Hike #930; NY/CT Line and Ten Mile Hill to Macedonia Brook State Park
4/10/16 NY/CT Line/Ten Mile Hill to Macedonia Brook State Park with Lerch (Kralc Leahcim),
This next hike was another point to point, and would be a milestone in that it is the farthest east we have ever reached on any of my hikes. It would also be the first hike to be almost completely in the state of Connecticut.
Ten Mile Hill vista
I planned a route that would be partially the Appalachian Trail in the next northbound section, and partially some other stuff including Macedonia Brook State Park. Connecticut has a huge trail system and I really don’t want to just power through on the AT and not experience all of it. This was the better idea.
We met in Macedonia Brook where Lerch and company were all camping from the night before. It was a long dirt road and there was no service whatsoever. I drove the entire distance by myself, which was one of the longest solo drives I’d ever done. I thought for sure someone would go with me, but such was not the case. Still, I pretty much arrived on time, and everyone seemed to be there. We shuttled in mine and a couple other cars to the starting point, near Sherman Connecticut at the NY/CT line, where we’d left off on the previous one.
The AT on Ten Mile Hill
The trail was pretty easy at first. We headed through woods, then across Rt 55. The trail then gently climbed with only a few steep sections to the top of Ten Mile Hill with a very nice view. Kat and Sean worried me at the start because they were so far behind us. We ended up losing them at the base of the steep ascent not to see them again for the rest of the trip, but fortunately we spotted their car along the way near Bulls Bridge. We had a break at the overlook, then descended more steeply but with some very nicely built stone steps from the top of Ten Mile Hill. Along the way we passed the intersection with the Herrick Trail, which I planned to use for a future hike through the Housatonic uplands. The very nice section took us down to the edge of the Tenmile River. This beautiful river was rocky and secluded. Absolutely beautiful.
Tenmile Run Shelter
We walked on as the trail led downstream along Tenmile River. The rest of the group got ahead of me here, but Lerch, Justin, and I headed over to check out the Tenmile Run Shelter. This AT shelter was absolutely beautiful, in a field near the Tenmile River. Someone takes really good care of this one. There were pieces of antique farm tools around at the wood line here as well. Everyone else continued ahead on the AT, and we didn’t see them for a bit. We signed the trail register and then moved on.
The trail continued down Tenmile River to it’s confluence with the famous Housatonic River. I’d been along it before on a short trip with Jillane a while back, but I’d been wanting to connect to the Housatonic Valley for some time. The river was beautiful, rocky, and very secluded here.
Ned Anderson Memorial Bridge
The AT crossed over Tenmile River right at the confluence by way of a long footbridge called the Ned Anderson Memorial Bridge. The bridge is named for the guy who laid out the AT in this area, which until this bridge was built did not even cross into Connecticut where it does now, because there was no way over.
We crossed over the bridge and continued on the beautiful section of the AT, which followed the bluffs high above the river. I really loved this section. It had a lot more character than many of the sections of the AT tend to have. The trail ascended away from the river over a hill, then descended to Bull Bridge Road where we met up with the rest of the group.
The Housatonic
We walked from here to the east a little bit on Bulls Bridge road for a side trip. We crossed over one flow of the Housatonic River, which is dammed in the area by a power company causing the split, then turned to the right on a short trail to an overlook with a woden deck where the two branches of the river come back together. There was an informal side path to the right that led us down to the river side. This is a really dangerous spot I could tell once we were there. If we had fallen in, getting back out might be tough if at all possible. We headed back up from here; Dan had gotten off trail so this would give him the chance to catch up with us from the AT a bit too.
Bulls' Bridge
Next, we continued down Bulls Bridge Road to Bulls Bridge itself. The bridge is said to have been named after a tavern that was built just beyond the intersection, and that the community took the name of the tavern.
The area was settled by two brothers by the name of Bull who operated an iron furnace starting about 1740, and they probably constructed the first version of the bridge across the Housatonic here. It had several incarnations, and one story tells that the current bridge was built in the mid 1800s to attract New York City traffic coming up state. Prior to the bridge’s construction there was no way of getting over the Housatonic River for quite some distance. The current power company started operating at the site in 1917, which is why the dams and cascades on the river exist.
Cascades and tubs\
We checked out the bridge, which was either a Kingpost or Queenpost truss I think, not burr arch, and then we took a side path down to the river to check out the falls of the Housatonic. There were apparently always falls in this area because there were giant kettle tubs in the river which happens by way of erosion. There are many of these in northeast PA as well as Van Campens Glen in NJ. These were very impressive ones. After checking out the cascades, we headed back up to the bridge. I walked through to check out the other side and take some pictures, and Justin and I both went down a ladder to some construction scaffold under the bridge, which afforded a nice view of the river and cascades.
Cascades
From here, we headed back along Bull Bridge Road, and then checked out one more dam on the other branch of the river to the right. We then got back to the AT, to continue on it’s route northbound.
The trail follows the Schaghticoke Road from here, which goes into the only Indian Reservation the Appalachian Trail passes through for it’s entire length. I had driven the road before, and there are only a couple of houses and people living in them here, but it is still considered a reservation. The AT only followed the dirt road a short distance, then it turned off to the left to climb up Schaghticoke Mountain. This was the longest and hardest climb of the entire hike. Lerch and I powered to the top with Annika and Brian not far behind at all.
Schagticoke Mountain overlook
The trail somewhere in this area crossed back over to NY state, though we did not see any sign denoting it. We reached a stunning overlook of the Housatonic River valley to the south, as well as other woods, mountains and farmlands, and Tenmile Hill. At this point we regrouped and waited for the others to catch up. At some point Kat was able to text both Justin and I that they had gotten back to their car okay.
From this point the group got a bit more fragmented.
I knew we needed to power on through. I had posted that this was going to be a very tough hike, and that everyone should be prepared for it. It ended up being more difficult than even I had thought it would be. Schaghticoke for a while was just sort of a ridge, but further on it became more difficult. Dan and Kevin started falling behind sometime just after this point. We continued on the ridge further on, and our next point of interest was the Indian Rocks. The AT passed from NY state back into Connecticut again with no signage saying such, we crossed a little creek, and reached the edge of the ridge.
Indian Rocks view
There was a very nice view from here straight on at the Housatonic River, as well as south, downstream on the river.
We all sat down here for a break to enjoy the view and let everyone else catch up.
Dan was slow but sure, but Kevin was having trouble. He had been on our hikes several times at this point, but this was the toughest one yet. I give him a lot of credit for handling all of them so well to this point, especially being a beginner, but this time he didn’t have water. Fortunately, we were able to help him out and he’d have to cut out early, when we got to Kent where someone else could pick him up. Kevin has a ton of stamina and definitely the drive to do the hikes, and he’d probably have been fine if he had water, although sore!
View from the Indian Rocks
When everyone had caught up and had a break, we continued on the AT heading to the north.
The trail wasn’t all that tough for a little while, but Lerch and I still got pretty far ahead. I knew we needed to if we were going to get the hike done before dark. We were kind of behind, but I figured we might be able to do it as planned. I had a couple more climbs, one optional, one that we had to do before getting on to the next section. The day had started off cold but it was now quite warm for us heading over this rougher topography. We were all sweating a lot, and therefore drinking a lot more water than we thought we would at this time of year.
Falls at Thayer Brook
We descended from Schaghticoke Mountain and crossed over the Thayer Brook at a nice camping spot. There was a lovely little waterfall here, and we let everyone catch up again. We had Kevin refill his water bottle here. He was probably already pretty dehydrated and needed to recover. With the amount of water he was having, he’d be okay, but still needed to get more.
Brian was really good about helping out with those staying behind. I tried not to be in the front, and not to be in the back from this point, and kept in cell phone contact with everyone while we had good signal. By the time we’d get to Kent, there is no cell service whatsoever, even in the middle of town.
View of the Housatonic
fouWe had one more ascent to do before getting off of the AT, and that was the climb from the saddle up Mount Algo. It was a far easier one than what we’d done so far, but for those starting to struggle, it must have seemed like murder.
There was one more nice view, this time of the Housatonic River up stream toward Kent. We continued from this point down the other side of Mount Algo and passed the Mount Algo Shelter. I was the only one that hiked the side trip out to the shelter and back. When I got there, there was someone already there, and they had their tent set up inside.
Mt. Algo Shelter
I found out from chatting on online forums that the guy that was in there was some vagrant sleeping there every night. There were through hikers coming to use the shelter, and they couldn’t really fit because the guy had his tent set up inside. One of the maintainers had checked on him, and he said he was only staying a night. Someone else had seen him there another time, and it was now late afternoon and I’d seen him. Since he’d been abusing the shelter, the maintainers were going back to kick him out after I’d posted about my hike. I continued on, and the others weren’t too far behind me really.
Field view from the AT to Cobble Mountain
We reached Macedonia Road and I offered the option of either doing the entire planned trip, or that we could walk the dirt road back. A lot of the group just wanted to walk the road direct from there, but I convinced them that it was a bad idea. Part of the interesting connection for this hike was a trail Jillane and I had discovered by accident when we stayed in Kent a couple of years back.
The trail was known as Holcombe Trail, and exactly where it went I was not certain about, but I did know how we could get through for a near connection to Macedonia Brook.
We all walked across the field, then crossed over the Macedonia Brook, which might have a different name at this point.
Brookside
On the other side, we turned left along the brook, and where the AT continued up hill, we continued on the Holcombe Trail beside the brook. This beautiful trail was less used but still obvious where to go. It was a beautiful section unlike everything else we’d seen for the day, and added the diversity I like about the hikes so much.
The trail led to a foot bridge over the brook, but split with the option of remaining on the northeast side of the brook. I had walked the fields the other trail led out to before, and I figured this other one would take us through too. It looked nicer, so we went for it.
Holcombe Trail
We eventually came to more trail junctions, where there was a stone ruin, a crushed stone surface trail along the edge of the ridge beyond, and one over the brook on a footbridge to field edges. We took the one across the brook, then turned right to parallel it through the open fields with lovely views of the surrounding mountains. There were people out there walking their dogs, and occasional trail markers of sorts, but it wasn’t always that clear. We just followed the field edge to the north side, then the trail turned left along the edge with a beautiful large house straight ahead. The dogs all came running to greet us in the field, much to the dismay of their hollering owners.
The trail then led into a swath of trees along stone rows separating the large house from the field, and came to a portage spot of another brook. We turned right through an opening in a stone wall to skirt the yard of the very large house heading north. I’m not sure if we should have gone this way, but it took us to a stone wall we hopped over, then onto Macedonia Road. We turned right here.
Old dam ruin on Macedonia Brook
We followed the road to the north past several homes before entering Macedonia Brook State Park, where the road became dirt. There were apparent ruins along the brook, the first of which was obviously an old stone dam that has been out of use probably already a century.
Another road broke off to the right at about that point, and we continued up stream along the left side of Macedonia Brook.
After we entered the park section, and a little up stream from the obvious former dam site, I noted more masonry ruins down along the river. Lerch and I went to investigate. This was likely a mill ruin of some sort. There was evidence of perhaps another dam here, but can’t be sure.
View on Cobble Mountain
I had gotten a hold of Dan, who absolutely did not want to quit on the hike, but he’d not have been able to catch up in time to get to the Holcombe Trail section we did, so I instructed him to walk the Macedonia Road which would take him back to the cars simply.
We continued through the park on Macedonia Brook Road, which crossed the brook, and there were picnic and possible camp areas along the sides. At this point, we had to make the judgement call on where we were going. Everyone was pretty exhausted and for the most part wanted to continue on the dirt road back to the cars. Lerch, Justin, Brian and I however opted to do the next leg of the hike as planned.
View on Macedonia Ridge
Connecticut has something called the Blue Blazed Trail System, a huge system of trails, all colored blue, all over the state as main trunk trails, with other spurs branching off. This was one of them appearing on the maps, and I figured it would be a good introduction for our group of what this trail system is like. This particular one was designated the Macedonia Ridge Trail, and it crossed over the road shortly after entering the state park. The four of us climbed steeply on the trail, which had a foot bridge over a brook, then went on and next to an old logging road. It deviated from the old road where it was badly washed out along a side stream.
The trail ascended to an awesome overlook on Cobble Mountain.
Macedonia Ridge Trail
The route was not an easy one. It was strenuous at first, but then before the overlook went over some rough rocks, rougher than anything we did on the AT. The first overlook was south facing, looking back down the valley of the Macedonia Brook. We moved on from here, descended a bit, and had another seasonal view, this time looking up the valley. The time of day was great for this, because the setting sun cast it’s shadow on the contours of the land where the tributaries flow in. The Cobble Mountain is the main peak of the Macedonia Ridge, and we kept climbing to find more overlooks. Next, we had another looking back down the Macedonia Brook valley.
On Cobble Mountain
The four of us were all kind of winded, but kept on going. After another overlook to the south, we had yet another climb. Brian looked at the map on his phone and noted that this was probably the highest point, and that there should also be a view to the west, unlike all of the others that were to the north, south, and east.
View of the Catskills from Cobble Mountain
He was right, there was a great view of the Catskills at a west facing overlook. We paused to admire them, and talked about how we were going to be up there in just a couple of weeks, on hikes that Lerch and I had posted.
We continued on the trail as it meandered along the west facing ridge for a time, then descended for a bit. White blazed Cobble Mountain Trail joined from the right, but we kept on Macedonia Ridge Trail, which seemed like it would be a far more gentle grade from this point. I could not have been more wrong.
We headed down hill on this trail, and we came to what appeared to be an open cliff face! The trail went directly down it at points where we could at least use hand holds.
Macedonia Ridge Trail
Sections of this trail were as tough as some of the more difficult ones in the Catskills, which was delightful. I really love that Connecticut has some non-wussy trails to enjoy. We all clambered down the rocks to where the trail became easier again, and then came to a green blazed side trail.
Everyone was handling it fine, and Brian said “Man...my mind is telling me you can do this...but my legs are telling me to just let this one go”. Macedonia Ridge Trail ascended again from this point, and when Brian said he was going to go down, Justin said he was going too. I actually wanted to continue on Macedonia Ridge, and thought we would all end up heading down, but Lerch wanted to finish it.
Last view on Macedonia Ridge Trail
We made our way quickly to the base of the steep ascent, then started heading up. We gained momentum for a bit, but as we got to the steepest part my legs started feeling like Jello. We had been moving really fast for most of it, but it was now catching up with me pretty bad. It made me feel a little better that Lerch seemed to be feeling about the same way. It paid off because we were treated to one final view, of the Macedonia Brook up stream that was not noted on the map. We had a nice and easy descent after the overlook down onto an old closed off road called Chippewalla Road. The trail turned right and followed the road for a bit. We figured there might be one more climb, which we were dreading.
Old Chippewalla Road
Fortunately for us, the trail remained on an old roadway when another road went to the right. We simply followed the wide open woods road the rest of the way back. There was some kind of ruin along the way, and we passed one other hiker on it. Now that I think about it, it was just about the only other hiker I recall passing pretty much all day. The trail/road paralleled Macedonia Brook Road, and for a time I could see Brian and Justin walking parallel with it from us. Despite the hill, we still made it back to the cars before them. Everyone else’s cars were gone by the time we got to the lot.
I got texts from Annika who kept me up to date with what was going on with the others. Dan managed to get back okay, and Kevin was picked up and re-hydrating. We were worried, but he ended up being okay.
Aside from being a little unprepared, the hike was a success, and it was an outstanding initiation for the group to the state of Connecticut. I left the hike feeling very impressed and compelled to go back and see more. I really needed a good challenge, and this hike definitely delivered!
POLK FTW
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