Hike #1127; Black Rock State Park to Waterbury CT

Hike #1127; Black Rock State Park CT to Waterbury

5/12/18 Black Rock State Park to Waterbury with James Quinn, Jennifer Berndt, and John Pershouse

This next trip would be a point to point in Connecticut, which had become a bit of an obsession since I’d seen how much there is to offer there.

View from Seely Overlook

I had purchased a copy of the Connecticut Walk Book, sort of like the New York and New Jersey walk books, but more of a simplistic guide with maps to where the trails go, and mostly only the “Connecticut Blue Blazed Trail System”.

Bridge in Black Rock State Park

It differs from the walk books of NJ and NY, because it doesn’t detail every trail as they do, only these trails managed by the Connecticut Parks and Forests Association, which dates back to the thirties.
The hike I initially planned was to complete a missing piece of the Mattatuck Trail. This was one of the long distance trails that originally went from the Appalachian Trail (now Mohawk Trail) down to the area of Waterbury.

Weird roots

It’s since been truncated due to land owner issues a bit, but still a great route to walk. When Jillane and I first backpacked in Connecticut, we started by the Appalachian Trail at Cornwall Bridge, and then followed the Mohawk Trail to the Mattatuck Trail, and followed Mattatuck southeast.
When we had gotten to Black Rock Forest, we skipped two sections because Jillane was exhausted: one section to Black Rock itself, the other to Seely Overlook and the Leatherman’s Cave.

An old map of Mattatuck Trail

We used parallel trails in this area to bypass the more difficult spots, and then continued on along the trail to near Terryville, then cut to the north to Tunxis Trail.

Black Rock State Park

I posted a hike that I thought would be extremely exciting: we would start with Black Rock forest and do the two sections Jillane and I had skipped, then my plan was to head south on the Jericho Trail, a connection toward Waterbury, as well as Whitestone Cliffs and Hancock Brook Trails. With only short road walks, this would be an outstanding little route.
Unfortunately, there was some rain in the forecast. This scared away a lot of people, and it also made me less interested in something that was heavily reliant on overlooks for it to be good. Fortunately, I had a very good backup.

Black Rock State Park section

Instead, we would do one of the two missing Black Rock/Mattatuck sections, the Leatherman’s Cave, and then continue on Mattatuck Trail to it’s southern terminus. It would include a waterfall and two other caves besides Leatherman’s. I might have been more interested in this one than the previously planned one.
The Mattatuck actually used to continue to a spot called “Grand Junction”.

Brook on Mattatuck Trail

It was down closer to Wolcott, and at this point it joined with the Tunxis Trail, which could be followed north into Massachusetts, or with the Quinnipiac Trail, which travels south to another trail, the Regicides Trail, which continus to New Haven. All of these other trails still exist today; the Tunxis still continues to Massachusetts but the southern end is truncated. The Quinnipiac is cut short to only shy of 19 miles, and the Regicides remains intact.

Skunk cabbage swamp

I figure I can probably trace closely to where these trails were supposed to go, and I’ll get around to doing it eventually.
For now, I wanted to focus on completing the ones I had started. I have already done all of the Appalachian Trail in Mass. I’ve finished the Mohawk Trail, which is the former AT route, and started on others like Macedonia Brook and Tunxis. Mattatuck is now high on my list to complete, and I had three hikes planned to complete the system.

Old foundation

My planned end point for this hike would be the southern end of Mattatuck currently, and we would just start at Black Rock Forest and Uber or Lyft back when ready.
We headed directly to Black Rock Forest when we realized no one else was coming, and figured we would start from there and just figure it out.
Although there was rain in the forecast, it never went for more than a drizzle the entire day, until we were on our way home.

Big Pine

The only problem with this was that it made the rocks dangerously slippery.

Another big Pine

We parked at the main parking area, where I had taken a break with Jillane on my previous trip up, and started walking toward the woods. I really didn’t know exactly where I was going; I was just heading into the park and the campgrounds area looking for where I might recognize being on the Mattatuck Trail between the two sections we had skipped.
I thought I recognized it when we got to a small bridge that spanned the tributary to the Branch Brook which flows into the lake where they have swimming, I believe.

Steep

We zigzagged through the campgrounds and along an access road until I came across one of the blue blazes in the woods, and I recognized where we were. We started following the trail from there, which was wide and clear, with foot bridges and such. We saw an oddly shaped tree, and climbed gradually. We went over a little brook and along some swamp lands, and saw some old foundation ruins. There were also some really nice big trees along the way.

Rocky trail

We continued to climb gradually, and we crossed Bidwell Hill Road, which I believe was closed to through traffic at this point. We continued to climb on the other side, and eventually came to the crossing of Route 6. All of the highway crossings in Connecticut on these blue blazed trails have ovular signs that read the trail name, which is nice.
As soon as we got across, the trail started climbing quite steeply over some pretty flat rocks. Because it was drizzling, it made for some very slippery conditions.

Rocks

It seemed like a good long distance up, and my Walk Book only told me of one overlook along this entire stretch, the Seely Overlook, but I was quite happy to see that there were several views along along the way, from a rocky outcrop that the trail continually follows.
After we crossed Rt 6, we were no longer in Black Rock State Park. This was all Mattatuck State Forest. We continued along this ridge area until we got to the intersection with the Jericho Trail, my original intended route for us.

Rocks

Here, the Mattatuck Trail continues to the north and then back to the south in a sharp turn that features the aforementioned overlook to the north, east, and west.
To the north, we were looking toward the village of Thomaston I believe it was, and to the east we were looking off toward the valley of the Naugatuck River. To the west, we were looking toward the valley of the Branch Brook, and Black Rock Lake area.

View

We enjoyed the view and had a nice break here before continuing on.
Our next point of interest was on our descent via Mattatuck Trail, known as the Leatherman’s Cave.
The story of the Leather Man is quite an interesting one, and one that we will most certainly explore further as we take some of the same footsteps on the hikes that he took during his life time. He’s not just a myth, but a person who actually existed.

The Leather Man

The Leather Man was a mysterious walking character who appeared in the areas of Connecticut and eastern New York around the time of the Civil War. During this time, around 1860, there were a lot of itinerant wanderers seeking work, a meal, or a place to sleep.
The Leather Man was one of these such people, although he did not ask for work or shelter, but would accept a meal.
His striking appearance included his signature home made leather outfit that included a jacket, a cap with a brim, and shoes that more resembled clogs. He did not speak, but rather mumbled incomprehensibly during his monthly visits to various farms and spring kitchens in NY and CT.
He would wander between Danbury, and Waterbury, Bridgeport, and Norwalk, CT, and head into Westchester and Putnam Counties, NY in a large circuit, just about every month.

Mattatuck view

His circuit, which took over a month to do, included about 240 miles in Connecticut and 125 miles in New York.
For shelter, he would stay in caves in different places. Another cave bears the name “Leatherman’s Cave” in Ward Pound Ridge, NY.
He would visit leather and saddle shops and accept donations of scraps, which he would sew together to make his long jacket, his pants which came up to his chest, and the tops of shoes.

The Leather Man's route

The man sounds as though he might be terrifying, with sewn tanned flesh draped over him, mumbling incoherently, and lived in caves. However, his visits were looked forward to.

Mattatuck Trail

Ladies would even bake bread for him when they knew he was coming. His visits were amazingly well timed that they could be planned for.
Despite his size and appearance, the Leather Man never harmed anyone. Apart from infrequently being angered by children throwing rocks at him, he was gentle and not temperamental.
A newspaper once told a story of his life, naming him Jules Bourglay of Lyons, France, but retracted the story just days later. Today, still no one really knows his back story.

View

One theory is that he was a French Canadian, as he traveled as far north as Vermont and Montreal between 1860 and 1870.
The Leather Man may have indeed been a Frenchman, as upon his death, in the Winter of 1889, when his body was found in his cave in Briarcliff NY, a French prayer book was found in his limited possessions.
He was fond of smoking, and some say it was a form of cancer he finally succumbed to.

CLimbin up

His body was buried in Sparta Cemetery, in Ossining NY, and for many years the incorrect French name was placed on a gravestone on the site.
Whoever he was, the Leatherman was an amazing character in local history.
The cave he stayed in, in what is now Mattatuck State Forest, is another typical Connecticut rock pile cave. Heaps of rocks all on top of one another create these kinds of caves the trail passes right through.

View at Seely Overlook

I didn’t expect this sort of thing initially, that we’d actually pass through it, but I’m finding out it’s actually not too uncommon on the Connecticut trails.\

Leatherman's Cave

We carefully climbed through the cave heading down hill, which required some hand holds. It was pretty slippery everywhere except where it was covered from rain by overhead rocks.

Near Leatherman's Cave

We continued beneath an interesting rock overhang, and then headed further down hill.

Rocky terrain

The trail descended into a very pleasant area an picked up some old woods roads. Along the way, we passed an old quarry site.
We emerged at the intersection with the Branch Brook Trail, which follows an old trolley right of way. We turned right on it briefly, and then left to pass beneath Route 8.
Once on the other side, Mattatuck Trail turned left to cross over Branch Brook with no bridge.

Muddy

The last time I was at this point, it was completely dry and we were able to just walk across on the river bed rocks, but this time it was rushing pretty strongly. I just walked on through, but not everyone was up for that. James complained while he took his shoes off and carefully made his way through.
The trail ascended on the other side to York Road with the intersection of Reynolds Bridge Road. We continued north on Reynolds Bridge Road.

Washed out a bit

We continued to the intersection with Waterbury Road, and crossed Reynolds Bridge over the Naugatuck River. Once on the other side, we turned right to continue on Waterbury Road, and the trail was supposed to go up hill to the left.
When we got to the trail turn, I was surprised to see that it had been closed since my last visit. The highway was now marked with the trail blazes parallel with it.

View thru trees

I guess I was kind of relieved, because that saved us one serious up hill.
We had a very pleasant road walk section, and I spotted where an older bridge may have crossed the Naugatuck River parallel with the railroad tracks.
There was a “no littering” sign along the road in this area. It seemed almost like a joke that it was for a $219 fine. I wonder where they came up with that number. It’s like they added tax.

View

We continued on past a quarry, where the trail was supposed to come down in back.

VIew

It looked like it might have been extended since the last time I was there, and possibly where the trail had been was now blasted away, although it was a small operation site.
The trail used to join at West Hill Road, and we continued beyond along the highway past some more quarry operations to the left.
We continued walking down the road from here; I had already done this section all with Jillane for the next bit.

Seely Overlook

Just past the last quarry area, Mattatuck Trail climbs steeply to the left into another section of Mattatuck State Forest.

View to the Naugatuck valley

I hurried ahead of everyone toward the top, and stopped when I got to the nice view over the Naugatuck River valley to the south.
We had a break at the top there, and then continued along the trail, which gradually started heading down hill from there. Near the bottom, we passed an old house foundation site, and then turned to the left on a former road route. This took us out to Carter Road, where we turned left.

View north

Soon, we reached the dam for Wilton Pond at the intersection with Wilton Road.

Approaching Leatherman's Cave

The trail turns to the right there, and starts following the road up hill. It’s kind of a tough climb for a road. We continued over the hill here, and then reached the intersection with South Street, where the trail turned to the left.
After heading down hill and slightly up hill again, the trail turned right onto a rock outcrop into yet another bit of Mattatuck State Forest.
I had done this section before, but it was starting to get dark when Jillane and I went through it, so I was quite happy to do it again and see it.

Leatherman's Cave

It was actually a very pleasant section after a short bit. There wasn’t much climbing, and it felt like a really nice stroll through pleasant woods most of the time.

Leatherman's Cave

Brophy Pond was to the south of us some of the time. If it were hotter, I’d have wanted to swim in that. I was tempted to go down and have a look, but I didn’t want to take up too much time with how much distance we had left.
When the trail descended to the Todd Hollow area, there was a blue with yellow blazed spur trail to a beaver pond to the south, which I did not do with Jillane before, so we decided to follow it to the north.

Leatherman's Cave

The trail led to a dead end at a beautiful outlook to the pond, where I got some photos of a Great Blue Heron as well as a nice Red Wing Blackbird.

Red Wing Blackbird at Todd Hollow Swamp

We backtracked from here, and made our way parallel with the Todd Hollow Brook as it became a smaller stream above the wetlands.

Leatherman's Cave

The trail had some graded sections that almost looked like they might have been railroad bed, but were probably not. The trail came out along Keegan Road next to the bridge over the creek. Mattatuck Trail turns to the right here and crosses. We stopped to admire the brook, and a guy stopped to tell us to watch out for the bear just up the road. I wondered if he was just trying to scare us away from the area or if there really was one. There probably was.
We headed east on Keegan Road briefly, to Todd Hollow Road where the trail turns right. This section is a closed off road, which is accessible only a short distance by vehicle to a parking area.
We walked down the abandoned road beyond a gate, and the the first part was smooth and very well paved. Beyond the second barrier, it was in bad shape with a lot of cracked pavement. It was a nice and quiet section. Only one other hiker walking his dog passed us on this section.

Valley view in Mattatuck State Forest east of the Naugatuck

Soon, we were parallel with the expansive wetlands we had just been following, only we were now on the opposite side. It was beautiful.

Todd Hollow Swamp

Once we got going, the guide read that Mattatuck Trail turns left at a point known as “Ed’s Big Pebble”. It doesn’t say what exactly this is though.

Leatherman's Cave

We came to a large rock where the trail turned up to the left, and there was a sign reading “loop” pointing to the right and left. Apparently there was now a possible loop trail at the site utilizing more of the old Todd Hollow Road. While I was interested in this, we did have to continue on in order to finish at a reasonable hour.
We started climbing, and there was a lovely little cascade on the stream the trail paralleled as it ascended.

Leatherman's Cave

The trail was a simple foot path, but had tons of tree roots to walk on going up hill.
We continued gradually up, along rock outcrops and such, and eventually came to the Town Hill Connector. This trail was a route I was considering using when we were backpacking through before, but couldn’t get to this point because it was getting too dark. I had looked at the route as a possible way of getting back to the site to start the next trip, but figured we didn’t need it at this point.

Leatherman's Cave

We continued to the right on the main Mattatuck Trail, which started heading down hill ever so slightly.
I did not see any side trail or blazes going anywhere else, but somehow we managed to lose the main Mattatuck Trail. It seemed like all of a sudden, our trail was a blue blaze with a red dot in the middle. This concerned me a bit. We kept on moving along, and I should have turned back much earlier to figure out the proper way to go, but we powered on.

Near Leatherman's Cave

The trail went up and down over outcrops, and I figured this was the correct way, but then we were still moving off to he west, where the trail was not supposed to go.

Near Leatherman's Cave

I hoped that it would rejoin with it just a little bit ahead, and we’d have just ended up with some bonus miles, but it didn’t.

Near Leatherman's Cave

We continued walking, and came to a nice little south facing overlook, but I was kind of annoyed at that point too much to enjoy it.

Near Leatherman's Cave

We couldn’t seem to find where the trail went from the overlook, and it was really hazy so I couldn’t quite tell if it was the right way or not.

Near Leatherman's Cave

My phone was getting pretty close to dead, and I wouldn’t be able to figure out if we were spot on using it for the rest of the day or not.
From this point, I found the trail descended into a very rough spot over rocks. It was a treacherous climb down and required a lot of care. To make matters worse, it started raining again, so we had to go really slow.

Descending from Leatherman's Cave

Everyone was getting tired and frustrated with it. I was tired too, but didn’t want to give up at all. The trail descended steeply to a rock overhang, which was really cool, but very tough to get through. We continued around more outcroppings, and then came to a second similar outcrop after an ascent, which went beneath another overhang and required shimmying over some rocks to get through. The way down from this last one had a particularly treacherous spot where a slip could mean cracking your head.

Slippery rocks

When it seemed we were finished with the crazy rocky stuff, and the trail was getting too far to the east, we knew that this was the new loop we had read about heading back to the lower end of old Todd Hollow Road. I didn’t want to go back to that point and double back again. Instead, I figured we were pretty close to the railroad tracks shown on the aerials, so we could bushwhack from the southernmost point and make it to those.

Slippery rocks

From there, we could either go to the left and get back to Mattatuck Trail, or we could turn to the right and make our way to Waterbury. At this point, it wasn’t looking like the hike we had originally planned was going to pan out.
We started bushwhacking over rocks, and I started wondering where the railroad was that we were supposed to be on. As we continued, and it didn’t show up, I realized we were reaching an abandoned railroad right of way.

Mattatuck Trail

It didn’t make sense to me, because it was shown as an active line. I didn’t know much about this site at all at this point, and so I figured we could walk this abandonment for a while and it’d be good.
The original railroad here was the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill Railroad built in 1850. I didn’t know much about it at all, and truthfully I still don’t.

Old quarry

Everyone had some difficulty getting down to the grade, but when they all arrived, I posed the question that we could either head toward Mattatuck, or head toward Waterbury.

Branch Brook Trail, the old trolley line

Everyone seemed more keen on Waterbury, because it was getting later and Mattatuck Trail goes through two more caves that we know about.

Old quarry area

This means the remainder of the distance is probably at least somewhat rough. We started walking a bit, and then I saw that it looked like the actual rail bed, or maybe a later rail bed, was above us to the east. I climbed to the grade and started walking that instead. Maybe the lower one that we were on was an earlier one, I really don’t know.
Then, as we walked, I saw the active tracks to the east of us there. It went over the Hancock Brook just ahead of there, and so we made our way up to it.

James crossing Branch Brook

It turns out, this was one of several spots where the railroad was straightened around 1907, as per what I’ve read.

Wet Branch Brook crossing

The active track changed things again. I posed it to the others again, if they’d like to head toward Waterbury or back to Mattatuck. They chose Waterbury, and so we started walking the tracks to the south, which was much easier.
As we walked to the south, the tracks crossed Hancock Brook yet again, and I could see the earlier right of way of the line again parallel with us, with it’s bridge site over the brook, only abutments remaining.

Branch Brook

Things became more clear as we walked ahead. Hancock Brook Lake was just ahead, which the railroad skirts on it’s southeast side.

Naugatuck

The earlier line was apparently abandoned in order to circumnavigate the Hancock Brook Lake.

Naugatuck

The original right of way sort of has two peninsulas out onto the lake, with another former bridge site out in the middle.

Springs on the cliffs

I believe the dam construction on it, which is some kind of flood prevention project, obliterated the railroad and required it to be moved.
Greystone Road soon came in close to the tracks on the left of us. James was ready to Uber out, but I didn’t want to stop yet. It was only a little bit short of fifteen miles at this point, and I wasn’t about to give up. If I could get everyone to just go another mile and a half with me, we could all Uber out, but no one would, so I decided I would do another six myself, and walk all the way to Waterbury.

I wasn’t at all tired yet, and the others just wanted to stop.

Apparent old bridge site over the Naugatuck

I gave James the keys to my van, so he could get that and get it to Waterbury, and I took off running down the tracks heading south. I was making some pretty good time until I pulled a muscle in my left leg. This was the same one I’d pulled on my anniversary hike in March, and continued to aggrevate doing other irresponsible running things ever since. It was getting better up until this point.
After the tracks went under Greystone Road, they went into a nice cut. The original line was a bit to the west of there.

Weird fine amount...

After coming out of the cut, the original line started coming in from the right. I went over to it to check it out. It was pretty clear, and might merit some further exploration on another occasion. I continued to the south on the tracks, and soon made my way into the gorge section of the Hancock Brook. On the other side of the brook in this area was the Hancock Brook Trail, one of the Connecticut Blue Blazed Trails I was originally planning on using for this hike. When I saw good paths leading down to the right, I figured I could make my way over to that and get a break from walking railroad ties.
I went down hill, then waded across the brook. It was a bit deeper than I’d anticipated, but got out without wetting my phone. I climbed up the other side and found a rather good trail right along the edge of the brook. I followed it down stream from here.

Mattatuck Trail

There was some very nice stone work on this section, holding the railroad up on the side of the brook. There were also some nice little cascades and places we could jump in if it were hotter out.
I continued walking, and the trail gained some elevation from the brook. There is another part of the loop that follows a steeper ledge higher up, but I’ll have to check that out another time.
When the trail was higher, I saw a side trail leading down closer to the brook, and then an impressive tall waterfall on the opposite side.

Rocky surface

I went down to get a closer look and get a photo of it.
After I climbed back up, the trail continud around the outside of a sort of construction site. I guess it was some kind of quarry. The trail head was at a small parking area on the other side of a fenced in spot.
To the left where I came out was the abandoned old Sheffield Street Bridge over Hancock Brook. This was an interesting old lenticular pony truss bridge similar to one back home on the Union Steelworkers Historic Greenway.

View along the way...

It’s a fifty six foot long span with a rotten wooden deck, built by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in 1884. It had barricades and signs reading to stay of of it, but I had to check it out anyway.
From here, I just walked Sheffield Street south. By this point, my phone had died, so I couldn’t let James know that I was getting close. I had just told him to go to the original meeting point I had posted on Meetup.com, and that I’d show up there as soon as I could. I continued down Shefffield Street and took in all the sights I could.

Overlook

When I got to Thomaston Ave, there were some old industrial buildings all in view. It I turned to the left to follow the road a short distance, and then turned left into Waterville Park. I guess this area is technically the smaller colloquially known community of Waterville, which is part of Waterbury.
Boyden Street went off to the left from the main drag of Thomaston, and I turned there. I walked out along a small creek and looked through the trees.

Overlook

I could see my van out on the other side of the park, so Boyden led me through to where I could get over the creek, walk along the tennis courts and get back.

Naugatuck valley

I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry, but everyone wanted to stop and get Mexican food on the way back.

There’s so much more stuff to see out there, and I only wish it didn’t take so long to get to, because I want to get back to it ASAP.

Falls along Hancock Brook

From where I left off, I now have the original hike I had planned ready to go, as well as a different Mattatuck Hike, which will start at Todd Hollow, or maybe Town Hill Connector, and then do a loop at the start featuring the trail that wasn’t on the maps (it must be really new because it’s not even in the new Connecticut Walk Books or on the website yet).

The abandoned bridge

We’ll follow that to the regular Mattatuck Trail we had missed, hit the waterfall and the two caves, and then go to where it used to join up with the Tunxis Trail. I’ll continue the series from there as I am able.

Into Waterville...

Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to find a way of making it my job to record all of this stuff. All of this stuff is so worth seeing, and I’ll never see a big fraction of all I want.