Hike #1217; Highlawn Forest to Wharton Brook State Park

Hike #1217; Highlawn Forest/Middletown to Wharton Brook State Park/Wallingford

4/26-4/28/19 Rockfall/Middletown to Wallingford/Wharton Brook State Park with Jillane Becker

Jillane and I took this three day trip in lieu of another one I had planned prior.
Back in January there was an epic four day trip where we covered some of the Main Line of Public Works, a system of railroad and canal routing between Johnstown and Huntingdon PA. It went so well that I decided to plan the next one for April.

Highlawn Forest Preserve

Unfortunately, as the date neared, everyone I talked to about it was quiet and acting guarded toward me. I heard “I have something going on that weekend”. RSVPs were low on my vent posting, which I had on Meetup for a while but never made a Facebook event.
On another event, I reminded that I had the trip coming up, and despite the thread going on prior to that, no one continued to comment after my reminder.
My trip would have been some of the old Pennsylvania Canal, but if the weather was good, we’d also do two days of the amazing Standing Stone Trail, a favorite of mine.

A cathedral of pines

On several threads I posted things to surprisingly no response. A couple of friends who had already told me they were going were strangely not putting a “yes” RSVP on my event.
As we were getting down to within two weeks of the event, one of my friends brought up the fact that another friend had posted his own trip, the very same Thursday through Sunday as mine. It was posted as a “secret” event and I wasn’t invited, so I couldn’t see who was going (I was invited via text only a couple of days before the event, but that was too late).
Among those on the “Yes” RSVP list were those who already said they were going on mine, as well as the others who cryptically said they had other plans or otherwise politely declined. There were up to twenty RSVPs on that, and only one still committed to four days of my trip. We had no way of even carpooling to the start, and I felt so let down by it that I canceled the trip indefinitely.
I thought I’d planned a pretty outstanding trip which would have had epic views, rocks, native American steps, historic ruins, and a cavern tour. There was some interest in a few joining for one day or so along the trip, but I was too put off to try it.

A puncheon

I posted night hikes, and decided to make them invite only. I was struggling with feeling let down and wanting to be alone, but wanting to be social, and needing to be out.
I didn’t post a night hike for the week leading up to this trip.
At work, my schedule for the season where I’m obligated to work weekends had just started. I worked the weekend prior, and so that meant I had Thursday through Sunday off. I certainly didn’t want to stay at home and do nothing for that.
I asked Jillane if she’d be willing to go with me on a trip, just the two of us.

Vernal pool observation

When she agreed, I went over several possible trips we could do.
Initially, I wanted to return to Massachusetts and finish where we’d left off on the Warner Trail, but then that seemed too long. Four hours was a long drive. Instead, I looked to other places we’d left off which led me to the Mattabesett Trail in Connecticut.
There were a lot of things I’d been looking at from the last time we were on the Mattabesett. We had cut off of the trail at Tynan Park where a connector trail led to the east. We had hiked a bit south and covered the trails at Wadsworth Falls State Park and the old Wadsworth Estate, but another option I’d come up with that time was the Highlawn Forest Preserve.

Vernal pool observation area

I found a hotel immediately adjacent to the forest lands where we could get directly on the trails, and then use the same connector we had used before to get back on the southbound Mattabestt Trail. I figured out lodging for the first two nights out, and figured we would play it by ear the last night based on availability and how far we made it. It was easy to predict where we could get the first day, and get a feel for the trail, but if it were really tough, the next day might be rough.
And so, my first day plan was to get to the Mattabesett and head south to the eastern part of Meriden, Connecticut where I booked a room.
We headed out to Connecticut late on Thursday night. It was a long drive, but we got there I suppose around midnight. I was able to get permission to leave my van at this hotel until Sunday night, and we’d Uber back when we got to our end point.
Wesley Inn and Suites wasn’t the greatest of places, but the bed was comfortable. The place didn’t have breakfast, so I went out to grab stuff in the morning before heading out.

Camille's Way

DAY 1

The start was in the Rockfall area, near the border of town lines between Middletown and Middlefield.
When we were ready to go in the morning, we simply left the hotel, crossed diagonally over Camp Road, and then cut off trail into the woods into the Highlawn Forest Preserve.
The preserve is home of the headquarters of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, something I’d been wanting to visit anyway. Several trails loop through the property, but the main blue blazed trail, Camille’s Way, was my main goal to cover this time.
The CF&P Association found it’s routes in 1929 and began connecting the system of trails all around the state. While many of these trails are truncated a bit today, it’s still an incredibly extensive system. In some ways, with some of the unaffiliated trails, even longer routes can be made.
The Highlawn Forest Preserve was once an area of open fields that have grown to second growth forest of hardwood, but also includes red maple swamps and evergreen plantations.
The Camp Family, for whom the road is named, placed a conservation easement on the property which preserved it in 1987.
We headed through the woods, which wasn’t too bad. There was surprisingly not much undergrowth. On the way through, we passed a cookout stove thing hidden back there, probably from one of the houses.
We got to the trail system when we got to the lines of White Pine trees in rows. The plantation made up a lot of the eastern section of the preserve.
Once on the trail, we turned to the right, heading north through the property.
It was a very pleasant walk, and the trees gave way to some Hemlock as we gained a little elevation. When we reached the northern end of the preserve, there was a system of puncheons across the West Swamp Brook. The trail continued much of the way on old fire lanes or access roads to the west, then the south through the preserve skirting the edge of Paddy Hill. There were some private homes that came into view in that area.

At the headquarters

As we headed south, we eventually came to a very nice viewing platform over a vernal pool. I noted that it was built in 2000, and that the surfaces of a bench and picnic table top were made of trex, while the rest of it was pressure treated wood. We’re not typically allowed to use pressure treated wood for seats, and I’d brought up trex as a suggestion in parks several years ago, but was shot down. Apparently no one knew how they would hold up yet because there weren’t old enough examples that stood the test of time. These ones did however. I took some photos to use as ammo the next time I bring it up in work.
The platform was interesting in that it had a gate and steps right down to the vernal pool so kids could get up close and personal with the wildlife in it.
From here, we headed back through the trail and to the main parking area. There was a nice outdoor classroom at this point as well.
The headquarters of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association was there, and I decided I’d go in and say hello.
Inside, I met several employees that were really cool. They were all very interested in where we were going and what we were doing. It turns out I’ve already done far more of the Connecticut blue blazed trail system than most residents. They wanted to know exactly what route I took to this point, and had plenty more questions, but we had to be on our way.
One of the trail coordinators, named Brennan, gave me his card and cell phone number to help us with a shuttle when we got done rather than use Uber.

Puncheon on the Tynan Park Connector Trail

Jillane showed them her backpack which is waterproof and meant for paddling, but worked well for this trip.
The forecast was for rain all three days, with less on Saturday. It would come in handy.
I wanted to get a move on to beat the rain, but we still got a bit of a late start.
From the forest headquarters, we headed out briefly to Rt 66/Washington Street, and then turned to the right on Lorraine Terrace. This road went north, turned ninety degrees left, went up hill and then intersected with Rt 217/Ballfall Road where we turned right.
We had walked this road on our previous trip, but now we’d be backtracking that same route.
We headed up hill past a lovely large tree, and cut slightly left before making a hard left turn on Sisk Street.
I don’t remember seeing it before, but there was an old chimney and fire place, probably from an older building, on the previous corner, out in someone’s yard. I noticd that it looked like the thing was bowing backwards and would soon fall down.

The first of the views

Also on this route, Jillane found a peanutbutter cup still wrapped on the ground. A couple on a porch ahead asked what she’d found. When she showed them, the woman said she had dropped it but it was okay, she could have it. They then asked if we’d like bagels! Such nice people out there. We thanked them but moved on.
Sisk Street took us up hill to Higby Road, diagonal across from the parking lot at Tynan Memorial Park.
We had camped just down into the park a bit on the previous trip near the Fall Brook.
This time, we moved rather quickly back the way we had come. The field sections of this were wet, but a new system of puncheons had been installed since our last visit.

In the rain...

The Mattabesett Trail is an old one. It was the third trail ever created by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, in 1932. The name of the trail is taken from the original name associated with the Middletown area and the Connecticut River. The derivation Mete-wis translates to "black earth". Alternate forms Mattabeseck, Mattabesick and Metewemesick. Students from the Wesleyan University helped to clear and blaze the trail.
This first section crossed over an inlet to the Adder Reservoir which is to the south on a rickety wooden foot bridge, and then started to slowly ascend to the west.
It took a long time to really ascend to Higby Mountain. It wasn’t by any means a tough climb, but it was just a long ascent. It went up and down over undulating topography and utilized a lot of old woods roads.
The trail follows more of the Metacomet Ridge formation, the igneous intrusive basalt formation similar to NY and NJ’s Palisades. The western edge is still cliffs while the eastern edge is a gentl approach typically.
The trail reached a saddle in the ridge and there was a pretty good view through the trees ahead, but that wouldn’t last long. We got up there pretty much just in time for it to start to cloud over. Almost immediately, we were overtaken by clouds. We ascended south to the top of Higby Mountain, but there was nearly no view once there.
It felt hot and humid at first, and then the cold clouds hit. Rain came with it, and I had to put my pack cover on. Soon, I had to get my umbrella out as not to get everything too soaked.

Higby Mountain in a break from the rain and clouds

We descended for a bit after Higby Mountain into Preston Notch, and the clouds seemed to go away briefly. We could see back to Higby Mountain clearly which was amazing, and the lines of clouds coming toward us from the west. For a time, the ground below could be easily seen, but it soon obscured into the clouds again. I watched as the clouds overtook Higby Mountain to the south as we climbed to the top of Camel’s Hump, the next peak with great views.

Amazing post rain views

The views here didn’t last either. Pretty soon, it was more obscure than it was even before. We got stuck in one torrential downpour on that ridge, and it got to where we had to just stand still and wait some of it out.
The onset of this storm was so windy that it would nearly push us over. Both of us had our umbrellas out, and they were either being blown inside out or pushed in.
After a bit of downpour, it was good enough that we could move again, and we were starting to get cold anyway.

Clouds returning

As we continued to the south, the rain stopped, and the clouds started to move off. Things were clearing up, and we actually had views through the trees to the west and the south. We were losing elevation fast, and Black Pond was coming into view ahead.
I almost lost the trail at one point because there were lots of social trails going off every which way. I ended up following the Mattabesett back up hill shortly.
We turned to the east and continued to descend until we got to a short connector trail to a parking area on Rt 66, which was Meriden Road at this point (this is not the Route 66 famous as the westward highway route. That one starts in Illinois).

My plan at this point originally was to continue on Mattabesett to where it crossed 66, then take a connector trail that might or might not exist to Black Pond on the other side.
At this point, after all the rain and wind craziness, I was happy to get off of the trail earlier.
We reached the parking area and turned to the right on the limited access highway.
Pedestrians aren’t allowed in this area, but we wouldn’t be on it long. When traffic allowed, we dashed across to the median, then dashed across the eastbound lanes. A short walk west along the eastbound led to a spot where we could bushwhack down to the access road to Black Pond State Wildlife Area.

The cliffs at the Camel's Hump

This was a crummy descent with briars and loose rocks. Still, we got down there, and the pond was quite pretty. With the next peak of the Metacomet Ridge ahead, and the talus slope reaching right to the water’s edge, it was quite a sight to see.
We continued on the access road out to Main Street into Meriden. There was an island of land with private homes on the left, and then a post office separating the old route of Main Street with the new. A good sidewalk between took us down hill past several stores. Historically, this settlement was known as East Meriden. Jillane pointed out a home built in the 1700s to our right.
We headed slightly up hill further. There were signs of depression in the area, as there was a Lowes now totally abandoned out behind all of the other businesses. The other businesses seemed off the wall to be open while a Lowes would close. For example, there was a large store that strictly dealt in fish and aquatic bets. Another was a higher end men’s clothing store.
Just up hill, we came to home for the night, the Hawthorne Suites by Wyndham Hartford. I found a four leaf clover which I gave to the guy at the front desk.

Black Pond

The place was pretty nice. It wasn’t the best, but it was comfortable. There were young kids it seemed running the place. An awkward redhead kid was behind the front counter, and the first problem was that my key cards wouldn’t work. The second one was that the water pressure in the shower was screwed up because it seemed from the main faucet.
Overall though, it was clean and pretty nice. It was just good to be inside and warm.
Torrential downpours came once we were settled in. We got done earlier than I thought we would, and I sure was glad, because it would have sucked to have to come off the mountain in this mess.
We decided to go across the street to American Steakhouse for dinner.

Weird building

The place reminded me of the Hoss’s chain in Pennsylvania, because they had simple meals that had all you can eat buffet salad and more bar. I of course stuffed up on everything.
I started with pasta salad, and then had soup, and then pasta and sauce, followed by mushroom vegetable mix, brussel sprouts, and plenty more I can’t remember. I kept going back for more stuff.
The chicken parm that Jillane and I each got for dinner was good. I finished mine pretty quick and then had more pasta and such. The chicken came with a garlic bread thing and either potato or french fries. Jillane was smarter and saved her main meal. I ate all of mine and the fries. She got the potato and saved both, and brought it with us the next day.

I was far too stuffed for dessert. We made our way back to the room, and I messed with the computer in the business center a bit before turning in for the night.

DAY 2

I actually slept in a bit. I don’t usually do it, but this time was good for it. By sleeping in, I mean it might have been 8 or so. I’m usually up at 6 daily for work, and so I just wake up naturally about that time anyway.
I went downstairs to get us some breakfast. They had waffles as well as scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and some sort of potato things. I typically like scrambled eggs if they have cheese on them, but I didn’t note any on this one, so I didn’t have any. I also didn’t try the biscuits and gravy, but Jillane said they were awful. At least my waffle was pretty good. It was like the hotel was trying to have a rather upscale breakfast, but kind of fell short.

Mattabesett Trail

I played with the computer some more until Jillane was ready to go, and I went down the street to buy more water at a mini mart close by.
The day was beautiful. There was cloud cover, but the sun peaked through just enough. It was much cooler than the day before, but it was welcome from the odd sweating then feeling cold in the rain.
We headed back the same direction we’d come the day before, and stopped at a mini mart along the way for some more drinks. I’d had a Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron the first day which is always good, and I had got another amazingly cheap bottle of Blasphemy by Weyerbacher a couple days prior from Bottle King where Brandan Jermyn hooked me up with a new card. That was my beverage for this day.
We got to where the access was for Black Pond, and this time headed along the highway directly instead of the bushwhack part. We had to walk right by the sign that read “no pedestrians” with hopes that no one would bother with us. Fortunately, the trail head was not far from where we turned on. Traffic was light enough since it was Saturday, and we were able to dash right across without problem.

Jillane's arrowhead

When we got on the trail, it was quite wet from all of the previous day’s rain. We had to try to circumnavigate a lot of ponds of water in the trail, and muddy spots.
The trail paralleled Rt 66 heading to the east for a bit, and we gradually went down over the block like rock formations.
Apparently the rain from the night before loosened a lot of rock and exposed something special. Jillane happened to find a perfect native American arrowhead, made of quartz and still quite sharp. This was an awesome find.
It’s not common to find arrowheads made of quartz, and it had to have come from elsewhere because quartz does not appear to be part of the geological makeup of the Metacomet Ridge.
The Metacomet tribes inhabited the area, and a particular group known as the Wangunks, led by a man named Sowheag occupied much of this area when the first colonists arrived around 1650.

King Philip

The native people sold off much of their lands around this time to them. Those who stayed lived peacefully with the colonists for a while, until conflicts between native Americans and colonists in other parts of the country led to most of them moving away. By around 1670, even Indian Hill was sold off to the colonists. A few of the Wangunks remained in the area and married into African American families. Some descendants reportedly still live in the area. Also around this time was King Philip’s War.
This was was the largest colonial strife of the 1600s, where Metacom, dubbed King Philip because of his father, Massasoit’s good relations with the Mayflower pilgrims. Metacom became tribal chief upon his father’s death around the 1660s and peaceful relations were not maintained.
It is likely the artifact Jillane found is well over three hundred years old, and probably even older.
She was behind me when she found it, and came up to me telling me to put out my hand and close my eyes. I was actually afraid she was going to hand me a baby opossum. When I opened them, and she’d closed my hand on the artifact, I was blown away by it’s condition. This was an outstanding find.

View of Black Pond

We continued on from here along the trail losing elevation, and soon reached a tributary that flows into the Mt. Higby Reservoir. It’s usually a rock hop, but high water made it tougher. The trail came out here to the parking lot of the New Guida’s Restaurant, an old style drive in eatery established in 1946.

Old chimney

Jillane went around and crossed the brook at another point where she wouldn’t have to get her feet wet.
I was tempted to get a hot dog at this place, but Jillane wasn’t hungry yet so we moved on.
The trail crossed over Rt 66 at a crosswalk, continued a short bit down Baileyville Road, then turned to the right, up hill very gradually heading back to the west.
Along the way, I spotted a weirdly rounded rock which could have been a native American grinding rock. I was on high alert for artifacts after what Jillane had found, but finding something that cool twice in the same day is nearly impossible.
The trail continued over some up and down terrain, and then came out to a power line crossing with a view out to where we’d come from. It was really very windy, so it wasn’t that relaxing, but we took a break there anyway.

View beyond Black Pond on Beseck Mountain

We continued on from here through some woods, and actually came to the connecting path that goes down into Black Pond State Wildlife Area. If I’d known for sure that this was here, we would have used this probably the day before, but oh well. We continued on from there and ascended over a series of rocks to the first peak of he Beseck Mountain, or Besek Mountain.
The term “Besek” comes from the Mattebesett name, also spelled “Mattebeseck” at times, with the segment of the word meaning “Black”.
In a saddle of the mountain, we passed an old chimney which was probably to some homestead, but not sure anything else about it. We climbed to the peak of the first bit of the ridge ahead, which provided us with great views of Black Pond, and to the northwest, the Hanging Hills of Meriden. I’d hiked this earlier in the year on the Metacomet Trail. I couldn’t see the Castle Craig from this vantage point, but I’m sure with the right lens I could.

View on Besek Mountain

The trail continued mostly right on the cliff edge from this point. The views were pretty much continuous. At times, the trail went right up to the edge with as much as two hundred foot vertical drops. With the heavy wind, even I was a bit concerned at times being so close.

Abandoned ski lift

The trail continued on the ridge, and apparently becomes part of a cross country ski trail system of the Powder Ridge Ski Area.

Wind blowing like crazy

We got to a point where there were some branches secured over the trail to keep ATV riders off of it. Some of them had obviously been cut but we couldn’t figure out what they were until we saw one intact.
The trail led directly below the ski lifts, which afforded us good views to the east rather than to the west. We went under a couple of them, and the doors were open to the control booths. I chose not to try to turn the lifts on, although that could have been fun.
The very last line of ski lifts were closed and abandoned. There was a picnic bench and good outlook area at the west facing cliffs where we stopped for a little break.
Beyond the ski lift area, some of the other trails continued on, and an orange blazed one went down the mountain to the right on an old woods road. After that, we continued on foot path to the south, mostly along the cliffs some more.
The wind was still blowing like crazy on the mountain, but we pushed on. The views continued to be phenomenal. Eventually, Ulbrich Reservoir was coming into view to the south. Further, the Long Island Sound was also coming into view. I brought up that I would be hiking along that in just another week. It’s a great thing to have in perspective.

View toward Ulbrich Reservoir

I had several ideas of what we might do from this point.
One was to continue on Mattabesett Trail to the south, and then turn off to get to a bed and breakfast close to a winery after passing above the Ulbrich Reservoir. I had called that B&B in the morning, and unfortunately they were all booked up for the weekend. Another nearby one was also booked.
I thin started looking on the Air B&B website to see if there was anything available close by. There was not. This meant that we could not continue on Mattabesett Trail.

View to Long Island Sound

My plan changed to a slightly different route focusing on connecting with another of the Connecticut Blue Blazed Trail system, known as the Quinnipiac Trail.
This trail was the first of the system to be opened, and it traverses some traprock ridges most notably through Sleeping Giant State Park, another landmark I’d been wanting to see.
I had to figure out a place to stay that would put us in the correct trajectory for that trail, but also have good stuff along the way. In looking for this, I discovered the surprisingly extensive Quinnipiac River Greenway, which would be the main focus of the next day.

OMG A TOAD

I found us a room at the Fairfield Inn by Marriot in Wallingford area, which was a good distance off of the trail route, but we could walk much of that distance on the old Air Line railroad, the same line we had followed mostly as a trail northeast out of Connecticut.

"The Ghost Train"

The Mattabesett Trail continued to descend from the ridge, and turned to the east a bit again. It had more undulating terrain as we started to move off from the regular ridge and into Reed Gap. We could see a mound of the next mountain in the Metacomet Ridge, partially quarried out, with the Tilcon Connecticut facility in the foreground.
The Mattabesett Trail goes east the way it does to circumnavigate the quarry operation there, and descends to cross the railroad tracks before crossing over Route 68. At the point the trail crosses, a lot of mud siltation has come in on the railroad and it’s full of mud. One wouldn’t even think it’s active except the tracks are shiny.

The Air Line

This section of this historic line is still quite active as far as Portland on the opposite side of the Connecticut River from Middletown. Beyond there, most of it is the Air Line Trail.
This line was the Air Line Division of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford. Some of it was also the New York and New England Railroad. Many railroads are known as "Air Line" because they basically drew a line through the air on a map to get from point to point. This particular important one was to be the quickest route between New York City and Boston. Much of it was built in the early 1870s.

Crossing the Spring Brook

The line was the one ridden by a train that was known as “The Ghost Train”.
The nickname was given to the New England Limited, which featured Pullman passenger cars painted white with gold trim. It would give a ghostly look when passing by at night. They were eventually discontinued because the white was too difficult to keep clean.
We walked to the west on the line, with some settling ponds apparently for the quarry run off to the north of us. We continued to follow the tracks as it passed under Rt 68’s overpass, and I went off to the left after that to check out the wetlands of the Spring Brook in Wallingford preserved property.
We continued on the tracks until we got to Dibble Edge Road, where we turned to the right.

Abandoned

The tracks ahead of our turn looked like they were going up an inclined plane because of the grade change.
We turned off and made the first left to continue on Durham Road. We then turned right on Williams Road.
This road took us north and then somewhat closely parallel with the Muddy River. There were some informal paths going to the left over toward it. I would have loved to try to go through some of that, but we were getting closer to the hotel and I didn’t want to take forever on it.
We continued up slope on the road to the intersection with Rt 68 where we turned left.

Abandoned

We walked past the Hilton on the left, which is of course the closest hotel, but it cost a little more and was only a short distance away. I figured we could go a little less and stay at one of two Marriot properties on the other side of Interstate 91 which would be a bit cheaper but nice.
We continued past the hotel and then toward the bridge over 91, but there was an abandoned house on the left. Jillane was a bit behind me, and so when there weren’t a lot of cars going by I dashed into the open front door.
The building was ransacked and pretty much a total loss, but interesting. I went up the stairs to check out the second floor and hollered out to Jillane from a window facing her way.

Abandoned

She came in when she arrived, and we checked out pretty much every room inside.
When we had seen enough, we crossed 91 on the bridge, and after a line of hedge stuff, turned to the left to get to the Fairfield Inn by Marriott.
I went inside where there was a sort of retro looking decor, with swivel chairs and a sort of upscale lobby. The outside of the building was box like and not all that attractive, but I liked the scheme of the inside, with it being slightly throwback but not overdone.
A tall black man was the attendant, and he was among the friendliest I’ve ever dealt with when it came to hotel staff. He had a very genuine kindness about him that can’t be faked.

Abandoned

There wasn’t a lot around the hotel, and so I asked the man if he knew of any close restaurants to the place. He said the other Marriott property had a restaurant inside, but we didn’t really feel like walking across the street. I think it was going to rain again or something anyway.
I asked next if there was any delivery places, and he had a whole pack of stuff that was nearby. I asked Jillane to have a look at it and see what she’d like to get.
The man gave us a room on the fourth floor at my request, because I wanted to have something with a view from above rather than ground level.

PIZZA

We decided to call for delivery, and Jillane decided on something we’d both enjoy, a steak, artichoke heart, and I think onion or something pizza with fresh mozzarella. It was realy outstanding, with a thin and crispy crust.
It wasn’t too heavy, and didn’t leave me with that sort of stuffed stomach ache.
Additionally, there were these appetizer things she ordered that were great. Filled with spinach or something. I liked it.
It turned out to be just the right amount of food. Jillane went to sleep and I headed down stairs to the little business center area and used the computer for a while.
I spent some time writing some previous hike journals, reading into some things, and engaging with people on the Metrotrails page.
I started looking at future hikes I could post; I knew I’d have to get back into it, and the longer I went without posting something, the harder it would be to get people back into it.
I’m badly in need of more exercise and even as much time as I spend outside, I need more.

DAY 3

I didn’t sleep well really. It’s not that the bed wasn’t really comfortable. I’ve just been extremely restless. I got up early and went down stairs to use the computer again.
When things calmed down a bit, I headed over to get some breakfast.
This one was a little better than the previous one. The scrambled eggs they had out had cheese added to them which made them taste much better. They also had the waffle maker and cheese omelottes, but they were all gone and not replenished when I got there. I had to wait for a while before those came back out.

Old house site

I brought a bunch of stuff up for Jillane, and grabbed extra stuff for later like yogurt and such.
Checkout time was not until noon at this one, so she wanted to stay right up until that time rather than leave earlier. I was restless and wanted to move. There was a pool, but it was only a high of 51 degrees this time so I wasn’t going to go in.
I spent more time on the computer and eventurally we headed out, just a little after noon. The route to start was just to continue across 68 on Miles Drive and turn left on Barnes Road, which is the old main highway route.

North Farms Reservoir

The road wasn’t very busy, so it was pleasant. We passed the foundation of an old house on the right which still had stand pipes into the former building as well as the oil heat tank in the basement area.
We continued on a bit further and soon came to a parking area for North Farms Reservoir where there was a picnic area on a peninsula. We continued along the shore on a sort of mowed path on a berm heading to the west. This was a nice unexpected break from the road walking.
The path was nice, but it came to an end at the spillway to the lake.

North Farms Reservoir

At the spillway, we swung around the chain link fence and and bullied through some weeds to get back to Rt 68. We followed that west for just a little bit, and then turned to the right on the next bit of Barnes Road, still the original main road.
We continued walking this road slightly up hill and past some industrial areas. Some of them appeared to be completely vacant, and at least one of them had a sign that said it was for lease. The area was looking pretty dead. We continued across the fields of these buildings and got on a farm field edge which followed a sort of trench to the west along the road, and then a foot bridge turned left across it and toward Germania Farms stand.

North Farm Reservoir dam

We followed this to the west, and could see the “Sleeping Giant”, a hillside to the southwest, in the distance. The Hanging Hills of Meriden could be seen to the north.
Along the industrial sites, I started finding four leaf clovers like crazy, so I grabbed some up. I usually pass them out to people which makes them happy, and sometimes they give me freebees as well, so it can’t hurt.
We cut across Main Street and past a bank to a big box store area.
There was a movie theater and such, and lots of little stores.
We didn’t really have any place to pick up snacks or drinks at the start of our day at the hotel, and I figured we’d just find something when we got down to the Wallingford area.
There was a Dollar General out far across the parking area, and so we headed over to that. I got Jillane some Gatorade and had myself a candy bar. We had a little break before moving on.
The area we were heading into is known as Yalesville.

Quinnipiac River Greenway Map

The entire Connecticut municipal and colloquial name thing is quite confusing. First of all, there are counties in Connecticut, but all county government was banished many years ago. As a result, much of what would be done on a county level is done on the town level. Each separate municipality is known as a “town” rather than a township the way it is back home. It can be confusing because you can be in the middle of nowhere, and there don’t appear to be many colloquial names (like I live in Washington, but grew up in Washington Township which includes Port Colden, Brass Castle, Port Washington, Changewater, Bowerstown, Springtown, and more). I really don’t care to say I’m in the “town of” Wallingford when I’m walking and would rather apply one of the more specific place names. I was very happy to see a colloquial name with it’s own identity still in Wallingford.

Quinnipiac River Greenway

Yalesville was first settled in 1686 when it was decided to erect a mill on the Quinnipiac River. The first bridge was erected soon after when residents tired of taking a canoe back and forth across the river. The mill was sold in 1704 to William Tyler, and the settlement became known as Tyler’s Mills.
Some time around 1800, the mills and surrounding lands were purchased by Charles Yale, and the settlement became known as Yalesville.
In 1876, the first of two fireworks companies opened up in Yalesville, and the settlement became known as the fireworks capital of Connecticut. Fireworks for fourth of July and other displays throughout the country came from Yalesville. The businesses eventually closed up by the mid twentieth century.

Giant Red Oak

We headed from the large parking area toward Route 5, Colony Road. Directly on the other side were the still very active tracks of the former New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, and beyond that Old Church Street. It probably once had a grade crossing but was cut off. I decided we could dash across here and then turned to the right on current Church Street, Rt 68, pass beneath Wilbur Cross Parkway, and reach the main part of Yalesville.
There was a traffic light just to our left, so I dashed over as soon as there was a good opporutunity, but Jillane went way far off to the right for something easier and didn’t really find it. She ended up dashing over after a bit though. We crossed the tracks, got on old Church Street to the new route, passed beneath the super highway, and reached Yalesville on the other side.
Jillane checked out some junk along the road including an insulator, and we made our way toward the Quinnipiac River at a spot known as Goat Point.

Quinnipiac River

The Quinnipiac River takes it’s name from the native American word for “long water land” referring more specifically to the bay and estuary at it’s mouth on the Long Island Sound. Colonists referred to it as the Dragon River because of the abundance of seals that once lived at the mouth. At the time, they referred to them as “Sea Dragons”. Both Harbor Seals and Grey Seals were present at the site.
The greenway along the Quinnipiac is quite new, and not a lot of it is done yet, but I found that a good section spanned from Yalesville south into Wallingford. It was enough to look into for a good portion of the day.
We walked to the left onto Main Street to the south. When we got to an apartment complex, which had one old brick building surrounded by newer ones, we cut to the left to find the trail head, called Fireworks Island for the industry that once occupied the building and area.
It was pretty well hidden, and there were signs all saying not to trespass on the condo property. When we got to the lot, it said on the sign that pedestrian and bicycle access was not allowed; all visitors must drive their car into the site. That’s pretty ridiculous because it basically requires that you have to have a a driver’s license or car to get in.
There is a plan to connect through this property and head north, where there is another section of the greenway opened somewhere. There was a sign that showed the plan on what was going to be built, and it looked pretty good. It was however misleading at first, because I thought it meant that more of it was open than there was.
Still, we continued onto the trail from there to the south. Jillane wanted to take a newspaper out of the trash that was there, but then a couple walking through saw her going through it, and she figured they’d think she was a homeless person. We probably looked it with the big packs.
We headed south, and the trail remained for a bit on the west side of the Quinnipiac. It passed through a meadow, and then took a prefabricated bridge across the Quinnipiac. It then skirted the Wilbur Cross Parkway and remained sandwiched between it and the river until eventually turning left through a tunnel under the highway.
Immediately on the other side of the highway, the trail crossed another prefab bridge over the Quinnipiac. Just beyond that point, we came to an outstanding giant Red Oak tree, the largest of it’s species in the state.
It was up in a hillside, and so it was easy to step up into the crotch of the tree. Jillane got up in it for a couple of photos before we headed out.
We continued along the paved trail as it passed through more woods between the river and the Wilbur Cross Parkway. The section was a little more calm though, farther away from parking areas. We saw a few people walking it, certainly far more than we’d seen on the Mattabesett Trail (we only passed one jogger the start of our second day, and a few hugely fat people at Powder Ridge section).

Quinnipiac River Greenway

This area was the Community Lake Town Park, the Emerson J. Leonard Wildlife Sanctuary, and Lakeside Park when we finally emerged from the woods. There was a little labyrinth area along the way as we reached the end of he section.
The lake where the parking area was originally came into being as part of a sort of religious commune called the Oneida Community. It’s founder was a preacher removed from practice for controversial beliefs and practices. Their community did not focus on monogamy but rather community, where all children were raised together and apparently the adults were sexually promiscuous. Even so, eugenic breeding was imposed, to make for specific races. The religious communism they practiced was not without it’s good points: men and women were free to be educated equally. It was unheard of to allow a woman a break from the kitchen in 1851, when the commune formed as a branch of the original located in central New York.

Quinnipiac River postcard

I walked to the left through the park and read into the history of the place while Jillane went to a mini library kiosk and got a book. We took a break at a pavilion thing, and then continued to the south.

Industry in Wallingford

The trail ended, so we crossed Hall Avenue and continued on River Road south to Quinnipiac Street where we turned left across the river followed by an old mill race with it’s bridge built in 1915.
Wallingford was an interesting town. Named for Wallingford, England, there were already 126 people living in the community by 1670. The town was the site of the last witchcraft trial in New England, where Winefred Benham was tried and acquitted three times.
Where we turned, there was a dam with a fish ladder on the Quinnipiac. There was also an old armory to the side of the road. It appeared this place had quite the industrial history with all sorts of differen manufacturers. I think one of the buildings we saw as we headed east was an insulated wire works.
It was apparent the trail was not yet continuing where I was looking, so I figured we’d walk parallel and see if there was a way into it heading to the south.

Abandoned

My original plan was to follow South Turnpike Road without crossing the Quinnipiac River, and then get to the Quinnipiac Trail, one of the Connecticut Blue Blazed Trails which goes up and over the Sleeping Giant, the mountain formation that is the main draw to Sleeping Giant State Park. The trail connects both to the Farmington River Trail, which we’d done to the north of here, and to the Regisides Trail, both of which continue south into New Haven. I figured this would be a fantastic connection to make.
I didn’t really want to walk all of that highway though, and the prospect of seeing more of Wallingford was far more attractive.

Old tracks

We turned to the right on Ward Street, then right on Valley Street toward some abandoned industries. I don’t know what these ones were, but it was quite extensive. We turned left up hill on South Street, and then turned right through a hole in a chain link fence that took us into ball fields. We skirted the ball fields, at West Side Park, heading south and came out at East Street. There were good views of the old industries as well as an abandoned railroad spur that once served these sites parallel with the south side.
We crossed the tracks still in the street on the other side, and continued south on East Street. We reached John Street where there was no way through straight or left, and followed that to Cherry Street and continued south.
All of this was through industrial lands. Some were open, some were not. There was really nowhere to go.
I spotted on the aerial images an open area to the left of the road ahead. I had thought we might find a new section of trail off to the west, but what I had thought was a trail bridge on the images was actually a scale at a municipal dump. It looks like nothing was really done in terms of trail construction on this side. We had to get out of there, and I didn’t want to turn back.

A train passing in Wallingford

We cut to the left across the open meadow area, probably where there was once a lot or another building. We could move unimpeded through the field where a young forest was starting to grow into piles to the right, and there were above ground pipes coming off of another industrial site to the left. A chain link fence ahead looked as though it might bar us from reaching the former New York, New Haven, and Hartford tracks, the same ones we crossed earlier, but the fence ended before that and we could easily walk through.
We had a clear shot from where we were across the tracks and out to Route 5. Rather than go out there right away, we turned right to skirt the industrial lands for as long as we could. The above ground pipes left the industrial site to the left of us and followed along the railroad tracks heading south. When the clearing along the tracks ended, the pipes went through a fence and just cut off. Clearly they’ve been out of use for some time.

We went under the pipe and crossed the tracks. One set was of concrete ties, the other of wood. Both were heavily used. Amtrack trains used one, and a local Connecticut passenger train used the other.
We followed a clear path parallel with the tracks heading to the south for a bit.
At this point, my goal was to go to the right when we got to Toelles Road, which would take us out and over the Quinnipiac River, under Rt 15/Wilbur Cross Parkway, and then up to the old Hartford Turnpike where we could get on the Quinnipiac Trail. I had hoped to directly connect with this, but Jillane wanted to be done. I asked her to continue with me just to Wharton Brook State Park, which was a short distance to the south with a pavilion, and would serve as a good jump off point for future hikes.
We continued along the tracks, and watched a couple of trains go by, then crossed over Rt 5 and the Wharton Brook Connector.
I figured we might cut over into the park right through the woods, but the Wharton Brook went through some swampy stuff and I decided against even trying this late in the game. We continued south along 5 just a little more, and turned into the park entrance.

Wharton Brook State Park

Wharton Brook State Park is actually a pretty interesting little place. It was the precursor to the modern highway rest stop. Opened in 1919, it was intended as a nice little spot for those using the highway to pull off and enjoy a spot of nature along Allen Brook Pond. There is a loop trail in there I wanted to do, but it was starting to rain when we showed up.
We had only done 9.5 miles, maybe ten at the most this day, with 12 the previous day and just over 10 the first.
I called Brennan, the guy we had met at the Connecticut Forest and Park association, but he didn’t get back to me until it was too late, when I’d already ordered an Uber.
The guy who picked us up was there in less than ten minutes, and ended up being really cool.
He was a trail runner himself, named Adam, and his story was incredibly touching.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/F5XLmCb3y3o

Adam's story on "Out of Luck"

Adam told us that his story was featured in a documentary called “Out of Luck”. I told him I would look it up and check it out.
Adam has not gambled since 2008. He’s feeling wonderful now, and his life has changed.
Aside from his mental breakdown discussed in the video, he told me that he was also suffering all sorts of medical issues. He was on several medications including for blood pressure and cholesterol. Now that he runs (he looks now even healthier than he did in this video), the statin they had him on for his cholesterol could be discontinued. He told me his doctors slowly eased him off of it, and that now he is 100% free of any medications. He continues to run, and he was just in Kent on the Appalachian Trail that morning doing another run.
He told us how beautiful he thought it was there, and that he’d never known such towns existed in Connecticut.
It's so easy to be unhappy and unimpressed with everything around when addiction is there. The crippling of the mind effects everything. I suppose when you feel free of all of these things, you also feel free to share, free not to judge, free to live without guilt, all better than you thought you were capable of. It was so refreshing to hear from someone so enamored with life after hitting rock bottom.

He dropped us off at my car, and we checked out a nearby good will store where I found a book on Hamden CT for only three dollars.
The drive home was long, but I was very happy to have seen so much for the weekend.
I needed this time out so badly, and for it to end the way that it ended. I felt inspired by Adam’s story of misfortune and how he had conquered it.
I’ve had to deal with so much adversity lately. Over the past couple of years in fact. Everything from work to personal life has seemed like more of a mess than ever, but I’ve forced myself to get through it. It’s not at all easy when it feels so fresh in memory how better things were not so long ago.
Still, there are a lot of things that are better now than they were in recent past. None of it has killed me. I can’t even say that I’m better off for the negative things I’ve been through, but the only choice is to move on and to try to make tomorrow better than today, and then to be alright with it if it doesn’t happen.
I won’t be that guy who sits around saying that I deserve better. Life isn’t about getting what we deserve. Life is about initiatives and passions, and forging them into something fulfilling. I can do this.

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” - Leonard Cohen