Castle Crag

This weekend we hiked a portion of the Metacomet Trail in Meriden up to Castle Crag and West peak. We parked on the side of Route 71 where the trail crosses the road. After some initial confusion about who had the map, we headed up the hill to the west. At the top of the ridge we crossed the dam at the end of a small reservoir. The trail headed back into the woods where it became a road of ankle turning turning. Fortunately this didn't last too long and then we broke out onto the dam of a much larger reservoir. This one formed in a gap in the Hanging Hills with nice cliffs on both banks.

Shortly after crossing the dam we turned into the woods and began our climb up to the hanging hills. Eventually. First we had to cross a number of drainages which meant a lot of up and down. Finally we reached a very step pitch which did begin the climb up to the ridge. The trail climbed steeply at first and then more gradually. Eventually it swung east and hugged the cliffs overlooking the reservoir. Nice view of the island and a hawk circling below us.

The trail continues up along the cliffs until it reaches Castle Crag. Which is indeed a small crenelated tower. I had seen this for years while driving on I-691 and always wondered what it was. The tower was built by Walter Hubbard and donated to the town along with the 1800 acre Hubbard Park which surrounds it. It was a nice clear cold day so we had good views of LI sound, Hartford and up into Massachusetts from the top of the tower. Town workmen were hanging holiday lights and told us they would be closing off the tower later that day.

We continued to follow the Metacomet along the ridge. Eventually it rejoined the park road and became quite rough as the road took the good terrain.

Suddenly the trail turned away from the road and steeply downhill. This was a bit disappointing as we were obviously pretty close to west peak at this point.

After a steep rocky descent we reached an old woods road on a shelf below the cliffs. We followed this for no more than 50 feet when the trail diverged to the right and began to climb again. This climb was much more gradual and well graded. It wrapped around the west side of the summit and emerged through Cathole pass. The pass is pretty impressive which is why I imagine the trail goes this way. The trail eventually hits the parking area right near the summit. It would be a nice place with good views if it wasn't for all of the electronics towers. I hope nothing important got fried while wandered around looking for a view between the buildings, towers and trash.

From there we followed the park road back down to the reservoir. Much faster going although quite hard on the feet. From the reservoir we retraced our path to the car.

The 50 Hikes in CT lists it as 6.4 miles and it took us just under 4 hours. Nice hike although I might be tempted to skip West Peak in the future.

Pomperaug Trail

The Pomperaug trail is in Southbury and Oxford CT. It follows the east shore of Lake Zoar, mostly up on the ridgeline. The trail itself is only 4.6 miles long, but we split it up into two trips so we could explore some of the side trails as well.

In February we hiked the north end of the trail and returned on the Crest Trail. We parked near the entrance station for Kettletown State Park. It was a pretty nice day, and even though it was February, there were quite a few people around. There was almost no snow on the ground, only some hardpacked snow/ice in shady areas on the trail.

We started south on the park road and then turned off into the woods on the Pomperaug Trail. The hike is mostly in the woods on the west side of the ridge, so there's not much in the way of views. After a bit of walking we passed the north end of the crest trail. As it goes along the trail spent more time on the rocky ridge. Eventually we reached the southern junction with the Crest Trail. From here the Pomperaug trail descends to the Jackson Cove Recreation area. We continued on the Crest trail about 100 yards to an exposed area that had views of Lake Zoar through the trees. A nice place for lunch.

The Crest trail then turned 180° and headed back north. There were a number of ups and downs and then it dropped down to the state park camping area. Here we picked up the Brook trail. Not too surprisingly this follows a nice brook shown here.

We followed this trail back up to the park road and the car. The loop is about 3.9 miles and it took us just over 2 hours.

For the southern half of the trail we parked at Fiddlehead Road in Oxford. By now it was May and the trees had filled out quite a bit. But the biggest treat was that the wildflowers were out.

From the end of Fiddlehead Rd the trail climbs quickly to the ridge. There are a number of partial views of Lake Zoar along this stretch. This section also had most of the wildflowers including a Trillium:

A jack in the pulpit:

And a Lady Slipper orchid:

From the ridge the trail then drops steady down to the shore of the lake and the Jackson Cove Recreation Area. This was a pretty popular place with most folks using it to launch their boats. There were a few people on the beach. We had our lunch at the pavilion.

From the beach we continued north on the trail. It followed the shore of the lake for a bit, and then climbed up to the ridge where it met the intersection with the south end of the Crest Trail. We followed the Crest Tr a short way to the overlook we'd enjoyed on the trip in February. The trees now completely blocked the view of the lake!

We returned back to the beach. At the south end of the beach we picked up the Oxford Loop Tr. This follows the shore of the lake. Lots of unofficial picnic areas for the boaters along here. Eventually the trail climbs fairly steeply back up the ridge to the Pomperaug trail which we followed back to the car.

This section is about 5.7 miles as we did it and it took about three and a quarter hours to hike.

Plateau Mtn (Catskills)

OK, I know its not in Connecticut, but I thought I'd describe my hike anyway. CT400 purists can skip on. I was in the Catskills for the Catskill 3500 Club dinner (http://www.catskill-3500-club.org/). The club does litter clean-up on Rt 214 through the notch as a way of giving back to the Catskills. It usually doesn't take all that long and we were done in 90 minutes which gave me time to get a hike in before dinner. Since I was already in the notch I thought I'd follow the Devil's Path east to the summit of Plateau. The climb out of the notch is pretty steep and goes on for quite some time. You gain about 1800 ft in just over a mile. Once up on the ridge however there is a great view point that looks out over the notch toward Hunter Mountain. It was a beautiful spring day so the firetower on Hunter was easy to see as were most of the other peaks in that direction. Shortly there after there is another view point that looks north with good views of the northern peaks. Plateau is well named, it has a long, mostly level, summit ridge, with the "true" summit being on the eastern end. Once up on the ridge I found the trail to be snowy/icey and so it wasn't as easy going as I expected. I had traction devices (stabilicers) but it didn't seem worth putting them on. As I moved along the trail I realized I wasn't going to hit the summit before my turn-around time of 2 PM (I didn't want to miss the cocktail hour before dinner!). I readjusted my goal and settled on finding the end of the new Warner Creek trail junction. This trail was recently completed to reroute the Long Path off of Rt 214 and I'd never seen it. I got there right at 2 PM. I hear its a pretty nice trail, have to check it out some time. The trip back to the viewpoint went quickly but the trip back down to the notch seemed to take forever. By the time I was down I had a nice case of sewing machine leg! The club dinner was fun as usual but it meant a drive home pretty late. I've found that listening to books on tape makes the drive go faster and keeps me alert. This trip I listened to podcasts of science fiction stories from Escape Pod (http://escapepod.org/). This is pretty much my favorite podcast. They broadcast science fiction stories. The readers are excellent and they have a great selection of stories (>150). The guy who runs it, Steve Eley, has a wonderful sense of humor and finds a great selection of stories and readers. Well recommended. A good choice for those long drives to the trail head. Hopefully next week I'll have another CT400 hike to tell you about.

Lilinonah Trail

This trail is located in northern Newtown in a bend in the Housatonic River that forms Lake Lilinonah. The trail is about 5.9 miles long and has lots of views of the lake.

We parked at the trailhead on Hanover road just north of Newtown center. It was a cool clear day. Cool enough to keep the bugs away, but warm in the sun. We decided to walk the talk in a clockwise direction as recommended in the CT Walks East book.

The trail initially stays down by the water and is very pretty. We ran into a Boy Scout troop almost immediately after beginning. After proceding a mile or so the trail leaves the water and climbs to a height of land. At the highest point is a large old Oak tree with a register box and register on it.

From there the trail follows the ridge for a while and then drops back down towards the lake. There are a number of cool rock formations that you climb through and by on your way down. Once back down at the lake the trail follows the shore, but up the hillside a way. There are a number of curious detours that wander around a bit for no obvious reason.

Down near the lake we saw a pair of turkey vultures up in a tree. We had been hoping to see eagles, but you take what you can get.

Eventually the trail hits an old woods road that wanders over to Echo Valley Road and the parking area that is at the end of it.

From here the path climbs back up onto the ridge. There is a lot of up and down, some for no obvious reason (avoiding property boundaries?). Eventually the trail enters a cool narrow valley with lots of overhanging rocks. It then climbs up one side of the valley to another height of land and then works its way back down to Hanover Road for a short road walk back to the car.

The walk took us about 3 hours and was a very pleasent way to spend an afternoon. Late winter/early spring is a good time to for the hike because its easier to see the lake without leaves on the trees.