Hike #1196; Simsbury and Farmington
1/26-1/27/19 Simsbury and Farmington Loop with Alex Gisser, Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen, Jennifer Berndt, Jennifer Tull, and Lowell Perkins
This next hike would be another two day trip. Part of me was thinking that I was doing too much, so I didn’t even host a night hike during the previous week. I had too much catching up to do, and it would be another long weekend trip.
Historic image of remnant of Farmington Canal Aqueduct
Originally, I wanted to hike to Newport, Rhode Island. I figured out a multi day trip that would take us between Woonsocket where I’d left off, and head south on the Blackstone River Greenway, then let the weather dictate whether we headed to the bay or headed inland on a rail trail.
Historic image of the remnants of Farmington Canal Aqueduct
There was more snow on the ground again, and I didn’t want to commit to anything too crazy. Also, hardly anyone was signing up. I decided last minute that I would still go further east than usual, but that I would make it something that might be easier to get to and hopefully more enticing.
Historic home from 1700s, Simsbury
I switched to Connecticut; the Farmington Canal Trail mostly follows a railroad bed, which is also close to the old Farmington Canal, all the way between the coast and Massachusetts. I’d only done a bit of it in the past, but the paved, flat trail would be a good route regardless of weather.
The Metacomet Trail was one that I’d really loved, having backpacked it and done another trip this past fall with the group on a section I was missing to the south. I came up with two potential trips we could do depending on the weather. Both would be out of the Farmington Inn as a home base, a place I’d stayed twice before and really enjoyed.
Along Farmington River
If the weather worked in my favor, we would shuttle to Simsbury CT, the next down up, and hike the Farmington Canal Trail south to Farmington. We’d spend the night, then continue the next morning on the Metacomet Trail, which can be connected through the Hill Stead property I’d done before, but we’d take it back north to Simsbury where my van would be from the day before in the commuter lot.
If the weather did not work out in my favor, I could do the first day as planned, and then do a second day on the Farmington Canal Trail and simply Uber back. It felt like a good plan.
The weather did work out in my favor, and so the loop trip was going to come together as planned.
For the first day, only Janet and Alex showed up. Janet almost didn’t come because she was feeling sick. I was at first afraid that the hike wouldn’t happen because no one was going to be there. I’d already crossed the Hudson and was feeling kind of let down. Janet said she was coming anyway, so that was a relief.
Then, Alex contacted me to let me know he had stayed at his home in Connecticut and that he’d be there.
Things were looking up.
I went into the hotel, and the lady at the desk was as nice as could be. She even let me go upstairs to get breakfast, even though I hadn’t stayed there the night before.
The canal bed and rail bed together below Simsbury
I didn’t remember the place having breakfast my first two stays, but this time it was great. They had sausage links, waffles, all sorts of stuff.
Canal and rail beds together
I met up with Alex and Janet in the lobby, and we then headed to my van to drive north to the start point.
I had spent some time in the lobby going through history books and looking at photos, and found that there was an enormous aqueduct that had carried the Farmington Canal over the Farmington River north of this site. I wanted to know more about where this went.
I was blown away on the drive north when I saw exactly where the aqueduct used to be, with a good towpath and prism heading over to the edge of the river.
Farmington Canal towpath remnant
There’s just too much that I want to see, which I’ll just have to come back for.
Farmington Canal towpath remnant
We headed to the Winslow Place commuter parking lot, which is right along Farmington Canal Trail, in the south side of Simsbury, adjacent to the post office.
Possible Farmington Canal remnant
We would start by heading north a bit because no one had gotten snacks or whatever was needed for the way, and we had to find a store. There was a mobile mart just to the north of there. I was able to get one of my energy teas there.
From that point, we headed directly in back to the old railroad bed, which is now the paved over trail.
Through this hike and the research I’ve done associated with it, I’ve gained a better understanding of the history of the Farmington Canal as well as the railroad that followed it.
Likely former Farmington Canal
Much of the present day trail is on the canal bed, as the railroad was built directly on it in many spots. In areas where it diverges, it’s harder to tell where it was, but I’m working on that more.
Hublein Tower from the trail
We stepped down to the grade, and could see well to north on it.
The Farmington Canal probably went on or very close to where the railroad was through here, but I found it confusing that there was a place down along the river that looked like canal at this point. We walked down a path directly to the edge of the river, and it looked like it had a towpath along it. We turned right to follow the river down stream, below a restaurant building. There was some snow and ice which made it really slippery, but we managed.
The trail
We headed back up hill to the parking area, and back past my van again, then turned left on the railroad bed, which is apparently also the route of the canal at this point.
The Farmington Canal is also known as the New Haven and Northampton Canal. It connected New Haven on the Long Island Sound to Northampton, Massachusetts (the Mass section was known as the Hampshire and Hampden Canal).
Wetland view
Ground was broken on the canal in 1825, and it was extended from New Haven to Farmington by 1828. It reached Northampton Massachusetts in 1835. There were 28 locks that brought the canal up to that elevation.
By 1848, the railroad had taken over the canal right of way in most places. It was never really a financial success because railroads were already on the scene when it was completed. The old maps from that time period show the railroad as “Canal Railroad”.
In 1887, the entire line was taken over by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. Some of the line remained in service until the 1980s, and there are little pieces remaining here and there.
The trail and rail bed crossed Rt 202 at the intersection with Canal Street, so we know this must have been the pretty much exact route.
The paved trail still had a good amount of ice on it, which made walking sometimes tough. The amount of ice depended on how much sunlight it was given at any particular time.
As we walked, there were ditches along the path, some with water in them. This was most certainly the remnants of the canal. I was delighted to shed some light on the history of this thing. It had had me quite confused when I first started reading about it when I was twice out this way before.
We continued walking to the south, and soon crossed Latimer Lane. Beyond, there was a bit of swamp land off to the right. Alex struck up a conversation with one of the few other walkers we passed. There were a lot of dog walkers out on this path.
When he told him what we were doing, and then I expressed interest in the canal, the conversation grew.
I noticed that in the middle of the bit of swamp land, there was an earthen berm. I felt like that should be a remnant of the canal towpath. I asked the man if that was the canal, and he confirmed my suspicion. He then told us that if we wanted to see a bit more, we could take the next right turn into a development, go past some houses, and see the more obvious canal passing out the other side.
I can’t remember this man’s name, but I can remember that his name was a the same as his dog’s name, and that he simply added a “Y” to the end of the dog’s name.
The road we were told to turn on was called Old Canal Way. It passed through a modern development area, and we didn’t see any remnants. We continued past the last building, and didn’t see what appeared to be any definite canal remnant. We came back, and I tried to line up where the berm was off the swamp with the lands in the development, but I wasn’t sure. We returned to the rail trail and continued to walk to the south a bit. While on that section, I spotted a point to the right that was almost certainly the former canal. It must have deviated from the railroad quite a bit, but could remain pretty close.
Lunch
We crossed over Hopmeadow Street ahead, and then paralleled some sort of access road. It was weird that at one side of a crossing there was now snow at all, and it was terribly slippery on the other. I had a delicious drink as we walked along, and it was just cold enough not to have much melt off, but just warm enough that I could stand to hold it.
I think the canal must have had a lock somewhere in this area and lost some elevation, because it seems as though it should have gotten down closer to the river level in this area. I can’t be sure though.
We soon were on a higher fill parallel with Nod Brook Wildlife Management Area, which had some sort of a loop trail around it. There’s a lot in this area worth returning to explore. I’ll have to get around to it one of these days.
In the distance, on the Talcott Mountain section of the Metacomet Ridge, we could see the Heublein Tower. This castle structure, built in 1914 for Gilbert Heublein and his wife Louise. Heublein was a local magnate behind A-1 Steak Sauce and Smirnoff Vodka. He might also be a distant relative of mine, because Helbing is very likely a derivation of Heublein.
While hiking Talcott Mountain with his then fiance, Heublein told her he would one day build her a castle on that spot. It was a controversial spot by World War II with the anti German sentiment, but Heublein offered both state and federal governments it’s use.
The tower was home to a newspaper, Hartford Times, and more recently a sort of museum piece open for tours. Unfortunately, it’s closed this time of year.
We continued on ahead, and just before reaching Sperry Park, East Coast Greenway, which followed the entire length of this trail from where we got on it, turned off to the right. That route circumnavigates a section of the railroad bed that has not yet been made into a trail, but I wanted to continue straight to see it.
Alex hung back and chatted with another fellow hiker, but I missed it. Janet and I went ahead to the parking for Sperry Park, where the paved trail on the rail bed ended. When Alex caught back up, we continued on the abandoned grade as a sort of vague path and a little bushwhacking to the south. This took us out to the little village of Avon, at the post office parking area. The lot seems to have overtaken the old railroad bed, so we continued through.
Avon CT church
Across Rt 202 from where we were, there was a church and a very old cemetery. I think some of the stones might have predated the church, which I think was built in 1819. The town of Avon itself was first settled in 1645, but it was part of Farmington then. It was later named after the British county of the same name.We crossed 202 and walked through the cemetery. I knew that Avon was the only opportunity the entire day we would have to get food, and so we would have to stop somewhere. When I saw First and Last Tavern located just a short distance away, it seemed like a promising stop.
It was only a few minutes until they opened, so we hung out in the cemetery for a bit until that time. We ended up being the only people in the place, and so we sat at the bar.
I ordered a soup and sandwich special, as well as a special IPA that the girl behind the counter gave me a taste of first. It ended up being a really nice and relaxing stop for what was intended as an overall relaxing day on the trail.
Because this was a two day trip, I didn’t need to make both days fifteen miles. Day 1 I came up with about 13 or so, and figured that’d be good enough.
After we were done eating, I had to figure out where we were going and if it would be possible to remain on the railroad bed. There was a trail on it further ahead from here, but there was a section that was not trail, and the East Coast Greenway follows some other parallel roads to the west. I wanted to be closer to the rail bed, so I would remain to the east.
Old spur bridge
As for the canal, it starts to move away from the railroad bed somewhere in the Avon area. The aqueduct that carried it across the Farmington River was between Avon and Farmington, and it had to make it’s way over there at some point. I have the historic maps that show where it should have gone, but it’s very hard to compare them to the modern maps.
Arch St. bridge
We cut across and followed Old Farms Road south. The railroad bed crossed the intersection from the post office area and passed behind a couple businesses, and then behind a line of private homes on the west side of the road. Before we reached the intersection with Arch Street, the rail bed had no houses by it, and we headed over through brush to climb up to it. Arch Street is probably named for an old arch bridge that would have carried the railroad over, but it is now a concrete thing. We headed to the bridge and crossed it on the pedestrian side mounted walkway that was still in place. People honked their horns going over.
Non trail right of way
Ahead, the rail bed got pretty overgrown. This was the toughest part of this hike, bullying through that mess. We got through though, and the paved trail descended from the right of us to the rail bed.
We crossed Sandscreen Road, followed by Country Club Road. We crossed Scoville Road, and then Thompson Road. After Thompson, there was a little shelter pavilion and benches where we decided to have a nice little break. The had maps and such there.
We continued on and crossed the Thompson Brook. It did seem like it was quite a ways at this point, but not too bad. Janet was starting to feel really sick somewhere around here and falling behind, but she didn’t want to give up.
After a long stretch, we crossed over Brickyard Road at grade where there was more parking. There were a lot more people out walking in this section. The rail bed went out onto a fill, and the ice was still pretty terrible. On the fill, there was no ice at the very edge of the pavement, so I found myself walking along that tiny edge as we went. We made our way ahead, could see a lake on the left, and then crossed Farmington Avenue on a bridge. There were kids playing somewhere along the Farmington River ahead, and left at least three bicycles leaning against one of the wooden railings to the left as we went by, which seemed kind of odd.
Farmington River Bridge
Just after Farmington Ave, we passed a spur site and trestle on the left. The concrete supports for where rails went off into a building, with chutes beneath for loading into trucks, were still in place to the doorway. It looked like rails were still in place inside, but everything was removed from the top of it. It was a pretty cool sight to see.
Soon, we reached the high bridge over the Farmington River, which was pretty wide as this point. The river does an odd thing, as it flows from the north in a southeast direction, then turns sharply north, then east to hit the Connecticut River.
We continued across, and soon came out to Red Oak Hill Road. I had reached this spot from another former branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford to the west. Some of what we would do next would be the same thing I did backpacking with Jillane from before.
Farmington River
The last time I was at this point, the trail was only under development to the south. We wouldn’t continue that way this time either though; we turned left on Red Oak Hill Road.
There was a paved path that closely follows the edge of the road. It was hard to be on it for a while, because there was so much snow plowed over it. By the time we got to the intersection with Tunxis Mead Road, the snow was mostly gone from the path. The Meadow Road Path continued along parallel to the roads heading to the east. I’d done all of this before.
Along Farmington River confluence and old canal
Everything was the same as it had been on my previous trip up until we got to the Kolp Community Garden Plot. On the opposite side of it, I could see where people were walking the perimeters of the fields after parking at a lot next to the gardens. We walked out the driveway from that, where there were good views of the Farmington River. We then turned right to follow the trail along the field edges parallel with the river. This was new to me.
It was a beautiful walking route. We followed it right to the confluence of the Farmington and Pequabuck Rivers.
I was only speculating at the time, but I was correct that the Farmington Canal came through here. It followed the east side of the Pequabuck River to the south of here, and then cut over land toward the Long Island Sound. Much of the route is completely different from the railroad right of way to the south of here and merits it’s own individual exploration.
The trail turned to the right a bit near the confluence, and took us along flood plain lands that would have been horrible if it wasn’t mostly frozen. The ice was formed in amazing beautiful crystal formations. Alex liked to stomp them for the peculiar noise they made.
We continued along and eventually came back out on Meadow Road. We crossed bridges over either the river or the old canal, maybe both, and headed to the next left turn on Garden Street. We continued on this road until we reached the Riverside Cemetery. There, we turned to the left and headed toward the river.
Old Farmington Canal
There was an obvious canal remnant here. There was a shelf down below the grade of the cemetery above the river, where the canal was, and even an intact prism to the left, part of which had a new, very rich looking house built partially in it.
We followed the historic canal to the east, and the access road turned and brought us back out to Garden Street. As per maps, the canal made a similar turn to the east, and came closer to Garden Street, but I’m not one hundred percent sure. I was going to ask around, but opted not to when people didn’t seem to know or care anything about the canal.
We continued on Garden Street right out to Farmington Ave where the Farmington Inn, where I’d booked my room for the night, was on the right. We hung out in the lobby and I read into one of the history books showing the route of the canal. I couldn’t find out much at the time, because the book was quite old.
Janet was feeling better after resting, and Alex was trying to get me to come to his place where he grew up to the east, but I’d already booked the room. I was feeling quite tired as well and was kind of ready to turn in. I thought I might go looking for more canal remnants, but something was coming over me as well. I started getting the headache and coughs before the night was over, and I ended up falling asleep on my stomach.
DAY 2
I woke up and was rejoined by both Alex and Janet, as well as Jen, Jenny, and Lowell for the second da. I had texted Lowell the day before to let him know I was in Connecticut. Since he’s in Massachusetts and it’s not too terrible a drive to get there, I figured he might want to join.
The group at Farmington Inn
The lady behind the desk actually let some of the group go up for breakfast again, even though they didn’t stay there. It was very nice of her. I again stuffed up on lots of waffle, sausage, and other assorted crap that was laying around (and the night before I ate most of the cookies that were in the sample thing up front of the lobby).
Once everyone was together, we had no car shuttle to do since I’d already taken my van to the start the day before. We headed out and started to the right parallel with Farmington Ave.
Hill Stead
We headed up to Main Street, and there is a park on the corner. This is the same way I started out the second to last backpacking trip with Jillane. We walked through the park parallel with the road, then out the back behind some businesses. We then turned to the right on High Street a short distance. To the left from the road, a mowed path goes through a break at a stone wall where there’ s a crosswalk, and then we headed up to the Hill Stead Museum and mansion.
The Colonial Revival house was built between 1898 and 1901, to the specifications of Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the first female architects, with site plan by Egerton Swartwout of the firm McKim, Meade, and White. Riddle designed the home for her father, Alfred Atmore Pope to house the art collection she and her father had assembled.
Hill Stead
It’s really an awesome little place. I showed everyone the Sunken Garden there, and we walked around the mansion to the right. Beyond there, the trails into the preserve start up.
I was really worried at first with how it started out. The trail going under a wooden archway was completely ice. Springs are all throughout Hill Stead, but this was almost impossible to walk. We were holding onto trees, sliding, and falling like crazy.
We came out to the first of the field trails and it was still a sheet of ice. This first trail led down to a meadow loop trail. It makes it’s way mostly through open fields and such.
Trail at Hill Stead
I turned to the left, because my plan for this next hike was to follow some of the trails around the perimeter in the opposite direction I’d gone when Jillane and I did it. At that time, my goal was to go as far as possible, but this time it was to simply see as much as possible on the way to the through route to the end.
There was a major spring that came through the grass in this area, and I was ahead of the group when I fell through a bit. I ended up falling and cutting my hand almost immediately. Lowell was the only one prepared with any kind of stabilizers on his feet, and he came across right behind me. He had his signature giant box of cereal in hand, which he spilled none of.
View at Hill Stead
We continued around to where we could see the mansion from below. It was quite a beautiful perspective. We then continued on past a little pond and ended up near another mansion which might not be part of the Hill Stead property. I’m not sure. We opted to turn back there rather than walk through, and skirted the pond we had just past. The trail then weaved to the north more, and closely paralleled Farmington Ave/Route 4. The fields were sometimes easy open walking, but other times a sheet of snow and ice. This property sits on the western slope of the Metacomet Ridge, although at this point it feels none like a ridge the way the stuff to the south, like Ragged Mountain and the Hanging Cliffs of Meriden do. Still, when we reached the height of land, still in the fields, I saw a bench. I decided I’d walk up to have a look.
There was a fantastic view out over Farmington, back in the direction we came from, and the Tunxis Ridge was in view beyond. The Tunxis Trail follows this ridge, and I’d love to continue hiking that as well. I really enjoyed that trail, but hadn’t been back to it since backpacking it a few years back. There’s always so much more to do.
Along Metacomet Trail
I’m always living in the moment, but always hungry for more. To never be satisfied is as much a curse as it is a blessing, I suppose.
We continued from this spot down into a section of sparse woods on the meandering Woodland Trail. It was another pretty wet section, but mostly frozen over enough for us to get through. The high temp for the day previously was to be in the forties, but I don’t think it ever quite lived up to that hype. The sun would come and go, but it never warmed up that much.
We continued through the woods and on a side path to the top of the hill where we met up with the Metacomet Trail.
To say I fell in love with this trail would be an understatement. It had everything I love: history, interesting topography, views, and just plain weirdness. It passes through back yards, over highways, in deep woods, and plenty more. It had both extremely challenging and very relaxing sections. At this point, I have done the entire route form it’s southern terminus to this point.
The trail is part of the great New England National Scenic Trail. That trail travels from the Long Island Sound via the Manunkatuck Trail, then the Mattabesett Trail from there to to it’s northern end. The Metacomet Trail begins at the northern terminus of the Mattabesett.
Kilkenny Rock
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.
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, 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.
Metacomet Trail at Hartford Reservoir lands
We followed the trail to the north, and I made sure to let everyone know that we have to ONLY follow the blue blazes of this trail. These official trail routes are VERY easy to lose, because they are not always, and in fact often not, the most obvious route. Turn blazes have to be watched for constantly. I teased Janet particularly about this because she’s a few times continued past such turns. I ended up eating my words when I did exactly what I told her not to do after a short while!
We soon reached and crossed over Farmington Ave/Route 4 jug handle. The trail crossed directly into woods, and then went across Prattling Pond Road where there was a little kiosk and memorial area.
The area was donated to Farmington Land Trust by Harold and Mildred Bancroft, surrounding their home. There is a memorial to them in a cleared area.
We went by the memorial plaque and up hill through more woods. It was amazing that some areas were completely free of all snow, and others had a good amount on it. Sunlight hits certain places more than others. On the other slope, and on the rail trail the day before, we had a ton of snow just about everywhere, but on the east facing slope, it was almost bare at times. When we would go down hill into little ravines, it would all of a sudden be covered with snow everywhere. It was like we would walk from one season into an entirely different one. Quite a surreal experience.
Hartford Reservoir
The trail reached Prattling Pond Road, and we turned right. I pulled out some Weyerbachers and gave one to Lowell. I’d brought both the Tiny Belgian Style Imperial Stout, as well as something else that I don’t remember what it was.
The trail followed Prattling Pond Road past a few houses for a bit, and then turned off parallel to the road directly as I recall, just barely into the woods along the fronts of people’s houses and across their driveways. It’s a rather odd way to go.
At the end of Prattling Pond Road, an abandoned road as I recall continued into the woods and the trail followed it for a bit. We continued through woods and then emerged on the end of Metacomet Road, another rather new development road. We followed along this to the north, out to Talcott Notch Road. The trail again paralleled the road just barely into the woods prior to this.
After crossing the road, we went by one house very closely. They didn’t have any animals or anything, but they had their house completely surrounded by some very substantial electric fencing! Clearly, these people had no love for a major trail going through their yard!
We continued through these woods and emerged on Old Mountain Road. The trail turned left, up hill on this for a short bit, then went through a gate in a chain link fence. It was closed, but not locked. I’m not sure why they did this, but it seems like a deer exclosure. The trail then went up hill parallel with the fence, just off of the road for a while, then cut inland to the north. The trail was good and wide, and easy to follow for a while, and then we came to a giant fallen tree. We climbed through it and continued straight. Jen held back for a bit, and the rest of us ended up on a power line cut, but up above it on it’s edge. There were some old faded blue blazes we saw in there, the former trail route, but nothing at all clear. Lowell went another way looking for blazes, and I looked back. We couldn’t find anything. I knew after a bit we had gone the wrong way.
We wouldn’t have known it was the wrong way, but Jen, who fell back, located the correct route, and made that turn. She ended up at the next road point and was waiting because I soon realized we missed it.
I found the correct turn where the fallen tree was. That climb through made us miss the turn. This section is an apparent new reroute as well, according to the website.
The route took us down and across the power line, then turned to the left to make it’s way out to another utility clearing adjacent to a road to one of the Hartford Reservoirs. It was not obvious where the trail went from here, but then we saw blazes pointing up hill on the clearing.
On Talcott Mountain
We followed that, and eventually found more blazes at the top of the hill where a woods road went to the left. The trail turned on that briefly, and then turned to the right on another foot path. This took us up hill and to another utility clearing with some cascades to the right. We headed to the top of a hill, and then a foot path turned off to the right. There was another blaze way out to the right, which we did not follow, and fortunately no one made any wrong turns. The trail climbed up rather steeply until it reached a more rocky outcrop, the type of thing we’ve come to expect of the Metacomet Ridge.
The top of the hill had a huge glacial erratic at the top known as Kilkenny Rock. We took a quick break there. There was a bit of a view through the trees to the southeast.
While up there, there was a service road for I think the water company directly below a cliff to our right. We saw a pickup truck go by on it.
We went by Kilkenny Rock, and then turned to the right down the slope to the dirt road. The trail then turned to the right on the much more relaxing road headed north. This was known as Finger Rock Road.
We followed the road and went by another giant glacial erratic, this one with a big crack in the middle of it. Of course, I had to climb inside it.
Shelter on Talcott Mountain
We continued up the road, and the guy who passed us in the truck before stopped to talk to us. He said he’d seen us, and was surprised we made our way all the way down from that rock in such a short amount of time. We moved on to the left, off of the road, and then past several parked machines to enter the woods on foot path. The trail went up hill for a bit to the edge of a cliff face, much more like the Metacomet Trail I had been used to seeing. The area is known as Little Cliff.
We continued on this for a while, and there wasn’t too much snow. The walking was pleasant.
Eventually, the trail turned to the right and started heading down hill. We crossed another woods road and continued to descend. It got rather steep toward the end when we came close to an opening. There was a steep icy hill where Lowell and I were in front. He took his stabilizers off, but is remarkably sure footed. We made our way across a brook on a little plank bridge, then up the other side to a large berm on the Talcott Reservoir lands. The trail followed the berm to the north for a while, which was easy. A lot of people were around walking this stretch, and the stretch after the next road crossing.
Heublein Tower
We descended from the berm and then cross Rt 44, Albany Ave. On the other side, the trail entered woods and followed the edge of a very old stone lined raceway. I’m not sure the origins of this, but it was certainly intended to transfer water somehow. I was thinking something industrial, not just a drinking water supply.
The trail descended from this berm, and then picked up a service road along the edge of Hartford Reservoir #6. This was a very pleasant, long section. A lot of people were out walking this stretch.
There were people quietly bird watching and such. Eventually, the trail made a hard left turn up hill, while a blue and red blazed shortcut trail continued off of the mountain straight ahead, along the reservoir. I was definitely not taking that. The next highlight was the Heublein Tower we had seen the day before, and I wasn’t going to miss any of that.
The uphill was a little steep at first, but not too bad. We crossed a couple of utility clearings and then reached a dirt road on top of the Metacomet Ridge again, in the Talcott Mountain State Park section. Talcott is just a sub-name of this part of the Metacomet Ridge.
The trail turned briefly right on the road, then left at a kiosk into woods. It wasn’t all that far from here before we reached a lovely little roofed pavilion overlooking the Avon and Simsbury areas.
Heublein Tower
We took a little break at the pavilion and talked to some of the people hanging out, who didn’t walk a tenth of the distance we did that day. It’s always amazing how little people know about the exact spot they sit.
Everyone else was breaking, so I headed ahead myself toward the Heublein Tower, just ahead. I knew that would be the better draw, and they were close together.
The others soon followed me, and the trail went from over rock outcrops to weave around the front of the tower on a nice walkway. There were steps off of the side facing the overlook down to the trail itself. The inside of the tower was at the time closed to public, so I’ll have to go and visit again another time.
We got a nice group shot here before moving on. I’d have spent more time sitting there, at the big fireplace with the overlook, if it wasn’t so cold and windy at that point. It was too tough to stand there. We moved on along the path below a vertical rock face, and then into the woods on the other side. The trail remained on the cliffs, and passed a couple more nice views.
At Talcott Mountain
Eventually, the trail turned to the right to begin descending. In this area, Alex and Lowell were in deep discussion and made the wrong turn onto an unmarked trail, or some other colored trail. The rest of us were on the correct route, which eventually picked up an old woods road heading down hill via switchback. We headed to that, then went slightly up hill again to the right. It seemed like some pointless ups and downs for a bit, but looking at the maps in retrospect show that it was a way of getting across a little creek valley.
Metacomet Trail on Talcott Mountain
We soon came to the intersection with the blue and red trail. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew to continue on blue there and not to turn.
We then descended and came to another power line crossing with more equipment. Being funny as always, I left them empty drink bottles to find in the cup holders like I’d done in so many other places before.
After the power line, the trail cut through the woods to the north for a bit, then came back out to another bit of recent power line clearing. I couldn’t see where the blazes continued from this point. We walked all around a little cul de sac of a thing, now within sight of Hartford Road, but couldn’t find where it went.
Descending Talcott Mounain
Eventually, I turned back and found the obscure spot where the trail came out, crossed a tributary on the road, and then turned again into the woods almost immediately. We followed it to a slope over another bit of creek, and then north on a former woods road or something out to Harford Road. There, we turned left.
The road here is the route of the East Coast Greenway. It’s not a great route, but it’s intended to be a biking and pedestrian route. We had to follow it to the west. We ended up getting on the south side of the road and behind some of the guide rails to make it a bit safer walking. This was the worst part of probably the entire two days, the bit of road heading down.
As we approached the Farmington River, we came to the great Pinchot Sycamore in a small park that was shut off to vehicles. We had seen it from the car the day before, but weren’t able to pull over for a closer look.
As it turns out the Pinchot Sycamore is one of the two largest Sycamores in America. The trunk of the tree is over twenty-eight feet around. We absolutely had to go down and have a closer look at it.
Pinchot Sycamore
The tree was named for the nation’s first forester, Gifford Pinchot, who was also once a resident of Connecticut, as well as the place we visited in Milford PA.
The lot around it was part under water from the high level of the river, but the tree is doing fine, dry and out of it all. It’s estimated that the tree is over two hundred years old, but may be over three hundred.
Even though it was close to the very end, this tree was one of the highlights of the hike for me, and a great way to close out the end of the second day.
Pinchot Sycamore
It was only a short bit across the bridge back to where I was parked. A nice old through truss bridge spanned the Farmington River at this point. We crossed, and there was a restaurant I’d have loved to have eaten at there, but we also wanted to get back to our cars. A right turn led a short distance back to the commuter lot where I was parked. After I got everyone back to Farmington, we ended up eating at a bar and grill across the street from the inn.
This was another great long weekend. I’d love to do more like this one, because it wouldn’t take that much effort. It only requires a regular length weekend to do it. There are so many more places to see, and not enough time in a lifetime to see it all.
I’d knocked out two substantial sections of two significant trails. It was a great weekend.
HAM
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