Hike #1326; Farmington CT to Westfield MA

Hike #1326; Farmington CT to Westfield MA

5/22-5/25/20 Farmington CT to Westfield MA with Jillane Becker

This next trip would be another point to point one taken by Jillane and I.
We had considered going back to Pittsburgh and finishing our walk across Pennsylvania, but we didn’t leave with enough time to finish the final 44 miles, and it was a 5.5 hour drive.

Old stone bridge

I had lots of other options we could take, but it looked like working our way north on the New Haven and Northampton Greenway would be the best one, and there were a lot of loops or other options involved.

Meadow trail

It looked like the best option was to go back to Farmington. I booked the room and we headed out.
I had stayed at Farmington Inn before, and hiked out of Farmington several times.
Jillane and I first reached that spot on a trip we did from Cornwall Bridge to there several years ago, and then again we hiked from that point to the east to Willimantic Connecticut.
In February of 2019 I did the section between Simsbury and Farmington, and in February 2020 I went from Farmington south to Sleeping Giant State Park.

Meadows trail

We headed to Farmington and arrived late at the Farmington Inn. The place is always a good stay. Very friendly people and very nice rooms.
I found out on the previous trip out that way that the Farmington Canal used to go right through where the hotel is today, across the streets through the parking lot.:
The Farmington Canal was built by the New Haven and Northampton Company in the 1820s. It was completed through to Northampton Massachusetts by 1835.

Kolb gardens

As with most canals, it was realized that it was no match for the railroads, and so they changed their charter to being a railroad company. The railroad followed much the same route as the canal from New Haven up to Milldale, and then the two of them separate for much of the time. I would like eventually to try to hike both routes.

New beverage to sample

Now, the trail is in place most of the way, but through Plainville it is not yet there, and north of Westfield Massachusetts was not yet done.
I based this trip on what was available, and so for the first night there we were in Farmington Inn, but the second night I wanted to stay in Simsbury Inn, to the north. Unfortunately, with the covid scare, they decided to close Simsbury Inn due to lack of patrons. Instead, I had to find another place.
Most anything I called was not running at the time, and so I managed to find a room at the Residence Inn by Marriot in nearby Avon.

Meadow trail

I had a hike in mind from the start that would take us north by way of the trail systems of Farmington and Avon, and connect together with the railroad bed. I had already hiked the rail bed before, but almost none of the other trails. I knew it was going to be something really cool.

DAY 1

We got up in the morning, and they had no real continental breakfast, just some yogurts and pastries and such. They weren’t allowed to serve anything yet because of the covid scare.

Rope swing to Farmington River

I had some stuff, and then walked across the street to check out some other stores for possible food and drinks. I managed to find a really interesting looking beer by Thimble Island Brewing of Connecticut called “Mutually Assured Destruction”. It looked pretty good, so I got it.
When Jillane was ready, we started walking right from the hotel. We did a little of the route we had taken the first time we backpacked here, along Garden Street. Now that I knew where the canal had gone, I was able to see where the change was in the topography into the back yard across from the hotel.
We walked south on Garden Street through the village. There were people around acting pretty normally. It was a pretty nice day, but a storm appeared to be coming. Some dark clouds were slowly moving in.

Tunxis Mead view

We reached the cemetery, which I wanted to walk into because it looked as though the canal skirted the far side of it, but there was a funeral going on and so we didn’t bother walking in. I went into a little of the end of the cemetery just to get away from the road a bit, but then continued on Garden out to the intersection with Meadow Road. We turned right here.
A paved path follows Meadow Road most of the way. We walked this on our first trip. The next time I came up, I did another little section off of the road on one of the paths, but I didn’t realize the trail went all the way through. So, this time we were going to try to do as much of the town greenways as we could.

Trestle view

Almost immediately, the paved trail turns in a bit and crosses over the old stone bridge built in 1833. I think this must have been built to carry the original road over the Pequabuck River, which joins the Farmington River just at the turn in the meadows. Southbound, the canal followed that river for quite a while. The Farmington River actually turns to the north for a while.
We continued to walk to the right after the Pequabuck River, on a crushed stone trail into the flood plains with some nice large silver maple trees. Soon, we reached the confluence and I pointed out where the canal used to go.
We continued to the left along the edges of some fields on the trail that followed the Farmington River. Soon, we were skirting the Kolb Community Garden Plot. There were signs saying not to go through, but I had maps showing that the trail did go through. We didn’t have a problem.
It started to rain a bit, but it never got too bad. I put my pack cover on, but it was hardly necessary.
After the gardens, the trail moved away from the road more, and became even more pleasant. There were often good openings and views to the Farmington River to the right of us.

Old rail spur trestle

At the end of the fields, the trail went off into a section of woods, still beside the river. We passed by a collapsed chimney and steps on the right, and there was soon another standing chimney on the left.
If only it were a bit warmer, there were good swim spots out into the river, and even a very nice looking rope swing. The river widened to a lake size in this area, which appears to be natural, but I think it might actually be impounded from a dam all the way up in Tariffville to the north. The river remained calm and non moving for most the entire time we followed it.

Yummy

There were more old structures and such, and the trail was well worn. We hardly passed anyone on it at this point, but it was cloudy and somewhat rainy, so people were probably scared off from that.
This park area was known as Tunxis Mead. It had ball fields and such further to the south, but we emerged at a very nice boat house with a pavilion. It had had caution tape around it before, and parking was not permitted this far in at this time, so that’s also probably why it was so private. We took a break under the pavilion before moving on ahead upstream.

Maybe old ferry site?

Soon, we came to a big concrete structure that might have been part of a cable ferry or something, and then reached the former New Haven and Northampton Railroad bridge high over the river. The trail afforded us a pretty good view of it.
We turned left up a trail to take us onto the trestle from here.
We headed north and followed the paved former railroad bed, which had hardly anyone on it. There was a good view of the Farmington River from the bridge, and on the opposite site there was a spur trestle of concrete leading off into some sort of tall industrial building.

Winding Trails view

We continued over Farmington Ave, followed by Brickyard Road. We only saw one other person on this entire stretch, a girl coming off of a side trail to the right.
Soon, we reached a side path to the right as well, that went into a preserve known as Winding Trails. A short distance in, there was a private property sign.
I thought it weird that these trails were all shown on the township trail map, but there was nothing saying that you couldn’t go into them.
It turns out this organization started out as a sort of way to help the local parks years ago, but changed its name to Winding Trails to separate from that somewhat after the town hired their own sort of recreation director. The property is a private preserve with a four to five year waiting list to become a member and use its facilities.
I don’t know what membership is, but it’s $25 just to get on the waiting list, so there was no getting in there. We just wandered in on a trail used by skiers and mountain bikers. People obviously go in that way all the time.
I watched the trail map that I was easily able to download, and chose to follow the route to the southeast out of the other side of the property.
The outer trail was called the Skater’s Loop. We turned right on that, which skirted a quarry property. We continued on this for just a bit, and then turned left on a side trail. This took us immediately across another trail called Main Street, and then further into the woods. The Skaters Loop on the outside was rather well used it seemed, but some of this was less so. We turned right on another trail called Scout Trail, which was a bit more narrow.
In a short distance, we reached wider Nature Trail, where we turned left to head downhill a bit. This took us to a pretty little pond with foot bridges over either end of them. We crossed the first one, then followed the east side of the little pond known as Trout Pond.
Another narrow foot path continued parallel with the outflow of this pond, and then turned into a very long boardwalk out onto the middle of a larger pond known as Walton Pond. This was probably the most beautiful section of this preserve that we walked.

Once on the other side, we continued along Pond Trail along the shore, but we started hearing voices up ahead. Someone was working there and they had some loud equipment going. It sounded like a chainsaw or something.

Winding Trails

This preserve was officially closed I found out later, to members or otherwise, so I figured we’d better get out of there. We turned hard left and bushwhacked straight uphill until we reached another trail called Roosen’s Run, where we turned right. The people could still be heard talking and using machines, but we were high enough and through more vegetation as not to be seen. Soon, we reached another connection with the Skater’s Loop, which is the longest outer perimeter trail, and continued to follow that.
We were rather close to houses in the developments to the left. Many of them had connections from their back yards to the trail system. I wondered if that might be a giveaway to the locals or if they actually buy a membership.
We continued on this trail for a while, and I started hearing the voices again. It sounded like they had left their work site and were coming back toward where we were. We reached a hard turn in the trail, and so we went off trail briefly on an informal route that followed more of the boundary of the property. This cut a little corner and put us onto another trail that was apparently part of their snowshoe trail system. We were just a bit above the entrance road to the preserve at this point.
We descended a bit, and were just inside the woods from the entrance road, and across from that was the very large Dunning Lake. This body of water was created through quarrying over the years.
As we walked, I soon saw a sign through the trees along the entrance road. It read that the Unionville Feeder Canal crossed here, and the dates 1828-1847.
This was the point we wanted to reach. The Unionville Feeder was the main source of water from the summit level of the Farmington Canal. It traveled up to Unionville and was also used to some degree for freight, like several of the other canals we’ve hiked over the years.
I had seen on the maps that from this area and out to Town Farm Road, the feeder canal was public land. It had nothing to show that there was a trail on it, but it was at least accessible. I didn’t know what to think we would find on it.
Some of that canal must have been obliterated through the construction of Dunning Lake, but to the east of us, it was very obvious with a clear trail towpath. We turned left to follow this through woods.

Unionville Feeder Canal

We passed a sign at the boundary of the Winding Trails place, and soon came to Devonwood Drive at a development access. The towpath was a trail back to Winding Trails, but it was not on the other side of the road. I had wanted to follow it, but figured it would be a rough go, so I was fully prepared to follow the parallel roads through the development and see it only at the crossings.
Jillane actually suggested we go through on it, and it really didn’t look all that bad, so I was totally up for it then. She didn’t like it as much after going through a bit, because it was quite overgrown, but I’m incredibly happy that we went through for it.
The towpath and canal prism were almost always very discernible despite having been abandoned for over 170 years.

Unionville Feeder Canal

I didn’t think it was ever that bad. We were under a good canopy most of the time which meant there wasn’t a lot of abrasive undergrowth. Most of the trees were pretty big around us and we were just going through light vegetation and ferns.
There were residences pretty close by much of the time, but there was still a feel of seclusion in this narrow swath of land that protected the former canal.
We came close to Tunxis Village Road at one point near a toll gate, and there was a large purge in the towpath here, but otherwise we got through fine. We had to walk in the prism for a bit after that as a couple of houses had cleared right up to the towpath. A kid was playing in the yard as we went by the first of these, and seemed completely unphased by the fact that two people with large packs were basically walking below his back yard.
Just after the first couple houses, the towpath was cleared and used as a lawn trimmings dump. It got to be somewhat overgrown again in the towpath, but it was easy enough to walk through from that point again.

Happy tree

Soon, we came to where it crossed Devonshire Road at the far end. The towpath had been cut through for the road, but where it went was obvious at that time. I pointed to Jillane that she could turn right and go out to Town Farm Road. I continued back into the woods and tried to stay on the old canal.
This section was wrecked pretty bad. The towpath was obvious from the road crossing, but not so much into the woods. I followed it soon to a power line crossing, and a slight change in the surface showed me where the canal was from there. I then turned through woods to the right to come out on Town Farm Road. We took a break there along a white fence around the Farmington Club.
The big farm property had a golf course entrance I think on it, and looked extremely upscale. It must have equestrian programs or something. As I looked out across the fields ahead, I could see where the Unionville Feeder Canal towpath was visible on the other side. It had obviously been dug away going through this facility but was intact beyond.
We continued walking north on Town Road Road, past the Farmington Club, and then came to a trail on the right blazed yellow. It actually came from the other side of the road, and I think it connects over to the railroad bed.

Farmington Canal towpath

We turned right on the trail, and climbed over a small knoll. Then, I was rather shocked to see the Farmington Canal right below us. The trail descended and hit the towpath, then turned right. A house had been built right on the canal to the left.
I was under the impression that the canal followed more closely to the edge of the Farmington River, but it actually went inland quite a lot to follow better contours of the land.
Just ahead, the Unionville Feeder and the Farmington Canal jointed together with an historic marker sign.
I had a look at the feeder first, then checked out the connection point more closely.
The summit level of the canal was also referred to as the “long level”. It went 26 miles without passing through a lock, the longest such section on the entire canal. I didn’t consider that it would have had to go way inland to accomplish maintaining that level.

Farmington River aqueduct site

The trail turned to the left off of the towpath, and then continued below the canal fill. We then reached the former site of the Farmington Aqueduct.
The aqueduct was quite a high one with stone piers and a wooden trunk, 280 feet long. The piers were ripped down because they were considered an impediment to water and a flood hazard, but the abutments on either end are still in place.
We walked from the trail down to the abutments because I wanted to see about getting some matching then and now photos of the site. This would prove to be far more difficult than I thought it would be.
The entire area had a very mucky shore. None of it was like the rivers I’m used to going in. I was prepared to wade out through it, but it was absolutely disgusting to get into and it stank badly. I had to give up on getting at least one of the then and now shots almost immediately. It could really only be done from a boat I guess.

Farmington Canal Aqueduct site, Farmington Ct from Connecticut History Illustrated

The second shot I think I pulled off by walking further up the Farmington River Trail to the north, and going down into a flood plain.

Farmington Canal Aqueduct site from Mills Photography of Connecticut Collection, 1895-1955

After a break along the very weedy riverside, we continued on the Farmington River Trail to the north.
The yellow blazed trail continued past a marker with the same color blazes from Farmington beyond the Avon town boundary.
The trail remained pretty close to the river for a long while, but never really offered any great swim spots unfortunately. It was still gloomy, although the rain had for the most part stopped. The trail was always clear enough, and even had some impressive foot bridges over all of the tributaries that flowed in from the left.
We continued along with fields to our left and the river to our right for a good long while until the yellow trail continued to the left, toward a parking area, and we turned right across another bridge over a small brook and continued to the north closer to the river.
Pretty soon, we approached the Old Farms Road crossing and bridge over the Farmington River. The bridge shown on maps as the Wilford Woodruff Memorial Bridge has been recently removed and replaced by a higher structure. Some bulkheads around the old piers were still in the river at the original site. The trail was supposed to have crossed the road to enter Fisher Meadows on the north side at grade, but now there is a trail underpass by way of the higher bridge, so we went down through the recently completed construction site and went under the new bridge.
A foot path went up along the river and joined with another one with occasional red blazes. This was another really great section along the river with lots of beautiful views. To the left, Spring Lake came into view, so we had water on both sides of us for a bit.
The trail continued through beautiful woods and we took a break at a nice bench with a sign that read “Look through the trees and from the bank of the Tunxis River (original name of Farmington River) to the red barn where wild and tame creatures played. The river valley was a sacred place for our native Americans, can it be any less for us?”

Break spot

The trail continued past some lovely giant trees and eventually made its way out to a gravel woods road within the Fisher Meadows preserve. At this point, the canal came close to the river again, but I didn’t really recognize it. The gravel road was right on the river at this point.

Farmington River

We turned right to follow the trail which was on the gravel road, and I understand the canal turns further inland and goes more closely to Old Farms Road to the west.
There were a few more people walking this stretch than what we had seen earlier. There was no one on the foot paths along the river at all.
Soon, we turned right from the gravel road, which continues to a parking lot, and headed onto a footpath beside the river again.

Fisher Meadows trail

All of the Fisher Meadows lands were the farm of Stanley D. Fisher until it became a park in 1977. Much of the riverside parts of it was reforested, and much was already there judging by the size of the trees.
We continued through woods and there was more park land and ponds to the left. First a small one we did not see, but then Sconsett Pond was next, which was clearly in view on the trail. We passed this one, and then there was an even longer and larger one that I do not know the name of. The trail continued on what must be a right of way or easement on the right side there. The rest of it is private and had some tape and such blocking it off. It appears to be a private camp ground. As we walked the river side, there were some teenage guys hanging out at a camper. We waved and continued past them, then took a nice break at a pretty spot along the river. There was a rope swing in this area, which I was tempted to try, but it really wasn’t quite warm enough at this point for me to enjoy swimming much.

A view along the trail above Fisher Meadows

This section of trail was still official, but it was far less used than anything else we had been on. We went by other private properties on the left, and one of them had all sorts of junk bleeding over from the property line into the trail. There was even an abandoned car back in there.
The area was really pretty, with some of the highest hay ferns I’ve ever seen. The trail became quite indistinct and we saw no blazes for a while. It is supposed to end on Old Farms Road and come out between a couple of houses. We could see a somewhat worn path turning to the left and crossing a small tributary, then heading up, but we didn’t want to do that.

Yummy!

I could see that there was presumably undeveloped space betwen where we stood and East Main Street in Avon, and included in that were a couple of large open meadows. I figured this would be easy enough to walk and that we should do it.
We continued off trail, over the tributary, and made our way through some somewhat thorny stuff, but nothing too terrible. We then came to yet another tributary, and we could see that it used to be a piped crossing of some sort that had washed out. It was easy enough to get over that, and then very easy to follow along the river.

Abandoned car on the trail

The meadow sections were also quite clear. We were able to easily just walk up the center and enter woods on the other side.
As we got closer to Main Street, there was some sort of old level road grade back there. I wondered if it was a rail spur, or maybe even the remnant of the old canal because it seemed like it would be in the right place. As per maps I see, the canal should probably be further uphill in the more town center area, but I’m not sure.
It started getting rather overgrown by the time we could see Main Street, but there was an opening to the right we headed over to instead.
It turns out that this was an actual campground area along the river, set up by a scout troop or something years ago. it was still well mowed and had a good bench near the entrance we took a break on.
We were both hungry, and so we started looking for places online that we could get some food soon. I think we settled on Hot Heaven Pizzeria. This one had an outdoor seating area closer to Main Street, and we ordered some great stuff. I think mine was a thing with chicken, broccoli, olives, and penne in a light red sauce, and Jillane got something that had mushrooms in a brown sauce. Both were absolutely amazing.
I was surprised at how cold it was getting while we sat there. Wind was picking up, and I think a bigger storm was coming. I was chilly, but didn’t bother with getting a jacket just yet.

The old school house

When we finished, we headed up the road into the main section of Avon. There were several historic buildings along the way including the Avon Historical Society .
The building was officially Avon Schoolhouse #3, built in 1823 in West Avon, and relocated by the historical society to its current location.
One of the roads that went across the parking lot was called Towpath Lane. I am a bit confused as to whether this was actually the canal route, or if it’s like my book says and it was right where the railroad was near the intersection. It could be either, because it’s so close.
Across the intersection at Old Farms Road, is the Avon Congregational Church. It’s a beautiful Federal Style church constructed in 1818 by a congregation that has been active since 1754. The building of course has had several renovations and additions, but retains a beautiful historic character.

New Haven and Northampton Railroad at Avon Church

I had an historic photograph showing the railroad going in front of it I wanted to set up with a then and now photo, and I managed to get a pretty good one I think.

The church and rail bed today

We continued in back of the church and walked through the graveyard, and then out the back through a parking lot to a bar where we had stopped to eat the last time I hiked through this area. Just off to the right from the bar was the Residence Inn by Marriott Hartford Avon.

Avon Church

had ordered the room in the morning by calling the site specifically, not ordering on line. The lady was curious about our hike and where we were going, and she said “We’ll see you when you get here” specifically. Everything seemed fine.
When we arrived, the guy at the counter wasn’t there, and when he came out seemed annoyed. He was an islander guy with a heavy accent, and then he said that rooms there were for covid19 responders only. I told him I was able to reserve the room on the phone with no problem, and that I had called there in the morning. He insisted that I ordered the room online at first. I asserted that I did not, and that I called the site. The number on the website said that covid19 responder rooms were available, but not that it was restricted to them. He then told me that I could have been talking to someone in California and they don’t know what’s going on. Clearly, I was not talking to anyone in California. The lady knew where I was going, and engaged in conversation about specifically what my trip was about.
The guy still insisted otherwise, and wasn’t going to let me have the room. The lady I had talked to warned me that if I had to cancel it, that there would be a $120 cancellation fee, which she admitted was steep, but I assured her that we would be there.
Fortunately, Jillane was able to use her Crown information, the Veterinary hospital she works at, which allowed us to be able to use the room.
I don’t know if there was actually some sort of rule about this, or if this guy was just being a dick because he didn’t want to deal with anyone else coming around. There were definitely a few other people staying at the hotel that did not appear to be professionals of any kind, but mostly the place was completely vacant. Sadly, the swimming pool was also closed. Like Farmington Inn, they had barely any kind of continental breakfast. Anyone staying in hotels is basically getting jipped at this point in time.
This place wasn’t my first choice either. My original plan was to go further into Simsbury and stay at the Simsbury Inn, which is a satellite property to the Farmington Inn, but business has been so slow that they decided to close that one temporarily and only use the Farmington Inn. I still want to stay at the Simsbury one on a future trip. There are tons of other things to see throughout this area, and many more trails I want to do, so it’ll happen.
We had a pretty nice room, but I didn’t really slept all that well unfortunately. To me, the bedding wasn’t all that comfortable. I was definitely left with a sour taste from the guy there.

DAY 2

We woke up and headed out, and I didn’t even bother going to the front desk to tell them I was checking out. I almost always go to the desk and leave my key card when I stay anywhere, but this time I was not going to do anything.

A view of Hublein Tower

We headed back out to the Old Farms Road, crossed on an angle and picked up where the railroad used to go.
At this point, the railroad is not a trail. The trail mostly follows the former New Haven and Northampton Railroad, which replaced the original canal of the same name, and before that Farmington Canal, in 1847 when it was abandoned. It later became part of the New Haven Railroad, and was abandoned in the 1980s for the most part. When the greenway came in, which is often collectively referred to as the New Haven and Northampton Greenway, it was made to bypass the main intersection in Avon and come back to the rail grade to the south for some reason. Each municipality along the way sort of maintains their own section of it, and so each section has a slightly different name. Rather than have that confusion, I just refer to it as the New Haven and Northampton Greenway at this point.
The rail bed became a trail just after we passed behind the Avon board of education building and crossed Mountain View Ave. There were a ton of people using this trail at this point. It was hugely different than the experience we had the day before.

STOP! Be kind!

We continued parallel with Sperry Park, and soon after the main trail route came in from the left. The canal is somewhere in this area and I think it crosses to the other side of the tracks again. A woods road came in from the right, which used to be a trail route down into what is called Nod Brook Wildlife Management Area. I had wanted to walk that the previous trip out, but didn’t get to it, because I assumed the canal was down there. This time, we did just that, but at the bottom of the hill it got weedy and there was no foot bridge over a brook leading in. We had to climb up and over the old stone arch culvert built for the railroad to get onto the service roads in the WMA. We could see where the foot bridge used to be, but it was long since washed away. I talked to a guy that saw us up on the rail bed, who had then walked down another connection to Nod Brook, and he asked how we got over there. He then confirmed that there used to be a bridge, but that it washed away in the storm and some scout should come in and rebuild it or something.
I think to the east side of this road was the old canal. It’s hard to say at that point. I know it was in there somewhere. It could zig zag around the railroad a bit to follow the contours of the land, because at this point we were still on the twenty six mile level section.

Farmington Canal remnant near Simsbury

There was another culvert underpass beneath the railroad just ahead, and then a really nice view to the east of the Metacomet Ridge and the Hublein Tower we had hiked by on one of my previous Connecticut trips in February of 2019.
We headed back up slope from Nod Brook WMA, and then got back on the paved railroad bed again. We continued north and took a break at a little shaded bench, and then crossed the entrance road to the Chubb Insurance group. Just after this, the obvious former canal crossed over the rail bed from left to right. For a while before that, a dirt road out of Nod Brook paralleled us, and I think the canal was just below that.
We crossed Old Canal Way ahead, and the canal would have crossed that just to the north. I had already figured this part out using very old maps from a previous trip. It went over that road, and then into a wetland of the Minister Brook just ahead. A portion of the towpath berm is still visible in the middle of the wetland from the railroad bed, pretty obviously. Beyond there, the canal is right beside the rail bed for a bit of time, often with a little water in it.
There was a history marker that there used to be a Nike missile base along the right of way in this section, which I don’t remember reading about before. I had walked this little bit of the railroad bed on the previous trip, one of the only sections that was an overlap of what I’d already done.
We crossed Latimer Lane, and it appeared that Still Brook flowed through some of the old canal prism for some of the time parallel with the rail bed. Just ahead, we reached the intersection of Rt 202 and Canal Road. Both canal and railroad crossed here, and there was a commuter lot which I used for my trip out here in 2019. From here, I had never gone further north on the New Haven and Northampton Greenway. The site of the Simsbury Station would have been, I believe, just ahead and parallel with the parking areas.

A sign in Simsbury

At this point, the decision had been made where we would be going. I had planned that we could simply walk back to the Farmington Inn and stay there again, then explore more around that area the next day, or otherwise if Jillane was up for it, we could just go as far as we could to the north on the greeway. I figured we could get up into Massachusetts.
The next hotel I was able to find was in Granby, about two miles off of the trail route, so I called up and reserved that room and we were on our way.
The rail bed continued along the parking lots, and then into a slight cut behind several buildings. We then went over a high fill after leading that area over the Second Brook. Just ahead of there, we crossed a road at Mathers Crossing, which still had rails in the pavement. The trail continued on the railroad bed just ahead to a point where it went into the property of the Ensign-Bickford Aerospace company.

Historic circa 1910 image of the Ensign Bickford plant by H. P. Foote of Canton CT.

The Ensign Bickford Company started operating at the site ahead in 1851, making fuses for explosives and such. They’ve since had mergers and such, but the site is still in operation.

Engsign Bickford scene above as it appears today

The trail goes to the left, uphill a bit, and then along Woodland Street by the original company buildings. They still retain a beautiful old historic industrial ambiance, with stone buildings and long layouts. It was really cool to see and walk by.

Simsbury church

Ahead and on the left, we passed by the First Church of Christ Simsbury. The first place of worship in Simsbury was built in 1683, and in 1740 the second one began construction on this site, known as Drake's Hill.
Although the building was not completed until 1777, Services began on the site and 1743.
Today's stately church is on the same site, and despite having additions, retains much historic character.
On the right from there, was the historic Ensign House, built in 1906.
The home was the primary residence of Joseph Ralph Ensign and his wife Mary Phelps Ensign associated with the aforementioned industries.
After 1955, it was used as the parish house for the First Church of Christ directly across the street.
The building served as a bank from 1983 until 2013, and is now luxury apartments, dining and events, and a full-service Hair Salon and Spa.

Ensign House

We turned right with the trail, which went down along the Ensign House along Drake Hill Road before reaching the railroad bed again. Somewhere in this area was a junction with another branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad heading west. That branch is something like twenty some miles and can be used as a long loop. I’ve only done a little of it before, and never at this end. I think it must have gone behind the church or something, and then through the parking lot of the strip mall across from the Ensign House.
We took a break in the shade here, and took turns going over into the Fitzgerald’s Foods grocery store. I can’t remember what I decided to get, but I think it was some kind of Italian sandwich and some Arizona tea.
After our lunch, we headed down to the trail, which is alongside Iron Horse Blvd, built on the railroad grade. Jillane continued ahead on the grade while I walked ahead down Drake Hill Road because I wanted to see the Drake Hill Flower Bridge.

Simsbury Flower Bridge

Built in 1892, the 183 foot through truss span carried vehicle traffic until the new adjacent bridge was completed in 1992.
The bridge was restored as a pedestrian route, adorned with flowers, and a community garden was developed around it.
A side trail led from the road over to the bridge, which sure enough was adorned with potted flowers all the way across, and a community garden occupied an area on the west side of the bridge.
I headed back up from there to the trail again, and there was a guy on a bike that rode up alongside of me to chat. He wanted to know where I was going and what I was doing, and I told hima bout the trip heading north. He was quite interested.
The conversation went on about what craziness is going on in the world. He was happy to see people out enjoying everything rather than living in fear. He was an older gent, but clearly not afraid of any viral infections or anything. He told me that a close friend of his from NY had a house up in the area, and that he rented it to a young couple. They were unable to pay rent, and he had been playing to move them and then move into the area himself. The guy allowed his friend to use his garage to keep some of his stuff, but then all the virus stuff happened and the people couldn’t be evicted and he couldn’t collect rent. So the guy I met was pissed off because he couldn’t use his garage, his friend couldn’t get to his house, and he can’t even get any compensation. Aside from that complaining, he was just laughing and enjoying himself, gently poking fun at how crazy the rest of the world his. He then started talking about girls and whatever else, and was saying something about how my girlfriend was going to be pissed off at me because of what he’s saying if he didn’t quiet down. He said goodbye and moved off ahead on his bike.
I caught up with Jillane and we headed on a side path to the right, a gravel road, into Drake Hill Park. There was a little bit more shade here, and just less people. After turning off onto this section of trail, there were more people than we had seen anywhere yet. Usually I don’t mind the big crowds of people, but even I found this part to be pretty annoying.
We got to a fenced dog park area, and there was a wooden board walk section that went through a swath of woods to return to the railroad bed.
I’m not sure how much of this was rail bed, and how much was the other branch that came in to the left, but there were definitely tracks to the left of us out in the parking lots. Sadly, I missed out on seeing a station built in 1874 by remaining on the trail route and not knowing it was up there. Next time I’ll have to see it.
We continued north on that, through more crowds, and eventually Iron Horse Blvd moved off to the left, and we entered a bit of woods, soon closer to the Farmington River along Hop Meadow Wildlife Management Area. There was a beautiful spot on the river just ahead, and I considered going in for a swim until I realized how mucky it was, just like before. It was way hotter than it was the day before, but I didn’t feel like getting muddy.
We continued ahead along the rail bed, which was close to Hopmeadow Street above, and I think the canal might have been along the railroad bed for a bit in this area. The right of way was extra wide, and we were able to walk well off to the right of it on an unpaved route while most of the tons of patrons there were remaining on the pavement.
We continued along on this busy bit and soon reached parking at Tarriffville Road near its intersection. We took a little break here, and then crossed over to continue on the trail. It was a lot less busy just ahead.
This was an interesting former junction site with the Western Connecticut Railroad. It came in from the right, from Tarriffville, and I found the junction site long before knowing what it was. Some of it a ways out is now a trail, and it becomes active again below Tarriffville.
We continued to the north with some residential stuff on the right, and the parallel road with businesses on the left. As we entered a larger cut, I took a side trip up to a convenience store to get a snack and a drink. For some reason I was really hungry.

Junction with Western Connecticut Railroad

Ahead, the rail bed moved off to the right from the more main roads and we had a long wooded stretch with some wetlands below us. The canal at this point was off to the west of us more. It was a really pleasant section where we didn’t see many people for a while. We continue north up across Wolcott Road, past the Simsbury Community Farm, and eventually to a little path that went off to the left to Lake Basile. I walked over and had a closer look at it.

Lake Basile

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this had a direct connection to the Farmington Canal.
The original lake at this point came to be because of a flood at some point that backed up debris behind an aqueduct culvert, the outflow of Lake Basile. The first lake was created that way, and at some point the water impounded behind the clogged culvert blew it out completely. The more modern lake was a regular dammed lake created at the same point.
We could see where the canal came in close to the railroad bed, and there was even a sign saying where it was.
We continued walking, and not too far ahead from here, the trail turned hard to the left away from the railroad bed. The canal turned to the right away from the railroad originally into more open areas. This was at a sort of municipal garage type of area.

Farmington River

Ahead, the rail bed goes onto Imperial Nurseries, and so the trail has to bypass that. It went through some woods and skirted houses on the left, and the nurseries on the right which were behind some fences. It was really pretty to see some of the plants growing in the greenhouses were no glass or plastic roofing over them any more. It made me think of an analogy for life, how sometimes you have to try to keep the warmth inside, and sometimes you have to just allow it in from the outside.

Imperial Nurseries

We followed the trail out to Salmon Brook Street where it turned hard to the right and paralleled the road north.
We continued to the intersection with Floydville Road where the trail turned to the right, parallel with it. We took a break under a nice shady tree near the corner.
The Granby Motel, which I had reserved, was only a bit up the road, but I wasn’t going to walk the road the rest of the way. I was out to do the trail.
We continued along the road for a bit more, and there were some pretty old barns with big holes through the roofs as we walked. Some people in the house across the street at the Imperial Nurseries were looking off at us from their porch as we walked by.
At the rail bed, we headed north, which was parallel with a long driveway. A little ways up, there were some really beat up old houses, I guess what was known as Floydville, which I think is now part of East Granby.

A scene at Imperial Nurseries

After passing the houses, I spotted the canal prism returning to the right of the rail bed.
We had a pleasant and very shaded section ahead of us with fewer people on it. Soon, we reached a large trestle that carried the railroad over the Salmon Brook. The brook itself looked very inviting, and I wondered what the canal did at this point. It had been right along us for a bit there.
I said we should climb down and take a break. We went down the west side of the bridge, which was obviously a more modern one with metal piers and bulkheads in the brook itself to protect the bases.

Salmon Brook bridge before redecking

I went down and laid in the brook, which felt great, but noticed some old cut stone laying next to one of the metal stanchions on my way in. I wondered if that could have been the remnant of part of an old canal aqueduct.

I could not have been more right. I walked downstream toward Granbrook Park, which had a large open area and some people out in the water beyond, and was astounded to find the remnant of the stone aqueduct arch that carried the canal over top of the Salmon Brook.

Salmon Brook Aqueduct site

I don’t have a lot of information about the Salmon Brook arch, except that it was a single arch bridge and that it washed out in 1934. It’s amazing it lasted that long before a flood took it out, and maybe more amazing still that one end of it, with its arced end is still remaining today.

Salmon Brook Aqueduct, taken in 1933 by Charles Rufus Harte. Built 1828, destroyed by flood 1934.

I’m not sure if the railroad made use of this structure when it was first built, but it makes sense that it would have. I know the bridge that is there today is certainly not the original one, nor were the abutments made of stone. Even the books don’t seem to have too much information on what exactly went on in that regard.
I had a very nice relaxing dip, and Jillane sat on the north pier for a while, then we climbed back up and moved on to the north.

Soon, we reached the historic Granby Station, which is one of only two stations on this line still standing that we would pass by, and the only one we would actually see.
It appeared to be in very good shape, and after crossing Hartford Avenue, there were still rails in place from the passing track to the right of the trail.
Across from the station, the canal turned slightly left, and then went through a series of step locks that would have really been something special to see back in the day. Locks six through 1 were all one after the other right in this area.
We continued north through more woods, crossed Turkey Hils Road, and then passed through an area of lovely swamp lands.
This was quite a pleasant area, and we even found a white blazed trail going off to the right. We followed a little bit of it to see what it did, but didn’t have enough time to explore too far.

Granby Station historic image circa 1930 by Lewis H. Benton. The same photo appears without Benton on the box car, as it was removed by some uptight person.

The pollen was so heavy that it lined some sections of the trail to look like snow. There were beautiful ponds and farmlands through the open area ahead. The same

Granby Station today

We crossed Copper Hill Road, passed through some more farms, and then came to a trailhead on Phelps Road where the original lower railroad bridge was replaced by a pedestrian one on the same abutments. This was our turn off point for the night.

Granby Station historic image

We went down to the left, to Quarry Road, which was where the canal used to be, and then followed Quarry Road north, then west away from the railroad bed. There was another way back down to the rail bed we could use in the morning.

Granby Station now

We were right next to the Massachusetts boundary at this point, but just barely didn’t go over the line. We headed west on Quarry Road, and on the way passed the historic Spring Cemetery, also known as the Osborne Cemetery I believe, on the right. I checked it out a bit, and Jillane walked way ahead toward the motel.
I was way behind, and also took photos ahead where Quarry Road reached Rt 202/Salmon Brook Road, because they will be building a roundabout there in the near future, and I figured it would be good to have photos of it before that happens.

Spring Cemetery

I walked the road down to Granby Motel where Jillane was inside trying to get the room. They had trouble running my credit card, but eventually did it. The staff, an older Indian family, were all very friendly and gave us no trouble about getting a room like they did the night before.
The room was very retro, with a sort of nautical themed wallpaper and pictures above the bed. I quite liked the place, and found the bed to be much more comfortable than the previous one. I actually slept rather well this night.

DAY 3

We got up and opted to go back to the railroad bed. It would have been super short to get to Westfield Massachusetts just walking the road, but again, I wanted to see the trail. We went back the same way we had come before, up to Quarry Road and then out to the rail bed.

Connecticut/Massachusetts line

There was a bridge over the Palmer Brook just as we got back to the rail bed, another pedestrian bridge that had been placed on the older abutments. We continued north from there through some swamp land, and near another bridge, came to the Massachusetts state line. There was a sign facing Mass, but nothing back into Connecticut. There used to be one as I see in photos, but someone must have stolen it.
In the weeds off to the left of the rail bed, there was a sate boundary marker placed in 1906.
Right around at this point, the canal, which is beside the rail bed, had a guard lock to keep water from accidentally flowing out of Congamond Lake just to the north.

The canal at Congamond Lake

We continued north from here, and soon reached a parking access to the right where several other people were coming on to the trail. The former canal turned away from the rail bed at this point and headed out into the Congamond Lake, which was a sort of supply for the canal. The rail bed continued straight ahead. We took a short break beside the canal, which flows as part of Mountain Brook today.
I didn’t know yet that this was the old canal, but I assumed so.
The canal turned away from the railroad bed around this point, up into the Congamond Lakes.
We came closer to some of the homes as we approached the village of Southwick.

Riding Hoods Basket Cafe when it was ice industry building

We crossed Congamond Road, which I think is where a station used to be. To the left, there was Riding Hood’s Basket Café. The building was a sort of railroad station for a private ice company, which harvested ice off of the Congomond Lakes. The general store building is the only remaining structure from that industry.

Riding Hoods Basket Cafe Today

I asked Jillane if she wanted to stop for a snack or something, but she didn’t, so I went in myself. I wanted to see the place anyway. I had gotten an old photo of it, and wanted to set up a then and now photo compilation.

My great new book...

I got a good photo, and went inside to order some food. The wait for sandwiches was long, with a lot of people with bikes sitting around. I decided instead of getting a sandwich that I would get some sort of quick pastry thing. I ended up getting a delicious piece of cake.
The real important thing I found while I was in there was a book: The New Haven and Northampton Canal Greenway by Robert R Madison.
I leafed through the book quickly to be sure it was something I would be interested in, and not just some book about cycling and where to buy food or find bike shops. I was immediately impressed that it had maps showing exactly where the canal was in relation to the railroad. Many insist that the two were one and the same the entire way through, and this was all I needed to show they were not, and to find out where exactly they were.
I found my way to the pages in the book where the Salmon Brook Aqueduct was, and found the photograph of the arch for which I found the remnants. I was really happy to have found the last copy of the book.

Southwick Station historic image

I purchased it, and found also that the forward was written by Facebook friend Craig Della Penna, who is a big name when it comes to rail trails throughout the area!

The station site today

I caught up with Jillane, as she had walked really far ahead of me.
There was a path directly below the railroad bed to the right, which I assumed was the canal, but it wasn’t. The canal remained much closer to the parallel Congamond Lake. It was too far to be within sight.
We continued to the north and then out through some farm fields, and then to the north into a cut where we went beneath Point Grove Road. There was a store above I climbed up to to have a look around. They had liquor, but nothing in particular that looked like I would enjoy it very much so I climbed back down empty handed.
The next road crossing to the north was Depot Street, which became Longyard Road to the right, and Powder Mill Road went north to the right at an intersection.
It was at this intersection that the railroad station used to stand. The rail trail now crosses the road at grade, but there used to be an underpass. Now, the former station site is up above the trail level to the left, and I tried to set up a then and now of it.
To the right, down Longyard, the canal used to cross. It was in this area that Locks 1 through 7 of the canal in Massachusetts used to pass. Up in this area, it was for a time called the Hampshire and Hampden Canal. Later it and the Farmington Canal, the section in Connecticut, were called the New Haven and Northampton Canal.

Congamond Station historic image

We continued north on the rail bed parallel with some developments, and then crossed Feeding Hills Road. Beyond there, it got much more rural again. We passed through a wide field area, then through woods and across Slab Brook. We continued over Sam West Road, and the trail was still pretty busy despite being away from development.
We passed through a long section of woods, then along the edge of a golf course until we came to the next parking area just before Shaker Road.
This was the town line for Westfield our destination. At this point, it went from being called Southwick Rail Trail to the Columbia Greenway Trail.
I was immediately put off by the name of the trail, because it reminded me of the crappily named trail in New Jersey, until I found out their reasoning for taking that name:
It was named for Columbia Bicycles which were manufactured in Westfield MA.

Little River Bridge

The rail bed moved ahead into a rather deep cut.
Little River bridgeAs we passed along, there were trails breaking off to the left and right into developments. One went off to the right first and then one came down from the left.
We moved on ahead and soon came to another old bridge, this time over what is known as Little River. The Hampshire and Hampden Canal used to cross this river on an aqueduct just to the right of the trestle as we walked over it, but I didn’t know to look for any remnants at this point, and I’m not sure if there is anything down there anyway.
The canal had moved away from the railroad bed for a bit in this area, and returned right by the crossing. There was one lock, Lock #9, in that section we had not seen to the east. From the trestle on, the canal and the railroad bed remain rather close together. It would have continued parallel with the railroad to the right. I watched as we continued on, but didn’t see any obvious remnants.
We continued north with fields to the right and woods to the left. There was an access to the left to Meadows Road, and I thought I spotted an old bridge on one of the roads in that direction. We continued north, and soon there were industrial type buildings off to the left. I was surprised that the trail had been so incredibly busy to the south of us, but at this point, entering a much larger town, almost no one was using the trail.
There was a former railroad spur off to the right to something, and then another to the industries that came in on the left.
Pretty soon, there was a side trail that led downhill to the right to Silver Street. This was obviously the end of the trail at one time because we could see such lettering on the pavement, but the trail continued. We went ahead and crossed Silver Street on a rail bridge, and made our way along a fill through the town. Near Ashley Street there was another access and an underpass.

Little River aqueduct site

We continued ahead until the former bridge site at Main Street where there was active construction going on. There was a path down to road level to the left. The trail is currently under development from this point to the Westfield River, so continuing would be rather difficult. I sort of set a goal post at the Westfield River for myself if we had chosen to continue to the north. There are hotels and such up that way, and active railroad tracks. I figured that would be an appropriate “jump off point” for next time if we come back out that way to do more hiking.
Jillane went to the left at town, down Main Street a bit, and I checked out the bridge site. I continued below the rail grade north to Thomas Street and Cherry Street one block further, where I could get back up on the rail bed. Jillane wasn’t following me, so I went back to find her. She said she wasn’t continuing any further, but I wasn’t going to stop until we got to the bridge. It was only seven more blocks at this point, and I wasn’t going to skip it after coming this far.
I walked back down to the railroad grade, and Jillane walked to the north on Elm Street.
The town was pretty cool looking, but barely anything appeared to be open. Restaurants in Massachusetts are still closed for indoor dining, and from what I see online, much of Massachusetts is still on lockdown similar to NJ. It didn’t have the stuffy feeling NJ has, but it is pretty close to Springfield, which is a bigger city.

Westfield MA

I was able to get back on the railroad bed at Thomas Street by climbing up, but when I got to the next block, Chapel Street, the bridge was missing there too. I had to climb down the stone abutment and back up the other side where more equipment and such was around.
The rail bed was pretty torn up, and very recently cleared. I wished we had seen it just a bit sooner, because it was probably a pleasant path through woods at the time. It was pretty open now.
The rail bed kept on the fill above the rest of the town, and I could see Jillane walking soon, just a little behind me but parallel on Elm Street. Soon, I reached where the tracks used to cross Elm Street. The through style truss bridge that carried them was still in place, but it was undecked and just railroad ties. I had to go slowly to get across. I went over just as Jillane was going under.
Ahead, I crossed Orange Street and continued on the grade out toward the Westfield River. The canal passed to the other side of the tracks somewhere in this section.

Bridge over Elm Street

I soon reached the Westfield River Esplanade, a lovely walkway along the river heading both east and west from this point. Dead ahead, the through truss bridge that once carried the railroad over the Westfield River is now well redecked and refurbished as a pedestrian bridge. I headed directly onto it, and Jillane stayed on a bench on the esplanade.

Bridge over Westfield River

crossed over the rail bridge, and the trail ended at that point. Just beyond, active tracks head east and west along the Westfield River. Just downstream, the Elm Street Bridge and the Great River Bridge are parallel side by side over the river. I turned to the right to head back across on the Elm Street Bridge.
Ahead, the former New Haven and Northampton Railroad remains in service as a spur as far as N Road. Tracks remain in place overgrown all the way to where it becomes the Manhan Rail Trail to the north near Easthampton. Hopefully one day soon I’ll get around to walking that.
I headed back over to Jillane and sat down along the lovely river. I thought to go get in because it had been kind of hot, but decided against it because we were going to try to get an Uber back.

Bridge over Westfield River

I figured this would be an easy thing to do, because we were so close to Springfield.
Well, I found out later that in Massachusetts, there are really no Ubers operating. I tried multiple times to get a ride, while Jillane was trying to get Lyft. Nothing.

End of the trail...with an encouraging little path continuing...

This was starting to look bad. We decided to get up and walk back toward town to get something to eat, while trying to get a ride the entire time.
Eventually, I had to settle for a regular taxi service. The nearest ones were in Springfield, but that was all there was. I finally got hold of a guy that was able to come and get us. I think it was Ace Taxi. It ended up being like $120 to get back to Farmington, but there really wasn’t any choice. We had to get back and get to work the next day.
It was going to be over an hour for the ride, and so we sat at the CVS drugstore just after passing back under the railroad bed on Elm Street. I walked around the store and over to Valley Pizza to get a bit to eat, and Jillane went to Feng Ye for Chinese.

Elm Street underpass

My slices of pizza were enormous. I was not expecting to find quality pizza outside of New Jersey or New York, but this was crisp, loaded with cheese and mushrooms, and the slices were at least the size of shore slices, if not larger. I was totally stuffed after just two of them. The size was probably larger than four normal size slices in New Jersey.
The cab driving kept calling me, which was reassuring knowing that he was still coming. He eventually showed up and even took us back a more direct route to give us less miles than what the GPS said to take. The ride took us down Rt 202 much of the way, and afforded us views of many of the places we had seen over the past couple of days. He didn’t make us wear masks in his cab either. I suppose that helped to make it worth it.

My crazy pizza. Oh look...I got three, not two...

It was probably an hour and a half cab ride back, and then around three hours driving home after that. We got back late, but I was really happy to have stretched so far into Massachusetts another way. We had already gone by way of the Air Line Trail and the Warner Trail, and I had gone by way of the Appalachian Trail.
At this point, we can go to any of those places and start pushing further north and east. There are so many long trails even besides those few mentioned that we have connected to, such as the Massachusetts Mid State Trail, the Rhode Island North South Trail, and the Rhode Island Trestle Trail which goes across the state east to west. There’s even another to go across Mass from the end of the New Haven and Northampton Greenway.
There’s really a ton more to see on that and I hope to get back soon.

HAM