We parked at the PA on Woodtick road. It was quite small, no more than one or two cars. Nice sunny day, very warm for February. A complete lack of snow on the ground, very disappointing. The large block is obviously to stop ATVs, it was totally ineffective. All of the trails were torn up by them.
The trail starts down an old lane and soon reaches an 18th century burial ground. Pretty cool. Nice fence and hysterical marker.
A bit further down the trail one reaches a more modern cemetery. I assume it's the one mentioned on the plaque. Very scenic dead tree in the middle of the plot.
The trail crosses and follows a series of woods roads, some of which appear to be active. Eventually the trail drops down to the New Brittain reservoir and the main line of the Tunxis trail. A very scenic spot which I neglected to photograph (oops). Continuing south one reaches the dam for the reservoir and the Stonehouse trail. At this point I continued south on the Tunxis trail to its southern terminus on Whitman road. The sign says it was provided by the Southington Sportsman club, who could be heard shooting nearby.
Returning the same way I rejoined my hiking partner at the dam. The photo shows the open area just below the dam which was very pretty with all of the Birch.
The Stonehouse trail climbed back to the ridge. As you can see it is also heavily rutted by ATVs. There is also a fair bit of trash around. We picked up some of it, but the mass of beer and gatorade bottles got to be a bit too much.
Once back on the ridge the trail goes by a series of old stone foundations and a very nice stone lined well. This area has obviously been turned into party center by the local kids. The loop then returns to the cemeteries and then the PA.
The trip was roughly 7.6 miles in a bit over 3 hours.
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