Hike #1042; Cornwall Bridge to Falls Village CT

Hike #1042; Cornwall Bridge to Falls Village CT

5/29/17 Cornwall Bridge to Falls Village CT with John Kosar, James Quinn, Jennifer Berndt, Paul Ferlazzo, Edward DiSalvo, Gail Ingham, and Terry Allen

Our next hike would be a point to point, the next in our series on the northbound Appalachian Trail in Connecticut. I’d covered as far as Cornwall Bridge the previous year, and ended up hiking across Connecticut east of there with Jillane in September, but I wanted to see further to the north. I made sure I posted it when Ed could come along, because he and Terri were both working on completing sections.

Ruins at Cornwall Bridge/Sharon on Mohawk Trail

We met in the morning in Falls Village CT, the northern end of the hike, and headed south to Cornwall Bridge and the trail head for the Mohawk Trail.
Cornwall Bridge is a very historic little spot on the banks of the Housatonic River. Today it’s a quaint little spot with a church on the Sharon side, and a few stores on the other. We went to the mini mart on the Sharon side first, but they were very limited with what they had, so we went across the street to the good deli on the opposite to have sandwiches made for the long trip.

Historic map of Cornwall Bridge

It was a really good thing we actually stopped for some food, because we’d need the extra energy for the trip coming up. It would end up being far tougher than the previous ones.

Cornwall Furnace

Cornwall Bridge was once the home to a major ironworks from 1833 till 1897, with a dominating thirty foot tall stack. Some of the ruins of it are still standing on the east side of the Housatonic River in the weeds.

The original Cornwall Bridge was a covered bridge, and abutments to it still remain along the river just barely up stream from where the current concrete arch bridge stands today. According to the historic etching, the concrete bridge was already in place by 1930 and the covered bridge co-existed until it was washed away in an ice jam.
We returned to the rest of the group at the Mohawk Trail parking lot on the Sharon side to start o ut.
The first bit of the hike was on the Mohawk Trail up Breadloaf Mountain to the Appalachian Trail. The Mohawk Trail is actually the older route of the Appalachian Trail.

Mohawk Trail

Actually, the Appalachian Trail, I found out, used to cross at the North Kent or Flanders Bridge over the Housatonic River. From there it traveled north and ascended at Kent Falls State Park. It then headed to the north to join the route of today’s Mohawk Trail. After that bridge washed out, the AT was moved to the present Mohawk Trail, which prior to that was known simply as “Dark Entry Trail”. It remained the Appalachian Trail until the early 1980s where there was some sort of controversy about which way the AT should go, to the east or the west side of the Housatonic River.

View from Breadloaf Mountain

The western route obviously won out, and is the route of the AT today.
We started our hike by following Mohawk Trail into the woods and past some of the old stone ruins. We then ascended quite steeply to the very top of Breadloaf Mountain, which had an excellent view to the south, to Silver Hill.

Historic image of charcoal production in the Housatonic uplands

There were some level areas in the mountain, which could have been old charcoal hearths from the days of the furnace operations. The furnace started out as a charcoal furnace but switched at some point to hot blast, which required much less charcoal.

Hatch Brook

Just past the overlook, we intersected with the Appalachian Trail and turned right, heading north. It wasn’t too tough at first, pretty much the same as the other hikes we had done on these sections. Just gradual ups an downs from Breadloaf Mountain.

Hatch Brook cascade

The trail made it’s way to the edge of Hatch Brook and turned left to follow it’s course up hill a bit. This was a particularly beautiful area with some nice little cascades. There were some obvious reroutes on the trail in this area too, but I doubt they made any substantial difference in distance.
We crossed over Hatch Brook at the top of a cascade, then continued along the uplands to the intersection of the Pine Knob Trail, which descends to the right to Housatonic Meadows camp sites. We took a break here for everyone to catch up.

Thru Hiker "Pengiun" at Pine Knob intersection

While here, a through hiker came upon us from the south of us.
Many through hikers are not personable, and never really stop to say hello. They get very distant and every day they stay focused on doing mileage and getting as far as they can. While I can appreciate the goal oriented nature of this, I still would rather do high mileage and see all of the side trails, talk to people, take in the views, and just try to enjoy being where I am more than that.
This guy was a serious mileage guy, but he was also friendly and enjoyed our conversation. He paused and told us he started in Georgia, and that he was doing about twenty mile days.

Pine Knob view

The man told us his trail name was “Penguin”, which someone gave him because of his shoes or how he was walking or something. He said it really wasn’t a fitting name for him, but that’s what he was called, so he just accepted it (It makes me wonder if there are some AT elitists somewhere in Georgia who give out stupid trail names you have no choice but to accept). He was planning to go farther than us for this particular day, which is quite an undertaking, especially in retrospect. We offered him a drunk, for which he was very thankful, before he headed on his way ahead of us.

Pine Knob

We continued along the trail once everyone was together. We went up and down rather relentlessly at this point. It was tough, but that didn’t stop me from going for a side trip on the other end of Pine Knob Trail when we reached the intersection.
At this intersection, only John, Jen, Paul, James, and I were sort of caught up. John, Paul, and I decided to go for a side trip down the Pine Knob Trail to an overlook described in the Appalachian Trail guide. It ended up being quite a bit more up hill than I’d anticipated, but the view was beautiful and well worth it when we got there.

View on Pine Knob Trail

Just before the overlook, the trail ascended on an open rock with a tree root system that sort of emulated rungs of a ladder or stairs. It was quite cool.

Old foundations.

When we got back to the Appalachian Trail, I had assumed that the others all continued on the trail ahead of us. However, only James and Jen did, because when we caught up to them there was no one else there.
We crossed long abandoned Ceasar Road, which was an old turnpike that crossed the Housatonic River below on a bridge known as Young’s Bridge. The area had some old stone foundations in it, which makes sense since there was an historic road passing through there. We went on to cross another, abandoned Surdam Road, but I don’t really even recall it.

Nice steps

We came to a somewhat steep descent soon, and the AT had some excellent cut stone steps that helped us heading down.
Eventually, we crossed over Carse Brook on a rustic foot bridge. We decided to take a break at this point because the group was so segmented. Jen and James were just a bit back behind Paul, John, and I, but we waited like forty five minutes or so and there was still no sign of Ed, Gail, and Terri. I didn’t have good phone service, and I wasn’t getting text message answers yet.

Carse Brook

I took a dip in the brook while we waited, but was careful not to get my bad shin really wet just yet. I didn’t have to bee too careful any more, but I was still cautious because I definitely didn’t want an infection spreading to my bone. We couldn’t wait all day, so eventually we opted to just move on and if I needed to I could pick them up at the end.
I did soon get a hold of Ed, and they were going to move on slowly ahead.
We climbed from Carse Brook, then crossed paved West Cornwall Road, the last one for quite a long time, then ascended from there quite steeply. The section through the rocks ahead is known as “Roger’s Ramp”.

Roger's Ramp

Roger’s Ramp was a brutal climb, but the actual rock formation was really cool. The trail went directly into a giant rocky cleft, like a giant crack, before reaching the top of the incline.

Pine Swamp Brook Shelter

There was still tough terrain ahead, with more ups and downs, and so when we saw the side trail to Pine Swamp Brook Shelter, this was a good opportunity for a lunch break.
It was a nice rustic wooden lean to built in 1989 along the trail shortly from the AT, and we found our new friend Penguin had stopped there as well. We chatted some more with him and gave him some more to drink. He told us some stories about his adventures along the trail from the south.
I heard from Ed while we were there, and let him know where we’d gotten to.

Brook crossing

After chatting for a bit more, we were soon on our way heading northbound. Penguin hurried ahead of us, and was fast enough that we didn’t see him again.
We went up and down a bit, and then descended to cross the gravel surface Sharon Mountain Road. We took a short break here before moving on, because it was another climb after that point. The good thing about this one was that the section ahead didn’t have so many ups and downs to exhaust us. The trail skirted around the summit of Mt. Easter, and the guide book told us that it crossed over a source of water for Sharon Mountain Campsite.
I could not make sense of where we should be because we actually had three different streams we crossed. We fortunately only had to go up pretty much after each stream. The rest wasn’t so bad as what we had done previously.

Hang Glider View

We soon came up on one of the best views on the entire trip: Hang Glider View.
This spot was in the past cleared by hang glider enthusiasts, but even the view from the top is quite beautiful. We could see north to the Taconic Range, and to Mt. Everett and Bear Mountain, Mass.

View from Hang Glider View

We waited a while at the Hang Glider View because it was so nice, but the other three were still not catching up. We even waited extra long and finally figured we have to move on.
The trail climbed a bit more from here, up over portions of Sharon Mountain. There was supposed to be a ridge section with views both to the east and the west, with Katterskill High Peak in the Catskills and another the opposite way, but we passed no such overlook that I saw, unless it was on an obscure side trail.

Steps down Sharon Mountain

We had been caught in a couple of rainy downpours at the start of this hike, but we somehow managed it pretty well. By the time we got to Hang Glider View and beyond, things were clearing off to a great degree.
The trail went up and down a bit along Sharon Mountain, and I was getting a bit sick of it when suddenly the trail started going down, partially on what appeared to be a very old roadway route. The trail remained good and clear until it all of a sudden turned left up into onto another sort of woods road.

AT along fields

We continued down hill rather easily on a rather relaxing route, and then turned away from our straight trajectory to climb Belter’s Bump, near Belter’s Campsite. This was the last bit of up we had to do for a while. It was named in honor of former land owner Willis Belter.
We reached Route 7 when we emerged from the woods. Here, the trail turned to the right slightly and crossed, then went onto the edge of a cultivated field. It turned right and left along the edges, and was soon along the Housatonic River again.

AT, former Lime Rock Road

We walked along the river in a very pleasant section, and the trail turned a hard left away from the river on what I thought right away was an old road route and probably a former bridge site.
It turned out I was correct; when we emerged from the woods onto Rt 7 again, where the trail turned right, it looked more like a road. When we took the AT across the bridge at Lime Rock Road/Rt 7 it looked even more obvious that just down stream from this bridge was the historic original bridge site. There was even a small island in the middle that was probably the remains of the old bridge pier.

Near the Housatonic

We walked a parallel farm lane to Lime Rock Road before crossing the bridge, then climbed up and crossed. Once on the other side, the AT turned left onto Warren Turnpike, another paved road.
To the left of us on this route was the Housatonic Valley Regional High School. This was the very first regional high school in the United States, built in 1939.
It was one of those pretty old style facade schools unlike what gets built today. Just past the front of the school, the Mohawk Trail returned to the AT route from the right of us.

Housatonic River and former bridge site

The Mohawk Trail is a little longer than the Appalachian Trail route through the region, as it rejoins the AT twenty four miles south of this point. I have hiked that as of now as far as Mohawk Mountain State Park, and one more full day hike will lead to this location. I plan on doing this with a portion of the Appalachian Trail as the next one in the series up this way.
Just past the high school a bit, I was surprised to see the AT leave the Warren Turnpike and turn right into the woods, closely parallel with the old Housatonic Railroad.

Housatonic Valley Regional High School, probably 1939

The railroad is another very historic one, having been started in the 1830s to connect from the coast up to the Massachusetts line. The route of the trail made me think of the “rail with trail” plans that would work in Ulster County NY.

Housatonic Valley Regional High School today

The trail went up and down a bit, and weaved back and forth through the woods parallel with the railroad. There was evidence of other grades, and of old woods roads, but we also passed by what I am almost certain was an old mine hole to the right of the trail.

AT near the railroad tracks

The trail guide made no mention of any of this at all.
The trail turned to the left eventually and soon crossed over the Warren Turnpike. It passed through some pleasant woods and was soon on the shore of the Housatonic River heading to the north.
It was a pleasant enough path at first, but soon a more level grade emerged from the right. I first assumed it was some sort of abandoned railroad bed, because there was old industry in the area. I found out later that this was actually the remnants of an old harness racing course.

Old harness race track

This entire section was very relaxing. We really needed it after the difficult stretches behind us. Those were by far the most difficult we had done all year (so far). This was just a cake walk.
We could sometimes see out onto the Housatonic River, but it remained somewhat obscured in the trees. I understand there was once a lot of industry in this area, but we couldn’t see any remnants of anything really from the AT route at this time.
This section of the Appalachian Trail was a reroute made by Appalachian Mountain Club to be a handicapped accessible section, and a really nice job was done. Nothing really detracted from the niceness of the trail along the river.

Historic image at Falls Village

The trail emerged at Water Street after crossing over a little foot bridge. From there, it turned to the left and headed to the crossing of the Housatonic River. We started walking that way when I checked my phone and realized we were going out of the way.

AT bridge

We had parked up in Falls Village, which I now knew was unnecessary because there was good parking right on the trail. So, we had to turn right on Water Street up hill past the railroad underpass to get to town.
We turned left after the underpass, and there was an old red caboose on display to the right side of the road.
We headed into the town, and we were parked to the left in front of an old hotel building.
I’m not sure which hotel it was, but it couldn’t have been many because Falls Village is known as the smallest unincorporated town in Connecticut.

Historic postcard image

Before heading back to get the other three, we took a side trip up the road in the cars to the very next section of the AT at the Great Falls. This is a huge waterfall spilling below the dam on the river. They are natural falls, only with the dam built above.

We walked down and wandered all along the eastern edge of the falls. I was glad we took the time out for this this time, because they are known to go dry in the Summer time, and our next visit we may not be so lucky with the good scenery.

High falls on Housatonic

Before the dam was built, there used to be a railroad spur spanning the Housatonic at the site, and it served the Ames Ironworks to the north side. I’d love to explore the area more, but we didn’t have time to be hanging around too much on this trip.

Historic image before the dam

We headed back to pick up the others, just below Sharon Mountain and Belter’s Bump on Route 7 was where they made it. It worked out very conveniently on the way back to the cars. Also, by doing the section of Mohawk Trail, the shorter section on River Trail would be the only part we’d repeat on the AT on the next trip, so Ed really won’t miss any of the AT if he comes on the next one.

Kent Falls

On the way back, we stopped at Kent Falls to have a look around, just because it wasn’t dark yet an it was on the way. It also fit into the theme of former Appalachian Trail routes.

Historic 1930s AT map

For the next hike in the region, I plan to meet at the area of the Falls above Falls Village, and then shuttle south to Mohawk Mountain State Park where we can enjoy the overlooks and follow the rest of the trail back to Falls Village. We’d be able to repeat the pleasant section along the Housatonic River, and then finish with the section closest to the falls, which will make for an outstanding hike. After that, I will have only one more hike remaining on the Connecticut section of the Appalachian Trail to get me to the Massachusetts border. If I don’t hike into West Virginia or Virginia first, it will be the sixth state we’ve included on these hikes.
The drive home from this one was very long, probably about the longest I do in a day, but it felt so worth it.
Also, my leg has continued to improve quite a lot. Although I still wasn’t getting it wet, the infection was going down pretty fast. I was still getting a lot of swelling, clearly evident from my socks when I took them off, but it didn’t throb as much as it used to.

Ever improving leg

After switching to stronger antibiotic, even the doctor was surprised at how fast it had healed once it started making the turn for the better. This I believe was the first hike where I didn’t bother trying to keep it covered any more.
I had to be back to work the next morning, and at this time started my insane ten days on, four days off shifts. Every other full weekend I would have to work, which endangered my being able to do the hikes for the first time in forever. I wasn’t going to let it happen; every other weekend would have to be a night hike, and on the off weeks I would do two day hikes, Thursday and the weekend. Participation levels have dropped a bit, but we’re still going strong with it.