Hike #1134; Farmington to Willimantic/
6/6-6/15/18 Farmington to Willimantic with Jillane Becker.
It was time again for my backpack with Jillane, this time heading to Farmington Connecticut where we had left off on our previous trip to the state.
There is so much to see up there, and even though I had wanted to do the Adirondacks finally, this seemed like a better way to ease into it because it would be an easier route. The trails were rather hard the first couple of days, but overall more doable. I drove us to the exact spot where we left off in September of 2016, the Farmington Inn. It’s a very nice upscale place to the west of Hartford. On the previous trip, we covered some really interesting trails from the Appalachain Trail at Cornwall Bridge, near the western state line, on east along Mohawk Trail, Mattatuck Trail, Tunxis Trails, Farmington River Trail, and more. I wanted to finish the state and get across the rest of the way to the Rhode Island and Massachusetts border. We wouldn’t make it that far, but we did end up covering a good amount. I got permission from Farmington Inn to leave my car parked there for the week, and we could stay there the first night out. It was a long drive up there, after all.
Getting out of the van
Work had been much better than it had been for me in recent years, but it was still stressful with the work load there was to do, and I was trying my best to help out with managing seasonal employees and such. I had spent a great deal of time working overtime to save up for this trip and hotels along the way. When we arrived, it felt great to finally just settle in and know I wouldn’t have to be in a car or anything for the next entire week. I brought some drinks including some Weyerbacher Tiny Belgian Style Imperial Stout, and the extra special Dogfish Head Old School, brewed with figs and dates.
There’s no open container laws in Connecticut, and so I wandered through the hotel at night looking around, and chatting with the guy working the front desk who ended up being really cool.
Starting off...
I talked about craft beers, and he gave me a pile of tooth brushes and sample toothpastes, soaps, shampoos, and other stuff. I was so impressed with his positive attitude and interest in what I was doing that I brought him a bottle of Weyerbacher and stuck it in the spare tire area of his jeep (even though I told him where it was, it had fallen out, he probably forgot, and I found it on the ground broken in the morning). It’s actually really hard for me to relax. I get all wired and I need to exhaust myself with high mileage and stimuli. When the morning came, I was all geared up to go.
DAY 1
We started walking direct from the hotel. We were able to go on up hill through the parking lot of the hotel, and then other parking lots further up the hill parallel with Route 4. We emerged on Main Street, and then continued further parallel with 4 along a pathway with a pavilion thing on it. This took us to the Bank of America lot through a little cut through path, and then past some buildings with date markers on them. One of them was dated to about 1745. We turned to the right soon out of the parking lot on High Street, and only had to go a couple of blocks. On the left, there was a mowed trail that went up between houses to the Hillstead Museum. Hillstead is another of those places I’d love to spend more time on, exploring and getting to know it. The house was built between 1898 and 1901, to the specifications of Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the first female architects, with site plane by Egerton Swartwout of the firm McKim, Meade, and White. Riddle designed the home for her father, Alfred Atmore Pope to house the art collection she and her father had assembled.
Historic image at Hill Stead
The hill to get up to Hillstead was not all that steep, but I was carrying at the very least fifty pounds in my bag. I had way more water than I’d ever thought I’d need, and I also had a couple of glass bottles of beer in there I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to carry.
Hill Stead Now
Once near the top, Jillane took a break and I admired the lovely facade of the Colonial Revival mansion. There were people walking around a bit, but it wasn’t that crowded. I went to the right and checked out the lovely sunken gardens. The garden was very nice, and done to the specifications of a written plan from around 1920. Efforts are made on site to adhere to the plan as written, although no one can be sure if it was ever completely carried out in Theodate Pope Riddle’s lifetime.
Hill Stead
We walked around the east side of the building, and passed some people with an event going on inside, then continued to the main parking area. There, the trail system is accessible. An arch welcomed us onto the system from the parking lot to the connecting trail to the main trails of the system. We went slightly down hill to reach the Bittersweet Loop Trail, which passes through lovely open meadows on it’s way to the east. We followed it under a natural plant arch gradually up hill to the intersection with the Woodland Trail where we turned next. Woodland Trail makes up an east end loop on the property, and has an informal connector to the Metacomet Trail. We followed this to the connector, and Jillane realized she had dropped her bandanna she had on her pack, so I went back all the way to the Bittersweet Loop to find it for her. Once I caught back up, we followed the unblazed connector trail to the east, to reach the Metacomet Trail.
Cave at Will Warren's Den
The Metacomet Trail has been on my radar for a while. When Jillane and I last backpacked Connecticut, we met a man from the Connecticut Parks and Forests Association on the Tunxis Trail, who was reworking descriptions for the update of the Connecticut Walk Book (which I brought with me this time). He told us we wanted to do the Metacomet because it was overall a pretty easy trail, and it was very scenic. I lookd into it, and was immediately interested. When I found that it was just under a mile from where we left off on that trip, I knew we had to go and check it out. I planned to follow a couple of days of this and make our way to the east from there. The Metacomet Trail follows much of the Metacomet Ridge, an Igneus Intrusive Basalt ridge similar to the New Jersey/New York Palisades, which stretches from the Long Island Sound all the way to the Massachussetts/Vermont border. Barack Obama designated four trails leading the length of these points as the New England National Scenic Trail in 2009. From the Long Island Sound, the Menunkatuck Trail leads north to connect with the Mattabessett Trail, which leads east to the Connecticut River or north toward Meriden. Where Mattebessett Trail ends, Metacomet begins. Metacomet Trail continues north through Connecticut where the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail leads north across Massachusetts. Manadnock-Sunapee Greenway and other trails continue north and connections can be made through Vermont and New Hampshire.
VIew at Rattlesnake Mountain
“Metacomet” is a word borrowed from a 17th century Sachem who led his people, the Wampanoag tribe, during King Philip’s War. Metacomet, according to folklore, was dubbed “King Philip” by colonists in the late 1600s. Once we were on the Metacomet Trail, we turned to the right. It was a very easy path at first, following through an area with houses in rather close proximity, but never too close. The trail continued down and into the back yard of a house. There were no good blazes, and I went up hill to look and see if it came out on a road. It probably did at one time. There was a reroute in this area somewhere that eliminated road walk. We headed down of the private land and onto Mountain Road where we turned right briefly. We then cut to the left to continue on somewhat new trail through woods to the south. This led to an abandoned former extension with Dunham Lane. We continued up hill on the trail, and then to the south on a slope above Farmington Reservoir, part of Farmington Mountain. This was where we saw some of the first “trapps”, the vertical rocky outcrops we’d continue to see throughout the trail. There were a couple of nice views facing to the east, and the rock outcrops already started getting kind of interesting, but the treadway at first was pretty easy.
Rattlesnake Mountain PInnacle area
We soon descended to Old Highway, Route 6, and crossed over. There were the signature blue signs for trail crossings like we find everywhere in Connecticut, and we followed a narrow path in on the other side. This only last a short distance to where a secondary path leads to a parking area. It got super wide at this point, and the trail ahead gradually gained elevation but was overall really easy. The pathway got really wide, and we started gradually ascending the formation known as Rattlesnake Mountain. There was a long series of nice puncheons, and it started to get to steeper and rockier stuff just a little further on. I like that whoever laid out the rail actually tries to get it to go over some of the more interesting rock formations. I enjoyed going over them; Jillane was able in many cases to just walk around those. These trails are all pretty historic. After the Long Trail in Vermont opened up in 1918, other organizations, Like Connecticut Parks and Forests Association, followed suit. The first trail to open on the Metacomet Ridge was the Quinnipiac Trail, spearheaded by Edgar Laing Heermance in 1928. The rest of the Metacomet Trail soon followed. After a steep spot we passed by two very large towers, which were held up by big cables in all directions. We then entered more rocky woods and soon reached the formations know as Will Warren’s Den. I dislike that the Connecticut Walk Book does not detail the history of these sites, but fortunately I could check into it later. As the folklore tells, Will Warren was flogged for not attending church in the village of Farmington, and so he tried to burn down the town. He was chased into the mountains and rescued by three Indian maidens who hid him in the cave. There is no historic proof of any of this, and Warren’s story may be an amalgam of many stories. It was however reported that a skeleton was found in the cave in 1870. We got to the cave, which was another rock pile type of cave typical of much of the Connecticut hiking I’ve done. I didn’t try going down into it this time, and we continued on Metacomet Trail around the rock outcrops. It wasn’t much further before we got to an outstanding overlook of maybe 180 degrees or pretty near it. I went out to the rock ledges to view everything around. The area around the trail was never really that secluded. There is a lot of park land, but all of the views on this section had some sort of development. It wasn’t like being up on the Mid State Trail in PA, where there was nothing but woods or farms from almost any vantage point. Still, it was something different. To the south, I could see a city. I’m not sure if it was Southington, but the buildings looked to big I would think to be that. I can only assume I was looking at New Haven, a place I’d like to soon walk to. The blue blazes went right out to the overlook, but then we couldn’t figure out where they went right away. After a bit of looking, it turned out it went down the cliffs steeply, and then followed along their bottoms. With the big packs, it made for some tough foot at times. The trail even went beneath a boulder. Not really a cave, but a cool underpass sort of thing.
Pinnacle Rock area view
Jillane spotted some graffity from 1882 that “1882 read AMc 1886 Oct 1”. There was some other newer stuff too, but that was the coolest. The trail remained along the base of the cliffs for a bit, then gradually ascended to follow the east side of them again, above. We came to an abandoned road, which supposedly led to a Nike Missile base that used to be on top of the Rattlesnake Mountain in the area. I walked up the road a little bit while I waited for Jillane to catch up but saw nothing of interest. The road only paralleled the trail for a little it it seems anyway. At a little peak ahead, there was a stone former overlook platform to the right. The ups and downs on this section could be a little frustrating. It wasn’t always jut a level ridge, and so with a full pack it was rough. Right after we had passed the two towers earlier, we had to go way down and across a power line cut before coming back up. This next spot was another up and down, and then after the overgrown overlook, we kept going up more. Things got way more scenic at this next point, Pinnacle Rock. The views were outstanding. Unfortunately, there were just tons of people everywhere. Views were back to the towers we had passed, and all the way down the ridge . We could see and hear lawns being mowed some seven hundred feet below, and lots of rock climbers were hooked in and using the rocks. This area was a very popular place for that. We didn’t pause for long at these busy overlooks, and continued south as the ridge lost some elevation. We passed over some concrete foundations that were associated with the Nike Missile base, and continued past more views. The trail became easier, with more gentle descending ahead, and views more facing the south.
Abandoned rails
We picked up an old quarry road for a bit, and I checked out an informal side path to a quarry operation view. The trail took us down to Rt 372 next to an abandoned railroad spur with tracks still in place. The trail turned left on the road here. I walked the tracks for a bit, but we both had to head out to the road when it got too overgrown. This area was known as Cook’s Gap, part of New Britain area. We followed the tracks to where another spur joined it on the right, and then passed “Journey Road”. We passed under Interstate 84, and the shade from the bridges was quite welcome. It was getting hot, and we both had drank more water than we’d anticipated. The Metacomet Ridge, it seems hosts microclimates that get hotter than much of the rest of the area. Still, it was around 100 degrees back home, and the hottest it got for our entire trip was mid 80s.
Crescent Lake
I spotted, directly on the trail route, a Stop and Shop gas station, and so I figured this would be a great place for us to re-stock. I originally wasn’t planning on carrying a lot of stuff because we could always replenish, but it ended up not quite working out that well. The Stop and Shop was indeed the same company as the grocery store we all know, but this one only had gas, as well as a window where only candy bars and limited drinks could be purchased and passed through a window cubby. This must have been a pretty bad crime area for it to be like this. I got Jillane some Sprite and such at this window. There was other stuff further east, but off of our trajectory by a bit. I still wasn’t too worried about it, so we took a break in the shady grass behind Stop and Shop before moving on. The trail continued across 372 onto Wooster Street. I went over to a pizza place to see if I could get us a couple of slices, but they did not sell pizza by the slice. Weird. We followed Wooster Street under Rt 72, then went right on Black Rock Ave/Woodford Ave. We followed this a little bit, and the trail went off to the right soon. We ascended for a bit parallel with quarry property. It wasn’t steep except for the very first bit. We then ascended very gradually and comfortably. The Multi Flora Rose invasives are annoying back home, but on this date and in these woods they were all blooming beautifully. We followed the trail along some sort of artificial canal, which was now dry and waterless, and then crossed a bridge over it toward a quarry road. Mountain bikers went by on the quarry road, but Metacomet Trail remained parallel in the woods. We almost lost it because someone had piled giant cut branches over it. In the woods ahead, as we moved further away from quarry operations, we passed graffiti, where three trees each read consecutively “YOU ARE LOVED”. Another read “FREE”. We passed one foundation which must have been quarry something or other, and continued through woods. The section went on a long while, with nothing really to tell us how far we’d gone. After passing a nice spring, we passed the Ledge Road Connector, the next place I could see mileage. We continued from here on the main trail and took on more rocky sections again. The cliffs were smaller than what we’d been on before, but the character returned. This section is known as Bradley Mountain, around the Plainville Reservoir, also known as Crescent Lake. The section the Metacomet Trail passes through here is known as Sunset Rocks State Park. When we finally reached the height of the land above Crescent Lake, we could see how it was so named. The sun was starting to go down, and it was quite lovely. This was the bare minimum distance I was intending to make it the first day. I figured we could go down and try to camp along the lake, but there were a lot of people around. We passed a few, and some group ahead of us were going out and around as if they were freaked out by us. We took a little break and allowed for them to move on. Other side trails turned to the right toward the lake, and one more blue blazed trail of the same system we were on went down toward the parking lot there. We opted to just continue on, passed an old chimney of origin I am unsure, and continued to descend. There was a view at a utility clearing, then some more steep descending through rocks.
Ruins
The trail descended and became easy in an area we could hear roads and such. It then turned right and went back up hill, which was rather frustrating. Even I was getting a bit tired at this point. Shuttle Meadow Reservoir was ahead along the route, with a short road walk section. I figured we could make our way along the shore of this lake to camp out, and have a good source to get cleaned up. The trail emerged at the corner of Shuttle Meadow Road, Reservoir Road, and Long Bottom Road. The trail continued ahead on Long Bottom, but there was a farm entry to the left I figured we might be able to access the reservoir from. Two people were walking down the road toward us, so we hurried into the field to look for a camp spot, but it was crap down there. We headed back up and walked Long Bottom Road for a bit. A farm store on the right was still closed for the season, and so we passed that, followed by a large lot on the left with some bikers partying. There was probably a good waterfront access there, but I didn’t want those people to see us going in somewhere we weren’t supposed to be. We walked to the corner of Mine Hollow Road and a spillway, and used that to access the area below. We walked down to the water front, then turned left into the woods and looked for a good spot to set up. We found something just level enough, but still uncomfortably close to houses and such, but it would have to do. Once the tent was set up, we went to take a dip in the reservoir, which was cold, but felt great. I slept pretty good after the strain of the day and getting cleaned off a bit.
DAY 2
I woke up first and began having a look around. The reservoir was really pretty, but it was to chilly to enjoy going in, and it was too visible from roads. We got packed up and started walking to the road again, and there was a sign reading that we were now leaving the restricted area, and “thank you for cooperating”. We got back on Long Bottom Road and followed it to the intersection with Andrews Street, though farm and orchard lands.
Shuttle Meadow Reservoir
The trail started ascending again from the intersection through some nice woods. The trail's ascent here was fine at first, with very open area. We crossed a reservoir access road as I recall, and continued to gradually climb. We headed down into a natural little dry valley next to a giant cliff face, and then passed a warning sign that the trail was extremely rocky. This would be a tougher climb. We went up over rocks, and it required hand holds much fo the time. It then skirted the bottom of the trapp cliff. I spotted a Maple I did not recognize from the things I've read, and it bothered me enough to take a photo of it. There are different species this far up that we don't have at home, so I wanted to know it. It turns out, this was not a Maple at all but a Viburnum Acerifolium, or Maple-Leaf Viburnum, a shrub that gets a black fruit and has leaves similar to that of the Red Maple. I continued ahead on the steep cliff base, but waited for Jillane at comfortable points. She called me back, saying she'd spotted a snake. Sure enough, she found a young Rattlesnake. It had nice color, but these young ones are the most dangerous. We moved on past it carefully.
Rough spot
We continued to where the trail turned hard right and made it's way up the final bit of the cliffs. This was the steepest single climb spot of the entire trip. We absolutely had to use our hands for this little vertical bit. Once we were up, the trail was much easier on the edge of the rock formations. My hands sweat at the prospect of having to go down something like this. I'd have had to take my pack off, and a fall forward could mean death. Jillane took her pack off for a break, and I headed along a spur trail that went to an overlook of the Wassel Reservoir from a power line clearing. I then returned and we continued on the trail heading sort of east. This bit was much easier, along the edges of cliffs with some views of the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir to the north. I spotted what I am pretty sure was a Bobcat ahead of me on the rocks in this section. The trail went up and down a couple of times to get by breaks in the rocks, and eventually headed to the right and descended. The trail picked up an abandoned road for a bit and followed it south, and then cut into the woods to the left. We then descended to a small brook and some sort of old raceway.
Raceway
I had never seen a raceway like this before. It was very impressively dug into the trap rock. It had some masonry siding, and a walkable far side that was partially followed by Metacomet Trail, and at other times the trail followed the opposite side. We were on it for a good long while, and when the trail finally left where the water flowed into it, at what appeared to be the start of it, there was a clearing where at one time there might have been a saw mill. There must have been another operation further to the south, but we got on the thing too far up stream to know what it might have been. Beyond this point, the trail ascended to more height of land and became rockier again, as it entered the Ragged Mountain Preserve. After what we'd already seen, I was rather dreading this section. With a name like that, I figured it would be really rough.
Wassel Reservoir
The section ended up being possibly the easiest section of the Metacomet Trail we did. Side trails came in on the left into more of the Ragged Mountain Preserve, but much of what we followed was either old woods road or easy foot path through woods. We began passing other hikers as the trail got closer to Wassel Reservoir. There is a popular cliff jump spot out there, but with the amount of people going by, we didn't bother trying to go over there. The trail got a bit tougher when it ascended to the first rock outcrop overlooking the Wassel Reservoir. It was a really pretty site, and the breeze blowing was relaxing. The trail continued along the trap rock formation again heading to the south. More views continued along the edge of Ragged Mountain through this area, but the ups and downs weren't as bad. There were more people rock climbing and hanging around the cliffs in this section, and more views of Wassel Reservoir out to it's dam. We also had a view of Smith Brothers Pond as we descended a bit out to the southern peak of Ragged Mountain.
Metacomet Ridge view below Wassel Reservoir
There were great views to the south from this point. The rocks further down, some known as the Hanging Cliffs of Meriden, were amazing looking. The Metacomet Trail leads all the way south to these peaks, but we would be leaving it soon in favor of other trails in the system that would help us to cut the corner to the south. Metacomet goes way south to a peak there, then back to the north and terminates where the Matabessett Trail begins, and so we'd have another day of walking to do the entire south and back north again. Instead, we could cut the corner on more of the system ahead, then get a hotel room for the night. That had been my plan from the start here.
Short Cliff descent
We started heading down from this spot, called Short Cliff, and it was a rather treacherous descent. Still, it would have been way harder with the previous cliff if we were heading northbound. I helped Jillane down the rockiest stuff, and then we descended further on less treacherous stuff until the trail emerged on a driveway called Ragged Mountain Road. We followed it down hill to Carey Street, and we turned left. Metacomet Trail then turns right on Millbrook Lane. We were running low on water again, because it was a again more challenging than anticipated. I had enough for me still, but we wouldn't have enough for us both to get through it probably, unless we treated some stream water which I wanted to avoid (there was plenty of water around otherwise). On Millbrook, there was a house on the left where a contractor was working in the driveway. I asked if I could use the hose to fill my water bottle, and he said he didn't live there, or he would. Another guy, probably the owner, called me back after I said thanks anyway, and I was allowed to come down and refill a bit. That got us through a lot more.
Metacomet descent
The trail went to a weird cul de sac, and then had a sort of hidden access into the woods. We descended to cross the Hatchery Brook below, and paused to cool off with the water there. From this point, we were to find the connecting trail to Timberlin Park. The park has it's own trail system, but the only ones typically shown in the walk book are the ones that are part of the CT Parks and Forests Association. I got Jillane to look up the offiical map on her phone, because my phone doesn't run PDF documents. What she found showed an abandoned orange trail going off along the brook, then making it's way into the Timberlin Park. We at first tried to follow Metacomet Trail, but we came to the base of Short Mountain, and we figured it might take longer to climb up and back down. In retrospect, we should have done just that. We went back and found the start of the abandoned orange trail, and began following it along the brook. It soon disappeared, and we got to where the Hatchery Brook was no longer reasonable to follow. There was an overgrown farm field and no sign of any trail anywhere. We went to where rocky outcropping formations were reaching the field, and went off trail through woods heading to the south as best we could.
Old girl scout camp
We eventually came to the Green Trail, called AG Trail, in Timberlin Park. We turned left to follow it down hill and crossed a branch of Hatchery Brook near where it joins the shore of Hart's Pond. We continued following the pleasant trail through woods until it terminated along the access road to the park, next to the Timberlin Golf Course. We walked on from here to the east, and skirted the golf course where golf cars were going by like crazy and people were trying to pull out in their regular vehicles. I went up to the club house to use the soda machine. I got a couple of gatorades for Jillane before we moved on again. To the east, the Hatchery Brook Trail leaves to the north and skirts the wetlands, however the old golf course access road is a paved trail now just along the north side of the course. I decided it was a good break for us to follow this more direct route. It also had garbage cans, so I got rid of a lot of our junk. Even better, there was a working water fountain where we were able to refill the bottles we were using enough to get us through the rest of the day. We walked on, and came to where Hatchery Brook Trail emerged from the woods on the left. It joined the abandoned access road, and followed it east away from the course and up hill to Chamberlain Highway. The trail crossed here, turned slightly right, then left into the woods where it descended along the backs of houses. We could tell the people didn't want the trail there because blazes had been painted out, but I could still see them. There also was a big wetland with a former roadway crossing it used by the trail. This was all overgrown, and it got worse the further we went. It was by far the worst weeds we dealt with for the entire trip. We got through the mess across the wetland, and the trail got much nicer beyond. We headed slightly up hill, but mostly on easy terrain to where there used to be a girl scout camp called Merebrite. I could find no information on line telling anything about this camp, and the walk book has nothing but the name. There was one chimney back there remaining of the camp. An orange trail went to the right, but we kept to the left and followed the trail out to a parking area next to a cul de sac on Wilnesap Road. I had seen maps of the trail system in the area, but there was a rather new one in the parking area for the trail head. I was delighted to see that the trail system now all connected through, and we'd eliminate road walking and any bushwhacking I was thinking we'd have to make. The blue blazed Hatchery Brook Trail is planned on going on through, but as of the writing of the CT Walk Book update, just last year, it was not done yet.
Orange trail
We were able to leave the blue trail here and turn right down a long, wide open field. This trail was shown as just driveway on the map, but had some colored blazes as I recall. We passed through a line of trees and then entered another open field area where the trail turned to the right side. The orange trail we had been on before came in from the right and we continued through the open area and a green trail came in from the right. We continued ahead until a blue trail went into the woods ahead. It forms a sort of loop. We soon passed an old pavilion; it turns out this was even more of old Camp Merebrite. It's amazing that more infrastructure exists but is not mentioned anywhere on line. It looks like it hasn't been abandoned that long. Thee is also mention of boy scout activity in the local trail guide here:
We continued walking the blue route to the south, and passed a little pond area and an abandoned water pump with weeds coming through it. There were old lean to shelters off the trail in the woods. We continued to the yellow blazed trail and followed coaligned yellow and blue till the blue turned off to the left. We went straight on yellow and eventually reached the blue and red paint blazes of the Hatchery Brook Trail again, an unconnected section to what we were on earlier. We went left to follow them down hill and then over a bridge across Hatchery Brook. Jillane pointed out that the bridge shook a surprising amount. On the other side, the trail ended at a cul de sac on Cross Creek Drive, but we turned right on a connector trail, which skirted a back yard from the cul de sac and passed through a line of trees to the orange loop trail along the edge of a field. We turned right on the field edge, a nice mowed path going gradually up hill after a small pond, where we could see the Metacomet Ridge behind us pretty well. The trail came out on Kensington Road, a short distnace from Orchard Road. We turned right on Kensington, and where it joins Orchard is where the Metacomet Trail's main route comes out of the woods and follows Orchard to the east. We cut to the left across a garden center property to get onto Orchard a little quicker. From here, it was a painfully long road walk section of the Metacomet Trail to the east. We went down across Crooked Brook, with public lands adjacent, but the trail was still on the road, then up hill on the other side. A young guy jogging was heading up hill, and I supportively said "You got this, you got this" as we sped up the hill past us. He smiled and muttered thanks as best he could. We continued through the neighborhoods, crossed active railroad tracks on a bridge, then crossed Belcher Brook before the intersection with Toll Gate Road. The Metacomet Tral continues just a short distance up to the left where it officially ends at Route 5. Mattabesett Trail officially begins on the other side of the same intersection. That would be our next leg.
Pizza
We turned right on Toll Gate Road, which I figured would get us to the hotel, the Days Inn, which I'd already reserved for the night earlier, quicker. We continued along, and I watched after houses on the left ot see if there was a way I could get through without going all the way to the south end of Toll Gate Road. We got lucky; even though I did try bushwhacking up rocks to the left, we ended up finding a driveway that cut on through directly across from The Hawthorne, a restaurant next to the hotel. We were able to dash across traffic on Rt 5 when it was less busy and get to the hotel with no problem.
Disco party
I went and checked in, and Jillane rested. It was getting late, and we called the Hawthorne place to see if they did reservations. Jillane didn't want to leave, so we inquired about takeout, and they did do it, so I got us burgers and such. When I walked over to pick it up, there was a full on disco dance party with a live band going on. I ended up having to hang out for about 45 minutes before any food was ready, and a lone Asian woman two chais down from me gave me the eye the entire time. We were the only two people sitting at the bar that didn't have a visible mate, and I was almost sure she was about to make a pass at me when I finally got my food handed to me. I hurried back, already munching on fries on the way. I was pretty hungry at this point, and I hadn't eaten dinner the night before (and wasn't hungry) when Jillane made a bagged vegetable pasta thing. We had to drink a lot of fluids to catch up with the previous two days worth of sweating.
DAY 3
I woke up with a headache. It had started the night before. I had had a tick bite from the previous day or day before, I can't even remember, but I was immediately worried I'd gotten lyme again. It was horrible when I got it a couple of years back, until I got the doxycycline. I was afraid it would knock me out for the rest of the trip.
Relaxing
I went down stairs and got continental breakfast with eggs and waffles. I brought some up to Jillane, and we agreed they were even better than the ones at the more expensive place. Jillane rested more, and my headache got worse. It was getting to migraine level, and I didn't know how I was going to be able to deal with it. I went down stairs, and there was a pool outside. I wanted to try to go for a swim, but there were annoying kids in the pool being loud. I sat down on a lawn trail and read the Connecticut Walk Brook a bit, and even fell asleep on the lawn chair for a bit. I needed the break. I didn't feel thirsty, but I did need more water.
Food
I continued to drink and rest, and when the kids were out of the pool I went for a swim. I went back to the room and took a mid day nap, something I NEVER do, and then after that started to feel better. It was Jillane's birthday, and I wasn't about to try to convince her to go walking more if she didn't want to. I wanted to get her a good dinner, and we had a really nice restaurant next door, so it worked out well for this. Jillane got up and we decided to go for dinner, and we were seated in a pretty nice place. I didn't feel bad about wearing shorts or anything because the people sitting a table away from us were wearing jeans and dropping F Bombs. The food was really great; Jillane got an enormous salad type of thing, and I got some ribbon pasta dish with beef. When we got back to the room, I was feeling much better, and we could get a good night's sleep.
DAY 4
We woke and packed up, and then continued on our way after some more yummy continental breakfast. We had to walk up Rt 5 for a little bit to get to where Orchard Road and the Metacomet Trail reached the Mattabesett Trail at Spruce Brook Road on the other side. We walked to the intersection, and I ran across to check out the old Hall Cemetery on the other side, at the intersection with Orchard. There were no head stones remaining, only the bases of them, sadly. Jillane sat at a nice picnic bench in the shade while I went into the store to get more drinks for the day. We then began walking down Spruce Brook Road to the east, which mostly had good sidewalk for the Mattabesett Trail.
Crescent Lake (second one)
Mattabesett Trail is historic like the Metacomet, and was the third trail ever created by the Connecticut Parks and Forests Association, in 1932. The name of the trail is taken from the original name associated with the Middletown area and the Connecticut River. The derivation Mete-wis translates to "black earth". Alternate forms Mattabeseck, Mattabesick and Metewemesick. Students from the Wesleyan University helped to clear and blaze the trail, and from what we could see on some signage, the university is still somewhat involved. The trail originally cut off from Spruce Brook Road earlier to climb Lamentation Mountain, but the section was closed. Instead, the trail was rerouted to the east a bit. We walked the road a bit and passed Old Yard Cemetery, which appeared to have Revolutionary War veterans buried in it. Just after, the trail turned off the right to the right in a little ravine along Spruce Brook behind a house. An old couple in a back yard barely saw us.|We passed two people who went ahead of us, and we didn't see them again. The trail soon started to ascend to the right to climb Lamentation Mountain. The first bit was part of an old road and we passed an old car, and there were also some bricks in the surface of it.|Mount Lamentation was named in 1636 when a member of Wethersfield Colony became lost and was found by a search party three days later on this ridge, twelve miles from home. There is some controversy whether theLamentation refers to his behavior or that of those looking for him. In 1735 a group of local men leased land on the western edge of this mountain in an attempt to find gold, as quartz formations there seemed promising. None was ever found. When we reached the crest of the mountain, part of more Metacomet ridges, we took a break. I went back along the ridge a little bit and found old blazes from the closed portion of the trail, but not much of a view. We continued on the ridge of Lamentation Mountain to the south, which was far easier than the previous sections of trail we had done. There were bits of ups and downs, but it was okay. We reached some great views, at least one of which we could see the hotel where we'd stayed the last two nights, as well as out to Silver Lake. The town of Meriden was in good view from some of the view points. The trail started going down hill after a bit, and followed a slope heading to the east. There was a side trail that led off as we entered Giuffrida Park. There was a way of making a short cut here, but I couldn't quite follow it on the map, nor would I have wanted to, because I didn't want to cut any corners on this part of Mattabesett Trail. We continued down hill and reached a power line crossing. The trail went left on it's access road, then right through woods to reach the main power line itself, then we lost our way. I couldn't find blazes anywhere, so we continued back to the access road and followed it to Crescent Lake (yes, another one), which was originally known as Bradley Hubbard Reservoir. New maps have it changed. We soon found the trail again and followed it along the west shore.
Guiffrida Park
This was a lovely lake, and I couldn't wait to go for a dip, but there were people hanging around everywhere. We walked south a bit, and passed an entire hiking club outing. When I got to a good spot with an access to the water, I jumped in and swam to the center. There were these little white boats out there I thought might have been swimming docks, but when I got closer I found out that they were cameras mounted on docks with solar power to keep people from swimming! I swam back as quick as I could, and we were soon out of there. I couldn't believe they'd go to such lengths. We headed south to the main dam of the reservoir. This area was originally the Meridan Farm, which was first farmed in the 1600s. The dam is old, made of stone, but not quite that old. The Mattabesett Trail turns to the left below the dam, then begins climbing to Chauncey Peak. Jillane was going to take an unmarked trail along the west side heading north, but it turned out to be overgrown and poor condition, so she came to the top. The original trail was rerouted in this area due to quarrying I think, but even more recently it had switchbacks added which made the climb to the top that much easier.
Guiffrida Park at Chauncey Peak
From here through the rest of Giuffrida Park was the nicest trail work we saw on the entire trip. It reminded me of Point Mountain back home the way the stone steps were done. We headed up toward the top, and I saw more reroutes. Jillane tried taking a short cut, but it ended up taking her up the back way. The views at the top were outstanding, and more natural than those we saw to the north. There were a lot more trees and a lot less homes in view here, with more scenic ridge to the south. We turned to the left at the top, and another view to the quarry operation was afforded to the east. The trail led us from there along more of the trap ridges, with views down to the lake we were just at. Much of this had been rerouted away from the cliffs themselves. It was still easy to walk over to the views, but the way it was done before had a couple of deadly drops along the way. Jillane kept to the inland trail while I tried to get all of the lake views I could. When the trail started to descend more, brand new trail work, probably less than a week old, led us down hill on lovely switchbacks.
Guiffrida Park
We crossed a foot bridge over an inlet to the lake further up, and then the trail climbed the other side. One of the connector trails that would have cut a corner was on the left, and we went to the right over height of land, then right again over possibly the same tributary, I'm not sure. We continued through this little valley, going annoyingly up and down a little bit until the land settled out heading east into Wilcox Park. A side trail led to a road parking area, and other trails joined along the way before we emerged on Atkins Street. The trail turned right here, through a little neighborhood that was once known as Highland. We passed along the edge of the West Street Cemetery along the way, established in 1819, and on the other side the trail re entered nature in Highland Pond Preserve.
What is now Highland Pond Preserve
We started walking this pleasant section on a causeway over swamps and a lovely pond to the left. I later found out that this was part of the Meriden, Waterbury, and Connecticut River Railroad, built in 1885. I wasn't sure when I first saw it, but I knew it looked like a level grade. The path led us on this causway for a while, but at first I could have figured it was just a reservoir. Further out, there was a foot bridge over an inlet or outlet, and because the path continued at the right grade, I felt more sure of it being railroad. When we reached the dam for the lake, and the grade continued into a cut, I knew for a fact it was some kind of railroad, whether it be a trolley or a standard locomotive line.
Rail trail section
It turns out, it was both. The original railroad here remained in service from 1885 until about 1903 when it was first abandoned. It was resurrected various times after it became part of the bigger New Haven railroad systems, and the final resurrection came about 1910 when it was used as a sort of interurban trolley line. It was closed down as I understand by the 1920s, maybe even earlier. We emerged on Bell Avenue, and the trail turned to the right and headed up hill through lightly developed area. The railroad bed continued on signed private land ahead. The road curved a few times, and we soon reached Country Club Road. The trail turned to the left, parallel with Interstate 91 past the Connecticut State Police place. We continued through their parking lots, and then crossed over 91 on the road. Once on the other side, the trail continued straight a little bit over a hill, part of the north end of Higby Mountain, and then turned right into a property associated with Wesleyan University. We followed the trail here into woods on a road that looked like it was a stalled development road. It gently ascended through here. I was willing to keep walking to a motel maybe two or so miles away, but Jillane wanted to just be finished early and camp. We got to the Tynan Park Connector Trail, where we'd leave the Mattabesett Trail for the last time on this trip, and followed the connector. This last trail section was quite easy. Jillane found a nice spot along the tiny brook that flowed through the property, which had a little fire ring on it. We didn't have a fire. It was just too tiring. I didn't eat or anything, just went to sleep. The night was a little weird; there was the snuffing sound, possibly made by a bear, coming from the woods on one side. I could hear it heading around the tent in a wide birth to the side the trail was on before moving off.
DAY 5
As usual, I woke up first and started wandering around to have a look. Some people walked by, and they stared over at us before moving on. I wanted to get moving before it got too hot out. This day was possibly the most interesting hike route as far as those go, because I slapped together a route much in the way I do my weekend group hikes, using whatever weird thing I can find to get us through.
Tynan Park connector
I'd originally thought we'd just follow Mattabesett Trail to the Connecticut River and then hike up into Middletown, but I realized that would take too long to do, and I wanted to get as far east into the state as was reasonable. I figured a few days of the Metacomet and Mattabesett Trails would be fine. We had just about completed all I set out to do on that, although at the minimum miles I thought we would do. I actually thought they'd be easy enough that we'd likely go beyond where I'd set as the daily goals in my mind, but they were a bit tougher. When we were up and moving, we followed the Tynan Park Connector Trail out to the parking area on Higby Road. Jillane stayed to take a break in the woods, while I met a guy in the parking lot who was quite interesting. His name was James, and he introducted himself as a traveler. We walked about the mind, and the things people believe versus the way things are. He told me I was unlike other people in that I see things more clearly. I really appreciated that, and while his opinions on things were rather left field, I appreciated him for his intelligent way of sharing. He struck me as an old time minister, but without being pushy with beliefs. I'd wished Jillane had a chance to meet him. When he took off, I went back to check on here, and soon we were on our way. Sisk Street led to the east from near where we were, and we followed it to it's end. We then turned to the right on Ballfall Road. It was getting hot, and every little tree that offered some shade became a stop.
At the end of this street, to the right slightly across Route 66 was St. Sebastians Cemetery. We crossed, went up a steep grassy hill, and turned left across the back of a yard into the cemetery. We were able to remain along the back of it in the better shade for a while to the south, until it ended. We then cut to the west out to Peters Lane, where we had to scale the cemetery fence before continuing south. We headed on to Cedar Street and turned left. This took us out to Ross Road, and a right led out toward Rt 157 where there was a pizzeria on the corner I'd hoped to stop for lunch. Unfortunately, it was closed when we arrived, so the few blocks we walked out of the way were for nothing. We turned right on 157 south, through the community of Rockfall, and reached a store at the corner of Cherry Hill Road. Jillane took a break in the shade and I went in to get us more drinks, and each of us an ice cream bar. After our break, we continued down Cherry Hill Road a very short distance to Wadsworth Falls State Park, where a trail led us down hill to the left, to the lovely waterfall on the Coginchaug River. The falls is officially called the Wadsworth Big Falls. Wadsworth Falls State Park was originally part of the Long Hill Estate of Colonel Clarence C. Wadsworth, a academic, linguist, conservationist, and member of the New York National Guard. The 600 acre estate was designed in part by John Charles Olmstead, nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmstead, around 1910. He later went on to landscape architect fame with his adopted brother and cousin Frederick Law Olmstead Jr., typically referred to as Olmstead Brothers. Rockfall, the name of the little settlement, was the name of the conservation business of Colonel Wadsworth. We would follow Wadsworth's trails from this point to Middletown proper.
From the falls, which had a lot of people hanging out around it, we went up past the top and
Old stone bridge
back to the road. There was a raceway there that went up beyond, and we got back on Cherry Hill Road to go across the river. There was a dam just up stream from the road, where the raceway got it's water. We're not sure what it powered. Just past there, the orange blazed Main Trail went into the woods beyond the railroad tracks. This was the first we'd see of this line that would be the biggest part of the remainder of the trip, on the Air Line Division of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford. Some of it was also the New York and New England Railroad. Many railroads ae known as "Air Line" because they basically drew a line through the air on a map to get from point to point. This particular important one was to be the quickest route between New York City and Boston. Much of it was built in the early 1870s. Most of what we'd walk was about 1873. We continued on the Main Trail through the state park, which first was above the railroad tracks. We continued as it moved along the high slope above the river. We turned left when we got to the Little Falls Trail, blue blazed, and followed it down to the smaller waterfall on the Wadsworth Brook. It was a nice little spot. There were always people walking by us in the state park, quite a busy place. There was a new trail being built off to the left that we didn't bother trying to follow this time. We continued back to the Main Trail, and followed it north through the park. We passed the Giant Laurel, which was a Mountain Laurel of quite large size, noted on the map, and took a break on a bench. We continued from there to the north part of the park, and turned right on the purple trail, called Bridge Trail on the map, but I didn't know why until we were further up. People kept asking us where we were going, or how far we were going. It was definitely an out of place look in this park. Bridge Trail led to a handsome stone arch bridge over Laurel Grove Brook. The trail itself followed an old main road through the Wadsworth Estate. We reached Laurel Grove Road, where there was parking, and took a little break. After that, we left the state park and continued on the old Wadsworth estate road heading gradually up hill. More trails broke off, which was rather surprising. It turns out that the estate now has public trails all through it connecting to the state park. Posts along the old road were made of cut stone, and one had "1933" etched in it.
Long Hill estate
We continued up hill, and I took a side path to actually see the Long Hill Mansion for myself. The Classical Revival mansion completed in 1917 was nearly lost developers and other things. It was a religious Cenacle for a while, a school property, or simply abandoned for quite some time until around 1998 the town stepped up to make something more of it. It opened to public with a perimeter trail and other trails, and open event rental in 2000. We continued to where I figured we would walk down the access road to the place, but then discovered the Olmstead Carriageway. When the mansion was built, the Olmstead Brothers designed the beautiful meandering carriageway as the main road to the estate. The current, direct route was in private hands and not open to access the property at the time. It had only recently been somewhat restored as a walking route. We started walking down the path, which had some nice interpretive signs. One was for stone stiles to access the former farmed fields, with the actual old steps over the walls to the side. A very interesting point we came to was "The Path", an old aboriginal trail that became part of the Wadsworth Estate. It was part of the main route between New Haven and Middletown, which during Wadsworth's time was known as Dolly Lane, as they had an aunt by that name who lived down the path. The route was host to a military activities including gunpowder storage during the American Revolution, and was traveled by members of the Continental Army including General George Washington.
Olmstead Carriageway
The Olmstead Carriageway seemed to end just ahead, but it must have turned to the left. I read that it originally used to come out near the corner of Wadsworth Street and Long Lane, but historic aerials from around 1934 seem to show something coming out possibly closer to the present day Snow School. I'm not sure which is right, but I'm inclined to say that since that was during Wadsworth's time really, it could be either way. We ended up walking out to the Snow School, however, which was directly connected to the trail system. There was a set of steps up and a sort of abandoned ball court or something above. Interesting area. We headed out along the right side of the school yard and took to a path to the right which led to a small apartment complex area. We turned left in that and headed out to Wadsworth Street. We followed Wadsworth Street to the right briefly, and then turned left where a paved trail runs closely parallel, but back off the road from Long Lane headed north. Lines of interesting trees were to the left. An abandoned school building was visible across Long Lane, but I didn't bother going over to look closer this time. It was probably pretty secure. We walked on the path, as well as through lines of trees along the road. I noted some Ash trees that were flagged to be removed along the way. Others had tag pins in them, maybe for identification. We passed a school and the paved path came closer to the road heading north. We reached a curve where the road changed names to Cross Street, and we turned left into Indian Hill Cemetery, which looked amazing to me on the maps. It'd have been quicker to walk to the only available hotel in Middletown directly from here, but I wanted to see more while it was still light. I booked a room at The Inn at Middletown by phone, which was expensive, but the only opportunity we'd really have.
Indian Hill
Indian Hill was originally part of the native American people called the Wangunks. Around 1639, they, under leadership of Sowheag, built a fortification atop the hill. Maybe it was to protect against other encroaching tribes, or maybe to warn approaching colonists. The first colonists arrived around 1650, and the native people sold off much of their lands. Those who stayed lived peacefully with the colonists for some time, until conflicts between native Americans and colonists in other parts of the country led to most of them moving away. By around 1670, even Indian Hill was sold off to the colonists. A few of the Wangunks remained in the area and married into African American families. Some descendants reportedly still live in the area.
We went up the old entrance road to the cemetery, which required climbing over a wall because it was closed from the vehicle road. I continued walking to the very pinnacle of the hill while Jillane stayed on the access roads to the right. There were beautiful grave stones and lovely views all around. It's probably one of the most beautiful cememteries I've ever been in. After the crest of the hill, there was a lovely brownstone mausoleum with an 1850 date on the doors, thought reportedly this building was built in 1867. We continued to the north a bit, and then turned right on another road heading down hill. I thought we'd find a good way out of the cemetery to the east, but it only connected back up to the hill again. We had to backtrack to the north side of the cemetery near Washington Street and head out to Vine Street. There was another cemetery section across Vine, but we turned right to head south on that. After a short bit, a set of stairs headed up hill to the east to Wesleyan University. After having read stuff about it, it was cool to actually walk some of the campus. THere was an observatory at the top of the hill where we crested, and then yet another historic cemetery right in the middle of the campus, probably some old family plot.
Historic college view
The site started about 1823 as the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy. The school's success was short lived, and it closed in 1831 leaving two empty brownstone buildings. The Wesleyan University was a Methodist Church college that opened at the site in 1831. Today, only "South College" exists from around 1825, as the second building from the original education institution burned in 1906. We walked through the open area in the campus, and skirted the south side of ball fields. Where we exited the campus area there was a building built in 1870. The path we followed through the university took us out to High Street right across from William Street. We crossed and headed down here. I went ahead faster to get toward the hotel, and stopped to read historic markers along the way.
The old armory, now Inn
There were a lot of nice old buildings through the town, and The Inn at Middletown was one of them.
The Inn today
The original inn was built as a home in 1810 as a home for a local wool merchant named John Ravel Watkinson. It was a home that is now the north wing of the Inn, which faced west toward Main Street originally. The residence was purchased in 1819 by the State of COnnecticut for use as an armory, some ten years after it was cited as a need for such a structure in Middletown. The Watkinson Home was shifted ninety degrees and a matching structure was constructed as the south wing. A connecting Classical Revival entry and courtyard connected the two, and a long drill shed was erected off of the rear. It was eventually abandoned as an armory in 1992, and fell into disrepair when it was purchased by the Weitzman family in 1996, with a grand plan to turn it into a sort of community theatre. Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Weitzman both died in a car accident, and the plan was halted. It was then turned into a hotel and restaurant in 2003, using the existing historic building as well as adding more modern amenities. The drill shed had been demolished in 2002 to make way for the new hotel section. Both wings and it's bronze plaques are reportedly all that remain of the original structure. The city provided more plaques with names of Veterans who'd died in various wars.
Front of the Inn
It was an expensive place to stay, but a cool experience to be in a modernized historic building. After getting to the room, Jillane settled in and rested while I went out to search for some food for us. We were both pretty hungry, and there was a good amount to pick from. There was a restaurant in the Inn, and I wanted to try it. Still, we could do that later. I'd mentioned that I was hiking coming in, and when I reserved the place, and when I was leaving a young girl called me over and said "Hey! Are you the one that's hiking?" enthusiastically. I turned back and confirmed, and she was quite interested in where we'd been and where we were going. It turns out she lives adjacent to Giuffrida Park, and we talked about the trails there. I told her my plans and where we'd been, and she gave me a voucher for a free drink at their restaurant as well as another discount dinner voucher!
I still went outside and walked south to the Rite Aid for some drinks, and went north along the main street looking for something else to eat. I found a burger place, can't remember what it was called, but scarfed down on of their specials really fast. It was, as I recall, a burger on a sort of butter flat type of bread thing that was absolutely cheesy and delicious. I had to bring one back for Jillane. I made my way back to the hotel, and she was happy to have some actual prepared food. We rested a bit, and when it got a bit later, after dark but before restaurant closing, we went down to have a delicious dinner. We'd arrived in town relatively early and made pretty good time, so we were both definitely hungry again. Jillane had some sort of busy salad thing that looked very good, and I had a delicious cut of chicken with mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was exactly the type of healthy dinner we needed. After eating, we went for a walk around town. There were a lot of people walking around, but not nearly as much as during the day. We saw a toy store, walked through a nicely lit alley area, and checked out the historic General Mansfield House.
DAY 6
I woke up feeling pretty well rested, and went out to look around for some more food and such. This place didn't have a continental breakfast like a lot of the cheaper ones did, unless you were at the top floor. I wasn't going to pay that much extra for breakfast, but I did take the elavator to the upper floor and found one of the delivery carts full of cookies and muffins and such. There was no one guarding it, and no one or no thing telling me not to, so I scarfed down a bunch of the stuff as fast as I could and carried away some cookies or something, but as I walked away, no one was coming back out. I went back to it and grabbed more, then delivered it back to the room for Jillane.
The bridge
Next, I went to the pool room, which was in the rear near or on where the old building section was demolished. I swam around for a little bit, and then got in the adjacent hot tub, which was quite relaxing. One lady came in and joined me, which was okay, but I actually did want it all to myself. The jets in the tub really relaxed my muscles a lot, and I felt good to go after that. Jillane still wasn't up, so I walked back down the road to Rite Aid again to get more drinks. I knew we'd be passing stuff, but wanted to be ready so I got more water and gatorade. While there, the TV was on and I watched a good long stretch of "The Love Bug" (the original), which I always loved as a kid. When Jillane got up, we got ready and started moving. We walked out of the hotel and into town heading north. We were going to stop at the burger place, but then opted not to get anything there. The town was annoyingly busy at this point with some shadier looking people. We headed out of town and reached the turn for the Arrigoni Bridge, the large bridge over the Connecticut River. A plaque read that it recieved a merit award in 1938 for most beautiful bridge. I seem to recall the Truck Routes 1 and 9 bridge in NJ having that distiction too. The Charles J. Arrigoni Bridge opened August 6th 1938, and apparently was renamed later because the plaque has the name put over an older one. We never really got a good look at the river. I had wanted to walk along the waterfront, but I also wanted to see more of the town. I would actually like to do another trip along the Connecticut River here, and maybe do the east end of the Mattabesett Trail, but it's just another of those billions of things I may never have the time to get to.
Old rail bridge
The "Air Line" railroad went beneath us just before crossing the bridge, and on the bridge we had great views to the south of it's crossing, with it's historic swinging bridge. It looked like it was fixed in the open position, and had small trees growing through it, but it is reportedly still active there. The original bridge across at this point was built in 1872, and the current swinging bridge was built in 1908. This must have been quite a sight when in service, because it was used by "The Ghost Trail". The nickname was given to the New England Limited, which featured Pullman passenger cars painted white with gold trim. It would give a ghostly look when passing by at night. They were eventually discontinued because the white was too difficult to keep clean. Once we were on the other side, we continued through the town of Portland for a short bit, then turned right on Marlborough Street, which is Route 66. Soon, there was an abandoned house on the right side of the road. It was surrounded by a metal fence. After that, more abandoned buildings and overgrown parking areas. It looked like a doctor's park, but I'm not sure what it was at all. I continued walking ahead, but Jillane wanted to see it more closely so she went in without me. She didn't go into any of the buildings though.
Top Dog
I stopped when I got to where the Air Line railroad had crossed. Rails were still in place to this point, and there was an historic station or freight depot building still standing there. Jillane had been telling me since we first got to Portland that she was craving hot dogs, and I had noticed Top Dog Hot Dogs on the Google maps well before this. I told her it was literally where the railroad crossed, and so we planned to stop there. I was surprised to see it just being a towable cart, but it was shaped like a giant hot dog. Even more cool, it was towed by an awesome restored 1972 taxi cab. I went over and got two dogs I think it was with their special meat sauce. Those places always have some good signature sauce or chili or something, and so I wanted to try it for that. It was quite awesome. I put my bag down in the shade by an umbrella at the station, and when Jillane got back I got her some of the same. We had a nice little rest at the station building before moving on. The Air Line rail bed on the other side of the street was totally overgrown, but I had high hopes of more of it being open and clear. I had read while looking it up the day before that a brand new section of the Air Line Rail Trail had just been opened on June 6th, only a few days before we got there! This was great news because we'd be sure that a lot of road walk would be eliminated. We did however have to follow a little bit along 66 to Adams Hometown Market, a grocery store. Jillane grabbed a cart and put her bag in it with hopes of being able to push it along the grade. Direct behind the place, it was in a cut and it was too overgrown for me to try to get on right away. We walked adjacent to it behing the grocery store to the east end, and there was a path that was good into the woods. It reached the rail grade and followed it briefly to Johnson Farm Road. There, a road into a private apartment complex had been built over it ahead. We followed it a short distance, then turned right along the retention pond at the end, which utilized some of the old rail grade. The weeds weren't bad at all, and soon we were on a great railroad bed, a simple path kept clear by occasional ATVs, through the woods. This was probably the most pleasant section of the entire Air Line that we walked, because it wasn't overdone like so many rail trails tend to be.
The rail bed
This great section went a good long while to the former crossing at Williams Street Extension. There, we had to turn right, then left on 66 again past a Henkel and McCoy industrial property. A guy who saw us asked where we were going, and we told him we were following the Air Line, and he mentioned where we could pick up the next section of the trail, and told us we were very close to our next destination: Dairy Queen. I wasn't going to follow his directions to the next bit, because I had another idea in mind that would eliminate the longer and more awful road walk section. We reached the Diary Queen and I had a Blizzard, something I hadn't had in quite a while. I used to love getting those, and when Jillane and I lived in Port Colden, Mark, my step dad would say "You fly I buy?" and I'd pick up ice cream for the entire family.M y mind was stirring at this point. Mark had just suffered what might be a fatal heart attack before leaving. He got himself to the hospital and had to have two stints put in. They worked on him for 55 minutes before they got a faint heart beat. His brother even called the funeral parlor. He'd been in a coma for a while when Jillane and I started the trip. Also just before leaving, my grandfather passed out at Shop Rite, and I went to get him. I almost thought I'd have to cancel the trip because of all that was going on. Even my own dad had just had knee surgery, but fortunately could get around quite well and didn't need that much help. I was ready to have to call it quits at any time on this trip, which was an underlying stressor. Jillane got something at the adjacent Dunkin Donuts, and we took a break. It ended up being for way too long, and we ended up being a few miles behind where I thought we'd end up. When we finally got moving, we turned north on Gospel Lane, which went north from 66 at the store. We crossed where the railroad used to cross, but there wasn't a single sign of any kind of path. I was prepared for that. We continued walking north to the intersection with Ames Hollow Road and turned right. We passed through some pretty farm land, passed some historic and new homes (but not many) and went up Collins Hill to the intersection with it's namesake road. We then turned right or continued on Jobs Pond Road and very quickly reached a power line crossing. It was here that we'd turn right to reach the former railroad after a bit.
Wood path
It was out in the open, but fortunately not too hot. Temps were definitely worse back home. We followed the power line down hill, and there were near clearings for upgrades of new towers being made. When we got lower, giant wooden plank bridges for the heavy machines took us across. Jillane had never seen them before, and so I told her about some big ones I'd walked in Monmouth County NJ and such. Along the way, we saw a nice Box Turtle basking in the sun. It was good we were doing this part later in the day, because mid day the sun would have been treacherous. We reached where the railroad bed came in on the right as brand new crushed stone surface trail. It still followed closely parallel with the power line, but down to the right of it mostly. There were immediately people out on it all the time, starting with a family and two or so little kids on bikes. We continued walking to the east on the new trail, and there was a piece of machinery that I found a key in to the right. I decided to started and play with it, but then realized I'd better stop. This was adjacent to a YMCA camp, though I thought it was a school at first. We made our way next out to Breezy Corners Road and crossed where there apparently used to be a bridge. The gates to bar vehicles from getting through are the largest I've ever seen anywhere. We continued from there to cross over another road on an old brownstone arch bridge, I think Middle Hadam Road. After that, we crossed a power line crossing and continued to an historic marker, which acknowledged Air Line history as well as the little cross stands seen along the way. We saw a few of these, which were to hold spare rails in case of the placed ones failing. They were probably put in between 1890 and 1902. Side trails broke off from this section, which we could have considered camping in, but I wanted to keep moving on. The first one was the Palmer Taylor Preserve. We passed through a nice old railroad cut and then crossed Old Middletown Road where another bridge apparently used to be. After that, we crossed Great Pond Brook. This was originally the site of a framed steel bridge built in 1868, but like many such viaducts, it was back filled and replaced with a granite culvert because freight was getting heavier. This one was filled in 1888. Today, the yellow blazed trail in the aforementioned preserve passes through the culvert on a walkway that was originally for herding cattle. The developed trail ended at Depot Hill Road. Apparently there was a station here at one time. We continued across the road, and it was still a nice clear path along the power pole clearing heading east. The rail bed went very close to a private home, but remained clear, and then entered a cut where it became too ridiculously overgrown for me to want to follow. Fortunately, an ATV path went above the cut to the right and took us right back down to the rail bed again on the other side. The sun was just starting to go down, and we had to figure out a place to camp. We arrived at the undeveloped section of the rail line at about the right time for this. A brook passed beneath the grade up ahead, just after a large fill, and then it entered a somewhat flooded cut. We went off the rail bed to the left looking for good places to set up the tent, but then we just decided to set up directly along the rail bed, just before the cut. We probably wouldn't have a problem there, and we didn't.
Camping on the rail bed
I set up the tent at a good spot off to the side of the ATV trail intersection along the woods. Around this time, I looked at my phone, and was shocked to see a missed call: Mark Godfrey. When I found out he was alive and finally conscious, I sent him a text message, and he called me back rather quickly, but I didn't see it. I called him right back and couldn't believe I was actually talking to him. His voice sounded weak, and he said he was confused or messed up a bit, but that he was okay. This was a great relief to hear, and I slept very well knowing it.
DAY 7
When I woke up, I decided to take a walk and explore the area a bit. I figured if I went ahead, I could figure out whether it was worth going through the railroad cut or if we had an option to go around. I went into the cut, which was flowing strong with water. There were even a few railroad ties in place when I got to the far end. The cut was very steep and deep. I wondered if maybe they railroad had originally gone around this cut, because it really was something of a major size for the time it was constructed.
Rail bed
The cut continued less deep, and got wetter as I continued. There were still standing sections with tadpoles in it. I continued to where the railroad went beneath Rt 66, and a newer culvert, I assume for the trail, had been constructed to carry the right of way beneath. Definitely not railroad vintage. On the other side, the grade was more dry and somewhat easier to walk, but I only continued a little further ahead. I turned back on the grade and headed back toward camp. An ATV trail went to the right when the cut was less steep, so I decided to check and see if that would be a better option for Jillane when she got up. There were giant piles of rock debris along the right side of the grade, apparently from when this was blasted out. It surprised me because I figured they'd have needed this exess fill for the different fills along the way. The route I followed came to a junction of ATV paths and went right back down to the tent. A few people came walking toward us, and when they saw me in the middle of the trail, turned back. They seemed to wait barely behind the corner, and I wondered if they would call the police to report camping or something. Fortnately we had no issues other than weather. I had taken the fly off of the tent and gotten all of my stuff packed up, but I looked at the forecast and it showed a storm cell coming through by late morning. It started raining and I woke Jillane up, and she was out for me to pack the tent up in a few minutes. The rain didn't get too bad yet, but the sky looked as if it would. We continued up along the ATV path then down to the cut, beneath Rt 6, and on past a house on the right. The rail bed then went over a very lovely swamp area. The bugs were kind of bad, but it was very pretty. The Mountain Laurels were wonderfully in bloom. It looked as though this section had very recently been cleared to some degree with a machine. I hoped it would be for the trail, but as per the google maps, the next section of actual dedicated trail would not be until we got to the little town of "Bell Town", now known as East Hampton. We soon reached the next road crossing, Aldens Crossing Road. I was rather surprised but very happy to see the trail totally complete, with an Air Line Trail crossing sign right there. Apparently, all of the section we had just done was also open trail, just not signed or at all completed. We crossed and closely paralleled Rt 16, Middletown Ave. We passed near some homes, but it was mostly in nice pleasant woods. We crossed a brook, and headed away from the main route to the northeast.
Rail bed
Just before crossing Forest Street, we passed some state park employees that had been cutting fallen trees off the trail. One older guy with a few young kids I assume are seasonal employees. They looked rather surprised to see anyone on the trail. After the crossing, we got closer to the town. To the left, we could see the old station, now a private residence, in good shape. We then took a "break" at an exercise station area to the right. This was a really cool thing, better than a playground. It was called "Exo Fit Outdoor Fitness" with stations using counterweight with your own weight, or something or other.
The best one was the one where one sits in a seat and pushes like they're lifting weights, but it actually lifts only your own weight, whatever it might be. I was able to do at least twenty of those at a time, and I did it about three or four times.
We left the playground and headed to where a bridge used to be across Main Street in the center of town. Only a little of the abutments remain now.
Downtown Bell Town
Bell Town took it's name because there were once thirty bell manufacturing facilities in the town. I saw some stores along the google maps here, and figured it would be a good place to grab a lunch or snack.
Bell Town today
It was here I realized that there really aren't that many businesses along this route. The only gas station down the street seems to have no store, and there's a small cafe, a liquor store, and a pizza parlour. We opted to have pizza for lunch and put our packs outside. This timing was perfect, because it poured rain once we got inside.
Historic East Hampton station
Main Street Pizza ended up being a good choice. We had a nice little lunch and relaxed for a bit, and while Jillane finished I ran up and down the street to look for other options for drinks.
The liquor store down the street literally had no snacks or anything. I did end up getting a couple of nip bottles for us as well as some of the only non alcoholic drink bottles they had in stock.
Stereo card of the Main Street bridge, East Hampton
After the break, we headed up hill to the former east side of the Bell Town Trestle, then crossed a decked bridge over the Pocotopaug Creek. We then had to cross Watrouse Street at another missing bridge site, with only bases of abutments in place. Almost immediately, we were into more woodlands and away from all but light development.
Main St. bridge site today
The next point of interest was at Smith Street where the rail bed goes along the Cranberry Bog. This was once a natural Cranberry producing bog, where they were harvested in the 1920s and 30s. There was a big arched entrance to the trail at the Cranberry Bog, and soon after the mileages started. Now, the mileages are all off because the trail starts so much further back, but this section I think opened in 2012. There were land trust lands along this next section, and some very inviting looking side trails with board walks and such breaking off, but there is just too much to do and not enough time to do all of it.
We passed through some very nice cuts and fills, and over wetlands. On one of the fills, Jillane spotted a beautiful Barred Owl to the left of the trail, which sat still for long enough for me to get some good photos of it. We watched it for as long as the opportunity allowed. They're really adorable birds, and when it flew off it almost looked unnatural for such a thing to do so. We soon crossed a giant fill, the site of the former Rapallo Viaduct. The bridge was 1,380 feet long and 60 above the Flat Brook, and named for the former Director of the railroad. Like the previous bridge we had passed near Portland, it had to be filled to deal with the greater weight of freight trains, and so the culvert below was installed in 1913. I believe the viaduct still stands, however, because we could see exposed metal from it throughout the top of the former viaduct.
Rapallo Viaduct; Martin J. Daly collection
We also saw another Box Turtle basking along the top of where the bridge used to be. After some more cuts and fills, we reached the former site of the Lyman Viaduct, very similar to the Rapallo.
The Lyman Viaduct was named for the first President of the railroad. It was 1108 feet long and 137 feet above Dickinson's Creek. This bridge, built in 1873, was also back filled in 1912-13. We had some views to the hills and valley below, and took a break at a little bench where Jillane layed down for a bit. We passed through more cuts and over more fills moving ahead, and crossed Bull Hill Road. There was a very nice shelf where below the Salmon River was parallel with us. I was hoping we were be lower to be along side it, but I didn't want to have to go down only to come back up again.
Barred Owl
We continued ahead and crossed over River Road, I think by way of a culvert below, and then crossed a refurbished trestle over the Blackledge River. This looked really inviting below, and I'd have gone down along it if Jillane really wanted to, but we needed to get to a good point to camp. I was hoping to get into more state forest, or at best the Grayville Falls Town Park. After the Backledge River trestle, the surface got to be different, and we came close to a few homes again. There were more people using the trail in this section by foot. Other than that it was only occasional cyclists. We crossed River Road again, then skirted another pretty swamp land with a lot of beaver dam activity. They even dammed around the culvert next to the railroad grade.
Lyman Viaduct
We crossed larger Rt 145 next to a house, then passed through a wider section of right of way that led out to a park and ride at Exit 16 along Rt 2. We took a break there, and while Jillane was sitting, I followed a small path to the edge of the Jeremy River where I took a refreshing dip. It was a steep slope and not the most fun to get to, but I was very glad I got in.
Top of Lyman Viaduct
I climbed back out, and we continued up Rt 145 from the park and ride beneath Rt 2, then turned right on the trail which descends back to the railroad bed after crossing a small brook on a foot bridge. We immediately crossed Old Hartford Road and entered woods, then crossed the Senate Brook. We passed into some of the deepest parts of Salmon River State Forest from here to Grayville, and it would be probably the most secluded back woods location we would be on the entire hike. There was a nice spot ahead where the rail bed crossed the Jeremy River, and an even nicer spot where it crossed the Judd Brook, but it was right along the trail, which was still busy enough with bicycles. Plus there was still a lot of day light, and I wanted to get a reasonable distance so we could get to Willimantic the next day.
We saw a few more people on the trail after the Judd Brook crossing, but we were close to Grayville Falls. There was an unmarked side trail to the left, but Jillane didn't want to use that one (although we'd end up camping literally at the bottom of it). We used the next trail, which took us down rather steeply to the edge of the Raymond Brook near where it joins the Jeremy River. There was a nice foot bridge over to the main part of the park, but that was a parking lot that was too visible. There were a few people walking around, but it was starting to get dark. I looked at the entire place, and checked out an old mill race ruin from the foot bridge right down to the masonry ruins of the mill site itslef, which was impressive. The Grayville Falls is a pretty little cascade in the stream beside some rock cliffs. When I got back and had found what I thought was a good spot, Jillane and I walked the south side of the creek back below the falls. There was a trail that continued to state forest lands, but it got rather overgrown, and we had a nice spot just south of the stream, within sight, but obscure enough that probably no one would see us, especially with the the green tent we use now. We managed to set up at a good spot after Jillane checked around and made sure there was nothing better. It worked out well because we could take a dip in the creek and clean off at night without a problem.
DAY 8
I woke up and started wandering. I explored every corner of Grayville Falls park, from the Grayville Road bridge all the way down past the mill ruins, to big grassy fields and nooks that are mowed out, and I walked directly up the falls themselves.
Turnersville/Amston station
When we got up, we made our way up the trail we had seen first the night before to get back on the rail bed, then followed it out across Grayville Road. We continued on across Old Colchester Road through woods; We walked just a little beyond, and soon passed through a beautiful meadow, the Raymond Brook Swamp. I believe this is called the Raymond Brook Wildlife Management Area. We saw a Red Wing Blackbird, and lots of pretty flowers and scenery as we headed across to the east. Once on the other side, we reached the former junction with the Colchester Railroad. This is now a 3.3 mile spur to the Air Line Trail, just a dead end. I had considered we could do that for the end of the trip, but there was nowhere to stay in Colchester, so we opted to just continue on ahead. The former northbound connection from the Colchester spur was shown on the map as a trail, but it was completely overgrown to the right. We continued north and skirted the edge of a building that had a nice mural along it with a locomotive. We took a break at the parking area just beyond, in a village area known as Amston. In railroad days, the settlement was a station stop known as Turnersville.
Phineas Turner was owner of the silk industry at Turnersville, but I'm not sure how it was switched to Amston. Just south of this crossing, Google Maps showed the Twin Lakes Cafe. We were both pretty hungry again, and this looked to be the only opportunity we'd have for anything. Jillane read a review on it, and it claimed that they are not welcoming to out of towners. I figured I would give them a call and make sure they were open. When I called, they were in fact open, but when I asked if they were serving food, the raspy voice said "Nah, we ain't got no food here". I wondered if they were just being unwelcoming to newcomers because of the review, because how could it be a "cafe" and not have food? I decided to just take a walk up to the place and have a look for myself. When I got inside, there was one guy, and a lot of middle aged ladies sitting around. A Latin girl and an older lady with one eye pointing the wrong way were servers, and they apparently only serve alcohol, although they said I could take some popcorn, which was in a popcorn machine sitting to the left side. It was indeed a weird place. I thanked them and started eating some right away. They told me there was no charge for it, and I explained that we were backpacking the Air Line Trail and there was pretty much nowhere to get food along the way. Two ladies at the far end of the bar took a liking to me and asked a lot of questions. Somehow, they convinced the lady with the turning eye to make us all grilled cheese. I just tried to be friendly and it went a long way. The one lady ended up over on my side of the bar hugging me, while I tried to eat more popcorn. They gave me bags to bring some with me, and some little bags of chips to go with my grilled cheese. I wanted to order a drink so at least I'd be ordering something, but it was all kind of odd. The lady who was rude at first, with her wandering eye, isn't really unfriendly, she's just seasoned not to deal with people's bullshit. It ended up being an interesting but nice experience, and Jillane reminded me I should have given them a four leaf clover. I really should have, but I didn't think of it at the time. I think maybe I was in shock or something. I ended up not buying a beer, and kind of hurried out. Maybe I'll send them a four leaf clover one of these days. Jillane and I ate our grilled cheese and snacks at the picnic bench near the Rt 85 crossing before continuing on. Once we crossed the highway, there was a rather new house that appeared to be built on an older masonry foundation. I wondered if this was the former station foundation. In a very short distance, we crossed North Pond Road. We crossed the Raymond Brook again, followed by Rt 207. Just before passing through another lovely open swamp area again, I spotted another mill site along the brook on the left side of the trail. The right side of the trail was private land that warned of "firearms in use" on bright yellow signs along the way. We paused for a break when we got to a power line crossing, where the Mint Brook came close to the rail bed. The clearing of the power line was some sort of former vehicle ford, but it was pretty deep at this point. We took a dip for a while, which was really relaxing and kept us going more easily.
Leonard's Bridge station
We continued from this point out of the woods and into lightly developed area to Leaonard Bridge Road. We had to go up and down, as the bridge that carried the road over was filled in. There was reportedly a station at this point at one time. We continud and crossed Chesbro Bridge Road, and then passed over the Brousseious Brook before entering another wooded expanse of land on a big fill.
Chestnut HIll station
I saw what I thought was another railroad right of way to the left as we walked, just before the fill. I read later that this was just a passing track for the railroad, but I am more inclined to believe that it was an original right of way, because it's more of a shelf than a fill, and that the one that is now the main trail was built later to straighten it out for speed, and the other remained in service as a passing track later. I could see the other line as it moved away, and I later wished I'd walked it. When it got closer, I took a small connecting path out and walked it instead of the official trail, because it was narrower. It rejoined the main trail just before entering a cut. We came out to cross Rt 87, the former site of former Chestnut Hill Station, and continued ahead. There was a house to the right with three guys working to clean up some junk. They probably had more along the right of way before it was a trail. Beyond, there were old buses out in the woods to the left. Soon, we crossed over the Ten Mile River by way of a culvert. It was concrete on the north side, but the south still seemed to have a good amount of masonry to it. We took a little break here. Ahead, we passed a nice little pavilion on the left, then crossed Cook Hill Road at another spot where it would have gone over the tracks on a bridge. This was a very nice section passing through rather open farm lands. There were barns and old gas pumps to the left, and a guy working out in the fields. I gave him a wave, and he watched us as we went by. I think this might have been the Andrews Farm that we saw in an historic photo a while before. As we got further away and beyond a section of trees, there were lots of cows off in the fields to the left. Of course, we had to stop and talk to them. They were quite adorable. There was a particularly cute white one. The started to moo and walked away to the west after we were there for a bit, and we passed through another lovely wetland where we crossed the Spinning Mill Brook. We crossed a couple more utility lines, followed by Village Hill ROad. We knew we were getting closer to Willimantic by the numbers of people using the trail. We passed through another wooded section and crossed Kingsley Road, then made our way on a fill out to the bridge over the Willimantic River, one of the biggest rivers we'd see on this hike. On the other side, the Hop River State Park Rail Trail departs to the west, and leads back toward Hartford. That had been one of the routes I had considered using if we had walked through Hartford first, but instead I decided on Middletown for something different, a bit more diverse. The trails were paved on the other side. The former rail bed went straight ahead and into the lands of Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum, which I'd like to explore, but it was closed at this point. The Hop River Rail Trail started as the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill Railroad in 1849, connecting Hartford to Willimantic via Manchester. It became part of the New York and New Haven Railroad in 1855. This and the Air Line both declined together; the passenger service was a battle on the Air Line from the start, competing for the Shore route traffic. Passenger service ended on the Air Line in 1902, and on both lines the freight service was done by the 1960s. Hopefully I can get to doing the Hop River Trail one of these days, as it connects with a lot of other places and long trails in the Connecticut Walk Book. From this point, the Air Line Trail is part of the East Coast Greenway. It follows the Hop River Trail to the west of this point, and is still missing several other connections. It was busy through some of this paved section ahead, which parallels the railroad line above where it's still used by the museum. We climbed up to parallel the tracks behind a fence just ahead. We continued to a nice spot with a river access to the Willimantic River. It looked inviting to go in, and I really should have because I was starting to chaff a bit. We went back up to the trail, which came out to the streets of Willimantic; we passed an old brick station building and then a retro looking diner on a trailer for sale.
Willimantic River
We didn't have great service on the phones earlier, but I put mine back on as we were getting into Willimantic. I checked my facebook notifications, and I had one from Joe Tag, who grew up in Willimantic. Joe recommended we try the Willimantic Brewing Company for food and drink. Joe has pretty good taste in everything, and so this was sounding to me like a great idea. I mentioned it to Jillane that he made this recommendation, and she agreed that we should go. The brewery was in an old bank building with interesting character. They let us put our packs near the front desk and sat us in a nice big room with taps as decor. I decided to try the Victorian Neighbor Ale as my started, something they brewed on site, which was pretty tasty.
WIllimantic brewing
It was "Mexirita Thursday", and they had taco specials and drinks like that, but also had a guest beer bottle special. All of these bottle beers were half price. I ended up finding strong barleywines and stouts for only $3.50, which was what I'd end up paying if I found it in a four pack. I wanted to try them all. The next one I had was called Kasteel Rouge, which was pretty good. After that, I had a Val Deu Grand Cru, which was even better. I ended up having to get a couple of those. I also got tacos, as well as a special burger, which was all delicious. Jillane went outside and I misunderstood that she was leaving. I thought she was in the bathroom, so I was still drinking my last beer when she came back in looking for me. We walked out and through town to the east just a bit, and then resumed the Air Line Trail through town a bit. On the way we passed by an historic foot bridge over the Willimantic built in 1906, and one of the only of it's kind east of the Mississippi. We turned at Jillson Park and took the trail from Jackson Street to Ash Street. I left Jillane behind to head to the hotel by turning at Ash Street on Pleasant View Ave and Paradise Street, and walked through a stretch of Philip Lauter Park to the north. I got on Rt 195 just south of the Rt 6 underpass and stopped in a little store to get some Arizona RX energy to deal with the excess alcohol. On the other side of the highway bridge, an area known as Conantville, I skirted the edge of parking lots until I got to the Best Western, where I had a room reserved in the annex building. I didn't want the trip to be over, but it was a good point to end it because trails come together, and it would be an easier spot to get to, to leave a car, or even to take a plane to for convenience. We'd Uber back to Farmington the next day and do a little exploring before heading home. I wasn’t ready for it to be over, and hopefully we’ll return to this into more states soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment