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.
