Tunxis Trail - Nassahegon State Forest

After last weekend's hike at Session Woods we decided to hike the next trail section north.

We parked at the small parking area on Route 4. Not a very inviting trail head. Lots of poison ivy as well.

The trail starts up a nice drainage along side the state fish hatchery. A pretty area. Turned onto the white dot trail shortly after beginning.

Nice, well maintained trails, but not too exciting.

Once on the green dot trail we hit some ledges and stopped for lunch and a bit of letterboxing. 

 After a bit of a run down to Cornwall road to make the connection we headed out on the Tunxis mainline trail. We passed this interesting jail along the way.

Good area for fungus, lots of different types, this was among the most scenic.

When we got back to the car we found this guy. While carrying him back to the brush I dropped him and had a devil of a time re-locating him in the leaf litter. Excellent camouflage except on a red bumper. 

Nice hike, not too exciting. About 7 hours.

Tunxis Trail - Session Woods

It was a nice day for a walk so we drove up to Session Woods WMA and parked at the visitor's center, which unfortunately was closed. We followed the Beaver Pond trail (aka Tunxis trail) west from the parking lot. The beaver pond trail is a gravel road but after a bit the Tunxis trail turns off and heads into the woods. It remains mostly a woods walk until after you pass the Nature Center connector at which point you drop down, cross a road and then climb up a ridge which eventually becomes a bit of a rock scramble up to the viewpoint. We continued on to Greer road which was our turn around. Back at the 'view' we had a nice lunch on the open rocks. No views, but a nice place.

 Then we navigated our way back down through the ledges, always more fun on the way down.

It is a pretty cool area.

Back at the Nature Center trail we took it back east towards Rt 69. Just before hitting the road we turned north onto a series of paths/roads and camping areas that got us back to the visitors center. About 5.5 miles. A nice walk in the woods.

Tunxis Trail

Now I remember why we don't hike in the summer, bugs, humidity and heat. Only three weeks until fall!

We parked at the south end of the Burlington section of the trail near the causeway for the reservoir.

The first stretch of trail is on a narrow right of way, at one point through someone's back yard.
Eventually the trail moves away from the road and into the 'mile of ledges' section. Lots of ups and downs.

There are several crevices that need to be squeezed through, this one one the best as it had a blank wall for the climb out.

  Eventually the trail levels out a bit and then reaches Greer road. We did a short road walk back to the yellow dot trail. After a bit of a climb we followed the ridge back. Here we skirted the ledges rather than climbed them.

We also walked through several recently logged areas. The trail became quite overgrown with the new growth in the open areas. We passed several obvious party spots along the ledges but managed to miss the 'Tory Den', a cave where loyalists hid during the Revolutionary war. The yellow dot trail then returned to the mainline trail and we retraced our steps to the car.
Would have been a nice hike except for the bugs/humidity/heat. 6.4 miles in 3 hours.