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| | | Mattabesett Lone Pine Loop, CT | | | |
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Mattabesett Lone Pine Loop, CT
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| Hiking | 11.96 Miles |
1,968 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.96 Miles | 6 Hrs 2 Mns | | 2.22 mph |
| 1,968 ft AEG | 39 Mns Break | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | For National Trails Day, 2025, I joined a hike led by the Connecticut Forests and Parks Association, the maintainers of the Blue Blazed trail system in Connecticut, for a classic Connecticut hike. The trip forms a lollipop loop involving the New England National Scenic Trail, here called the Mattabesett Trail, and the Lone Pine Trail through Braemore Preserve, which has, you guessed it, one really big pine tree.
We started at the Stage Coach Road Trailhead just off CT-17, and followed the Mattabesett Trail generally south and east to the large Bluff Head parking lot. West of CT-77 the hike is along rugged blocky basalt ridges known locally as traprock. We continued across CT-77, which is a fault line separating the basalt ridges from the older Paleozoic metamorphic basement rock, mostly gneiss and schist, hiking through the "Broomstick Ledges", which are a series rugged ridges on which the trail makes a concerted effort to follow the hardest and most interesting path through.
Entering the Braemore Preserve, we eventually intersected the Red-Blue Blazed Lone Pine Trail, and began our westward journey back toward the starting point. When the Lone Pine Trail reaches CT-77 again, it jogs left along the road, eventually picking up below the Bluff Head Ridge and following along the base of it. There are a couple ways back to the National Scenic Trail. We took the Blue-White blazed North Slope Trail back up the hill to the Mattabesett Trail. The North Slope Trail is an easily walked two-track that climbs the hill steadily. |
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