Hike #1176; Metacomet and Hatchery Brook Loop

Hike #1176; Metacomet and Hatchery Brook Loop

11/17/18 Metacomet and Hatchery Brook Hike CT with Daniel Trump, Jennifer Tull, James Quinn, and Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen

This next hike would be a large loop in central Connecticut, covering a long section of the Metacomet Trail I’d missed while backpacking with Jillane.

King Philip

I love that these Connecticut trails are quite difficult at times, and then relaxing in others. There’s a huge wealth of stuff to see and I never get bored with any of it.
At this point, I have done three backpacking trips across Connecticut, and the second one included the Metacomet Trail, which is part of the New England National Scenic Trail.
The Metacomet Trail follows much of the Metacomet Ridge, an Igneus Intrusive Basalt ridge similar to the New Jersey/New York Palisades, which stretches from the Long Island Sound all the way to the Massachussetts/Vermont border. Barack Obama designated four trails leading the length of these points as the New England National Scenic Trail in 2009. From the Long Island Sound, the Menunkatuck Trail leads north to connect with the Mattabessett Trail, which leads east to the Connecticut River or north toward Meriden.

Metacomet Trail enters woods

Where Mattebessett Trail ends, Metacomet begins. Metacomet Trail continues north through Connecticut where the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail leads north across Massachusetts. Manadnock-Sunapee Greenway and other trails continue north and connections can be made through Vermont and New Hampshire.
“Metacomet” is a word borrowed from a 17th century Sachem who led his people, the Wampanoag tribe, during King Philip’s War.

Metacomet Trail

Metacomet, according to folklore, was dubbed “King Philip” by colonists in the late 1600s, also known as Chief Metacomet, or Sowheag of the Wangunks in Middletown Connecticut.
My obsession with all of these connective trails grows stronger all of the time, and when Jillane and I hiked it, we turned away from Metacomet Trail to follow the easier Hatchery Brook trail system. It nearly connected with the Metacomet Trail when we did it, and since that time it has been formally connected.

Farm view on Metacomet Trail

It was nice for us at the time to do an easier route, but part of me kept wanting to see more of what the Metacomet Trail had to offer.

Wet

I knew I would have to do it. It’s about as far as I’ll ever go for a day hike, but I figured it would be worth it. The descriptions alone for this section inspired me.
There were about thirteen miles of the Metacomet Trail I was missing. A section continued south on the Metacomet Ridge from where we’d left it, from Short Mountain, through Hubbard Park, and then back up through Blue Hills Conservation Area. We already covered the road walk section to the start of the Mattabesett Trail to the east.

Weird fence pass

I figured out a good loop that would encompass what we had missed, and then some of the Hatchery Brook trail system to close in the loop. It looked like it’d be a great one.

Crooked Brook on Metacomet Trail

I scheduled the hike for a date in October, but then we had a major nor'easter come in. I was concerned about doing it that day. The rocks were super slippery, based on my experience, and I wouldn’t want to do it in adverse conditions. I decided to reschedule for November, and instead head south that weekend to do the hike on the Elk Neck, which was great.
Unfortunately, in the days leading up to this hike, there was a major snow storm that hit.

Blue Hills Conservation Area, Metacomet Trail

I would never have thought we’d get over three inches of snow more than a week before Thanksgiving, but there we were.
I didn’t want to reschedule the hike again. I found out that further up in New England, they got less snow than we did in NJ. It was to be in the forties the next couple of days, and so I counted on a lot of the snow melting before I got up there. I decided that if it looked particularly bad, we could instead do the nearby Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, which is more a rail trail than canal, but that’s how they promote it. I wasn’t going to cancel the Connecticut trip this time.

Blue Hills Conservation Area

I was disheartened when pretty much anyone that had been considering carpooling with me backed out. Fortunately, Dan and Jenny were leaving from Mt. Olive, and I was offered a ride with them. This ended up being great. It was the first time in a long time that I didn’t have to drive the long distance to a hike. Usually I’m exhausted and have to pull over to take a power nap, but this time there was nothing for me to worry about. My mood was immediately better.

Trail along the fence...

We headed north over the new Tappan Zee Bridge, and could see some more of the old bridge coming down. It disappears more every time I cross it.
We made our way to the meeting point, and actually arrived early.
I chose the Atlantis Irving place at the intersection of Orchard Road and Route 5 as the meeting point, where the Metacomet Trail ends and the Mattabesett Trail begins, because we could get food and drinks for the trip there. There was not going to be anything along the route of this hike, so it was important to get everything we needed.

Metacomet Trail parallel with the road

From there, we shuttled over to the start of the loop, at a little parking area off of Kensington Road for Hatchery Brook Conservation Area. The trail comes out of the woods there.
It used to be just the orange trail, but now there were blue blazes with red bottoms to them that officially connect with the Metacomet Trail on either end. We would be on blazed trail for almost the entire hike with this.

The first regular view at the other end of the ridge

The snow depth wasn’t terrible, but it was much more than I was hoping would still be hanging around. In most places, it didn’t come above the tops of my shoes.

Scene on Metacomet Trail

I wore a pair of new Merrells that I’d gotten either from Annika or Lerch (they both gave me shoes and I’m not sure which was which), that I hadn’t worn yet. They came above the ankle so I figured they’d be great for in the snow without having to have big boots on.
It was a nice sunny day with only occasional cloud cover, so I hoped that the snow would melt off a lot. It was apparently seven inches recently, but that four of them had compacted down to what was remaining due to previous days heat.

It ended up not being nearly enough, because I think we pretty much all ended up with wet feet.
We started our hike by heading south on Kensington past the Sunny Border Nurseries. When we got to the intersection with Orchard Road, where Metacomet Trail goes left to it’s southern terminus, we crossed directly onto the northbound Metacomet, which at this point actually head south for quite a while. It starts by following an abandoned road access of some sort, and passes by some concrete barricades before entering woods.

Steep hillside...

Almost immediately there was a feel of seclusion along this great trail, though the walking was kind of tough. The trail was very muddy from all of the melt off, but we got through.
Map of Blue Hills Conservation Area: https://www.town.berlin.ct.us/egov/documents/61277815_69c1_56eb_e7b2_aa8db6bec96b.pdf
We passed along slight hillsides. This first section of the trail was very easy. We entered the Blue Hills Conservation Area ahead and soon paralleled sections of the Crooked Brook.\

This was a tough spot...

We crossed over a small stream tributary to this, then crossed a utility clearing with a bit of a view to the old farm buildings in the area.

View in Blue Hills toward Castle Craig

There was an old barn building with not much time left, and holes through the roof. We then passed through a gate that is apparently a cattle exclosure of sorts.

On a slope

We had to go through a zig-zag through a fence area rather than typical stile to get through to the next section of woods.
The trail took to some higher ground, and then descended to the west a bit with some interesting little tributaries making their way down slope in such a way that didn’t seem like the path of least resistance. We came to a woods road and sort of lost the blazes for a few moments. I had a guess at which way we had to go in order to get through.

Trail view

It’s always important to follow exactly where the blazes say. We learned this very early on, just after getting on the Metacomet Trail, when I stopped to pee and told everyone to go ahead.

Metacomet Trail below Blue Hills

They continued on the most obvious woods road section, and didn’t follow the blazed route. I started walking, and in a few moments realized there were no foot prints, and they’d all gone the wrong way. Dave G. had the same problem recently in the Ramapos, not used to following standard trail blazes. Informal trails and woods road branch out in all directions so it’s easy to turn off of them if you stop paying attention for even a moment.

The trail

We headed down and up, and then came out on Summit Wood Drive at a power line crossing. Here, we could not see where the blazes were at all.
I had to stop and consult the map book. People covering over blazes and closing trails off illegally is a problem everywhere we go, and I figured this was a problem here too, since I couldn’t find the trail out to the road easily.
The map showed that the trail crossed almost directly and then paralleled the road.

Getting steep

There were “no trespassing” signs all over the fences into the power line ahead, and a large gate. I figured it probably went that way, and took a gamble. We went through despite the signs, and sure enough, there was a blaze on the posts, running parallel with the road and up hill gradually to the left. We followed it right along the front of someone’s house and across their driveway, then over another one. The trail remained just inside the woods from the road, and when the road reached a dead end, beyond which it is just a woods road, the trail continued off to the right through more Blue Hills property.

A steep spot

The trail started taking on more ridge type characteristics. We were following near the edge of a slope, which was getting steeper.

Across toward Hubbard

They were not yet vertical cliffs, but a slip and fall would not have been a welcome thing.
We came upon on first sort of mountaintop view in this section. We were looking across at the rest of the Metacomet Ridge, which we would be on top of later. I made sure to point that out to everyone as we caught all up.
From here, we descended a bit, with some continuous views through trees heading south. We crossed another utility right of way, and the trail appeared to be obscured.

Elmere Reservoir

It turned out it went slightly right and climbed steeply to a rocky outcropping.
The trail skirted a cliff edge with only a little bit of walking room. With the snow and ice, this would not be an easy type of place to get through. It had me kind of worried about what we would encounter for the rest of the hike. Fortunately, nothing we came across would be more difficult than this. We had some similar spots, but nothing with as bad a possibility of falling.

Elmere Reservoir

The farthest bend at the south side of the Metacomet Ridge was in view beyond our tough spot. It seemed so far away, and we were somewhat slowed down because of the snow.

Pond along Metacomet Trail

It was much more of a workout to get through than anticipated. Even worse, on this west facing slope in the heavier shade, there was less melt off and therefore more snow. I didn’t lace my shoes up well enough until much later in the hike, and so every time I stepped in something deeper, it would fill my shoes up with more snow and ice. I would curse and scoop it out with my middle or pointer finger, too stubborn to take the time to lace better.

Near Merimere Reservoir

We kept along this bit of ridge line for a while, with some more steep drops, but nothing as bad. The trail eventually descended rather steeply at a neat little spot of talus slope, which require some slow moving. The footing was never really easy on this hike except the road bits.
I suppose the power line crossing must have been part of Victoria Drive, which is the extension of the previous road we crossed.
We headed through more woods, descended a bit, and followed a little bit of Sodom Brook.

Merimere Reservoir dam

We then cut away from that to the right, over some hills, and then descended just north of Cathole Cliff, some rock outcroppings along the cut through which passes Route 71, the Chamerlain Highway.
We took a quick break in the area, and then ascended on the other side gradually to a cleared access road at Elmere Reservoir. The trail turned to the left on the access road and crossed the dam to the pretty body of water.

The dam area

The difference in walking this easy soft terrain compared to what we’d been on was amazing.
Dan was not doing well by this point. Usually he’s fine over all terrain and conditions, but he has poor circulation in his feet. Despite putting several hand warmers into his shoes, he had lost feeling to his feet. He already knew by this point that he would probably want to cut out a bit early.
We headed across the dam and then into the woods on the other side.

Merimere Reservoir

There was a bit more ascending on foot paths, but then picked up a series of old woods roads that were quite pleasant. Some of these were beaten down by ATVs which made for much easier travel.
We reached a more main woods road at a sort of small pond, then continued to the west until we came out to Park Drive, at the main dam for the Merimere Reservoir, where we had a nice break.
There were a few people around in this area. The road was blocked off to vehicular traffic, but used as a trail.

Merimere Reservoir

I had purchased some cheese and such at the store, so I had some of it here.

Merimere Reservoir

A guy that was jogging by asked us if we had been to the castle yet. I told him that was where we were going.
We continued walking, and the trail took us on the road across the dam for Merimere Reservoir. Once we got to the other side, the trail descended to cross an inlet to the reservoir at a little waterfall, then climbed steeply on the other side.
From here, the trail continued along the slope of the Metacomet Ridge with constant views of the Merimere Reservoir to the left. It was a really nice little section with side hill walking.

Little falls at the reservoir

Again, it would have been a bad area to slip and fall off toward the reservoir, but it was quite pretty. I moved along pretty quickly for it. Jenny was right there behind me the entire time, but the others took more time with it.
Dan agreed to continue on because it was less than two miles from this point to the Castle Craig. He could find a way to turn back from there rather easily.
There were little waterfalls and washes throughout this entire area, flowing down toward the reservoir.

On the trail

We got to a particular one where we went down and crossed, then ascended very steeply along the left side of it.
It was tough to even tell where the trail was supposed to go with all of the snow. It was barely graded at all. There were almost steps intended in the hillside where it was marked, but it was by no means an easy route. A fall to the right would send any of us tumbling down toward the little creek. I waited at the lower end of the ascent to make sure that everyone made it past the creek crossing to the turn, then started powering to the top.

Meremere Reservoir

This was tiring even for me, and so I wanted to get this ascent out of the way.
We walked at the top along a bit more of a gradual shelf, and could soon see the famous Hanging Cliffs.
This entire area is known as the Hanging Cliffs. A sub range of the Metacomet Ridge, it forms a horseshoe shape overlooking the City of Meriden, but also encompasses Berlin and Southington.

Where we turned up slope at the stream, we entered Hubbard Park, an 1,800 acre park designed in part by Frederick Law Olmstead.
The park was a donation to the City of Meriden by Walter Hubbard, President of the Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company. Hubbard donated the land outright with the stipulation that no concessions were ever to be made within the park, and that it were to always remain free of charge. No profit was ever allowed to be made on the park’s lands.

Creek along the trail

In addition to his donation of land, Hubbard also financed the construction of roads, water bodies, walls, trails, and more within the park, for a total of between $400,000 and $500,000, with designs by Olmstead.
The famous Castle Craig, which is on the east peak overlooking the Quinnipiac River Valley, was built by Hubbard, some say to resemble the towers built by the Turks in the 12th century overlooking the Danube River.

Castle Craig between 1910 and 1920

Others claim the castle is modeled after something in Craigellachie, Scotland. Regardless, it is a beautiful place, within a beautiful place, and a highlight of a hike there.

Hanging Cliffs and Merimere Reservoir

To the south, it is possible to see New Haven and out to the Long Island Sound. To the north, one can see to Hartford and beyond to the Berkshires and Mount Tom in Massachusetts.

Brook flows

The Castle Craig was dedicated on October 29th, 1900 in an event hosted by Hubbard.
The trail came to a flat rock overlook at the Hanging Cliffs. It was an outstanding place with so much in view. It was mind blowing. This was definitely the place to stop.
Everyone caught up and had a really good break here. The view of Merimere Reservoir was further defined by Mine Island out in the edge of it.

The Black Dog of Hanging Cliffs

The edge of the city of Meriden was in view, and would become more so the further we went on the ridge with each view.
No popular area is without folklore, and the one that surrounds this area is the Black Dog of the Hanging Cliffs. Said to be a supernatural ghost dog, it appears as gregarious and leaves no footprints, makes no sound. Meeting the dog once is said to be good fortune. A second meeting is said to mean a warning or sorrow, and a third meeting means death.
An early account of a geologist in 1898 who had seen the dog twice before, saw it a third time and fell to his death from one of the rocks after slipping on ice.

Merimere Reservoir

Everyone caught up with us at the rock and admired the view for a bit before moving on.
There was an older trail and blaze that appeared to go over a crazy spot on the cliffs.

Crazy trail

Once we got to this point, the trail pretty much stayed near the edges of the hanging cliffs as we shifted from southbound to westbound. Soon, we could see the Castle Craig through the trees ahead.

Castle Craig

We had only passed the one jogger guy coming off the trail before, and just ahead we passed a guy and two girls. The paused and asked me to take a photo of them at an overlook. Looking at my blue vintage jacket and tie, they said “You’re a little overdressed for this, aren’t you?”. The response of people when I’m hiking in a suit and tie never gets old for me. I explained what I was doing, and they were rather impressed “Go Get It” one of them said as I walked off.

View from Castle Craig

Soon, we reached the Castle Craig, but unfortunately a bucket truck was ruining the view of it from afar. There were guys from the city as well as a state police guy there preparing the Christmas lights to be lit on the tower. The trail went down and around to the right, and we had to walk back up to the point to visit the tower. It was surrounded by stone walls and such, and the entire structure was completely open. If it rained or snowed, it just goes through to the bottom. Metal stairs are through the inside that provide access to the top. We went up it and admired the awesome view from the top.

That'd be me

The guys working at the top gave us some of the aforementioned history about Mr. Hubbard and the origins of the castle. They also told us that the west peak, within view of where we were, was the highest point within twenty five miles of the ocean on the entire east coast south of Maine. Some might remember that Mt. Mitchell in NJ holds a similar distanction, but this point we were at was further in land and higher, so the record I refer to is a bit different. Mt. Mitchell is lower and immediately on the ocean.
East peak is 976 feet above sea level, and west peak is 1,024. Even with the thirty foot high tower, the west peak is still a little higher.
The trail passed through the parking area below the tower, where we’d continue on. Dan opted to cut out at this point and keep his feet warm walking the roads back to Jenny’s car. The rest of us continued on the hillside, past a view with a nice rock outcrop, and then descended to Peak Drive. I saw Dan walking away down the road and shouted out goodbye to him.

Castle Craig

There was a young couple walking on the road toward the castle along the way, and they tried telling us where they came from, but realized soon that was not at all what we were doing.
The trail reached the road, and I couldn’t figure out where the blazes went. We went across, but didn’t see anything on the hillside there. We then went down the road just a bit and blazes turned off the road to the left. They went out and around a bit of a peak, then came back to the road again, then turned sharp left heading down hill.

West Peak area

We were already pretty much up, and the trail just continued down. This seemed counterproductive, but we did it anyway. When we got to the bottom, the trail turned right on a woods road very briefly, then right again off of it to start climbing immediately. This was pretty annoying at first.

I understood why the trail did this after a short while; it led up to a great slope with some amazing views to the southwest. It was tiring, but a great little section that led to a dip between the rocks we were climbing and West Peak, which seemed to tower above everything else. The trail headed into a narrow cleft over big boulders, then turned right to start ascending again.We passed a vernal pool and then got to the top on a woods road. I turned to the left, on the short side trip that led out to West Peak, the best view of the day.

Edwin Howard Armstrong

The sun was already getting lower in the sky, and the wind was crazy. I had passed a guy on my way up with ski poles, and he made his way back up while I was there. I was impressed at how quickly he was moving. He said he couldn’t handle the wind and headed back out. This would be the last other hiker we’d see all day, for a total of only five real hikers passed, not counting the groups of people immediately on the pavement by the tower.
West Peak was the site of one of the first FM (Frequency Modulation) radio broadcasts by it’s inventor, Edward Howard Armstrong, in 1939. Armstrong, who once lived in Connecticut, held several major patents and was one of the most influential scientists in the history of radio. Sadly, the majority of his time was spent in litigation due to larger companies trying to steal his work.
I decided that West Peak was the right time to break out my bottle of Blasphemy I had gotten at Weyerbacher recently. I was going to save it until the anniversary hike in March, but friend Bill Jentz convinced me to have it earlier and just buy another one. He said this year’s was sweeter than previous years, and so I was really wanting to have it.

View near West Peak

He was right, it was absolutely delicious, and I think everyone who tried it enjoyed it. Even James like it, and he typically doesn’t care for beer that much.
The trail continued from another view to the west to an access road with towers, where Armstrong first made his broadcasts. The trail turned hard left at one of the towers, passed the fences, then back out to the ridge where we got another couple of views. In the sections ahead, all of the tough stuff over the rocks were gone. More of the snow was melted in this area, so the walking was a bit easier. Overall, the entire section ahead was much more relaxing. We reached the height of the land of the West Peak, and then slowly started to make our way down hill. It was very very pleasant. James got up front with me in this section, and we moved along really well. The trail weaved back and forth, but was never really tough. It got even easier when it picked up a woods road.

Blasphemy!

One of the woods roads at first was washed out, but most was easy. There was also some sort of raceway going off to the right at some point, but I’m not sure what it was.
The trail soon emerged onto Edgewood Road and turned to the left. Usually a road walk of this length would be a drag, but it actually was very easy and helped us make up some time. It was going to get dark fast, and we still had Short Mountain to do before dark.
My top priority was to get through Short Mountain. If we could take that to the head waters of the Hatchery Brook, we would have connected with where I left the trail with Jillane back in June.
We made our way up the road, past many houses. There was a nice little pond on the left. Mostly it was just a calm road walk. We took this to the intersection with Orchard Road, the same one we crossed near the beginning of the hike. The trail turned to the left, then to the right into the woods to skirt the edge of the Timberlin Golf Course, which we would skirt on the other side later. This section is all part of Timberlin Park.
The trail was rather easy, and headed down to the edge of a brook, but then it was nearly imposible to cross without getting wet where the blazes were. Fortunately, there was a weird leaning tree through the brook just down stream that we were able to walk over and get to the other side. The trail was still wet ahead, until we got to higher elevation.
Soon, the Hatchery Brook Trail broke off to the right. That is the trail that goes directly back to the cars, but again, I wanted to get to Short Mountain. I moved off to the left from this intersection, and the green blazed trail also joined and ran concurrently with the Metacomet Trail for a time.

Striations

We continued up hill, and I powered ahead as fast as I could push myself. There was a great view of the Metacomet Ridge to the south, and then some views to the lands below where we just were. I could also see all the way to the east to what I thought was Silver Lake, but what must have been Kenmere Reservoir.
I continued past these views over some undulating terrain until I got to the west side. There, I had a great view to the south with the striations from the sun through the clouds clearly visible. I could see way south all the way along the ridge we had just followed, and to the west to the end of Ragged Mountain where I’d backpacked with Jillane. I decided to wait for everyone to catch up here. There would be a couple more views beyond this point, but this was the last, best one for the day. I felt wonderful after getting there. I’d pretty much accomplished what I wanted for this trip here.
After everyone caught up and took a few moments, we headed along the trail to the north a bit. We descended somewhat, and could tell that less people use this section because there were so many trees fallen over it. We reached the slope above the Hatchery Brook, which I could see below. Jillane and I reached this cliff and walked it’s edge before. I missed the turn on Metacomet Trail, which wasn’t necessary, because we continued along a ledge on the now abandoned former route of the green trail. I had wanted to stay on this trail when we backpacked it, but we had lost it that time. The trail is no longer marked, but is very obvious for being clear and because there are so many cut trees on either side of it.
The trail goes down one rather steep descent, but then otherwise is quite easy. There was some trees down over it, but nothing too hard. I had to pay attention to where I was going to be sure I was on the actual trail and not some other animal run.
I knew we were doing good when we reached the blazes of the present green trail. We turned left when we reached that, also the route of the Hatchery Brook Trail.
The trail took us down hill and across a branch of the brook on a nice foot bridge, then back up hill and along the edge of the Upper Hart’s Pond. We weaved around through woods and soon emerged at the parking area and sign adjacent to the Timberlin Golf Course.

Photo by Janet

We turned to the right, as the trail follows the access road to the golf course. We cut to the left to a sitting area along the Upper Hart’s Pond, where there was a nice little view, then came back out to the access road.
The Hatchery Brook Trail actually does not stay along the access road to the golf course. It goes into the woods to the left and parallels it, to come out at the far end of the course where the road is abandoned. Jillane and I skipped this section in favor of the easier paved trail along the north side of the course, and I wanted to cover the wooded trail section instead this time, but it was getting dark and I really just didn’t want to take the time, plus we wouldn’t be able to see anything.
I figure on a future trip, we can come back to this point, utilize more of the trails we hadn’t done near where we were parked in the old camp properties, do the Hatchery Brook Trail, and then more of the Ragged Mountain Trails to the north of here. It’ll probably be years before I get around to that, but it sounds like a plan anyway.

Ragged Mountain from Short Mountain

The road/trail continued out of the golf course to the east side. It’s the abandoned original entrance to the course. We crossed Route 71/Chamberlain Highway, but didn’t continue on the blue blazed Hatchery Brook Trail.
When Jillane and I did this section ahead, it went along some back yards and was a horrible mess to follow only the first part. I would not want to do that in the dark. I know there was another access further to the south from here, but I didn’t have the map to see where it went, so I didn’t want to chance it.
Instead, we turned left on the Chamberlain Highway a short distance to a right turn on Norton Road, then an immediate right on Winesap Road. These development roads would lead us to the Bicentennial Park entrance Jillane and I had passed while backpacking.

Bicentennial Park; photo by Janet

We passed a house where a party was going on, and they hollered something to us. Too bad we weren’t invited in, we probably would have gone for it!
Winesap Road had a rather sharp bend in it, then ended at a cul de sac where there was an entrance to Bicentennial Park. A long strip of mowed land continues due south there. We went straight on out through it the same way Jillane and I had gone.
We went through a line of trees at the end, and then continued along the right side of yet another field. We followed this to it’s end, then turned to the right after entering the woods and finding other trails. It’s a woods road heading gradually down hill here, and right through the middle of a pavilion. I remembered all of this stuff, even to my own surprise, although none of it is yet on the maps at the lot or on line.
We headed down hill and passed a spring area, then gradually up again. There were some old camp buildings that were associated with former girl scout Camp Merebrite. Apparently there was a boy scout camp too. I could not find much information on it, but here is a guide:
https://www.town.berlin.ct.us/egov/documents/1449508777_01705.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0drwWgm-blsDSS-HP60_LHftDHQoPQwuzJy8t9cBkAAKMDISrwKOo9rxA

Night over Hatchery Brook Conservation Area

When I recognized a turn where we were to go left, I wasn’t certain, but we turned. We then came to a low area where there was a big step up. Most of these trails were really wide and basically woods roads, but I remembered that step. We were going the right way. We headed through more woods and the lights of neighborhoods to the left of us were apparent. I knew we were going the right way. The next intersection was with the blue blazed trail, which now followed the route that I’d backpacked.
We turned left at that intersection, and gradually headed down hill to cross Hatchery Brook on a high arched bridge. This took us out at the cul de sac for Cross Creek Drive.
If they didn’t know, there’d be no way of getting through this next section. I reminded everyone to remain quiet as we turned to the right along the backs of houses following the connector trail to the orange trail. I didn’t notice if there were blue blazes there, but there must have been. We left the area of the house and soon were in the open fields of the orange trail loop. We turned left and headed gradually up hill through these fields, which connected us with the parking area on Kensington Drive.
Dan was happy to see us when we arrived. He’d actually gotten back relatively fast, I think in an hour and a half or so.
Jenny left her hiking pole at a porta john in the golf course, so we sneakily went back through the entrance and drove the trail out to it to get it and had no problems. Dan hates golf courses.
We stopped at a Moe’s Southwest Grill on the way back, in an interstate travel place that has all sorts of shit. I had an entire slice of pizza as well as an enormous burrito. I was quite hungry.
I pretty much passed out for the remainder of the ride. I feel more drunk from food consumption than I ever do from drinking any amount of alcohol.
We actually got back to NJ in GREAT time. It wasn’t all that late considering where we’d been, and the fact that we might have done up to nineteen miles, when my plan was to do 17.
Taking into consideration the slow going of the snow, I think we did great.

Castle Craig

In the future, I know I’ll instead go for the backup plan of the rail trail. It was pretty tough, an dit could have been far worse. We honestly got lucky with the little amount of snow we came across, and we had no major slips and falls (although we probably all fell at one time or another. I definitely did). The rail trail wouldn’t have been bad, and I want to do it anyway.

West Peak

I’m still glad we did what we did, and it made for a really great experience. There are many more hikes I have on my agenda in the area, and a little bit closer. Hopefully work scheduling will improve and more of these kinds of trips can come to pass in better weather.

On my way home, I stopped in Bottle King to see what they had in stock, and to my surprise, they had Weyerbacher’s Blasphemy. Not only did they have it....it was exactly half price. This must have been a mistake. A giant wine bottle sized Blasphemy for only $7.99.
I started the day with only one bottle and the idea I had to go back for more...and walked away with five more full ones!

HAM