasp the tick as close to your skin as you can. This will help remove the entire tick at once. If you grab too high, it might leave behind its mouth. DON'T: twist, jerk, or squeeze the tick, cover the tick with petroleum jelly, douse it with gasoline/kerosene, or try to light it on fire. This will make the tick more likely to "throw up" everything in its system, increasing your risk for Lyme.  
4. Gently and steadily pull the tick straight up. This should remove the tick from your skin. 
5. Dispose of the tick. This could include flushing it down the toilet (might not kill it) or dousing it with some alcohol to kill it and then flushing it.  
6. Clean up. Wash the area with soap and warm water or use some kind of antiseptic like rubbing alcohol or first-aid wash like Bactine. If the tick did leave behind its mouth, attempt to remove it with the tweezers. If this is unsuccessful, don't stress it. Let your skin heal on its own; it will expel the mouth as it heals.   
7. Wait/watch. At this point, the best thing you can do is wait. You can write down the day and location of your tick bite for future reference if you'd like. You should be especially aware of unusual fatigue, aches and pain, headaches, fever, and rashes. Around 80-90% of people with Lyme disease have a target-like rash surrounding the bite called erythema migrans. If you begin experiencing any of these symptoms or have a rash, see a doctor immediately. It isn't really ER-worthy but if it's after hours and your doctor is unavailable, check out your nearest walk-in clinic.  

Resources

Tick ID Card 

Tick Removal 

Tick and Lyme Disease Information