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| Hiking | 10.25 Miles |
1,684 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.25 Miles | 6 Hrs 10 Mns | | 2.15 mph |
| 1,684 ft AEG | 1 Hour 24 Mns Break | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | I parked on Hawks Nest Road near the lot for Crescent Lake, my finish point. Oddly, on a Friday, the free lot did not open until 10 am. There was no sign indicating hours. I called an Uber to take me to my starting point, the intersection of Edgewood Road and CR-364, Southington Road. At about ¼ mile, the Metacomet Loop Trail intersects from the right. It goes to a public parking lot on the Timberlin Golf Course.
At 0.5 miles, I got my first clue this might not be an easy navigation day. I realized I was already off track, as there were no more blue blazes. It looked like I was headed to intersect the marked trail and continued. I’ll come back and clean this up when I do the guide. As I climbed the first ridge, there were several vultures circling just overhead. I’m not sure, maybe there was a good thermal, or maybe they were waiting for me.
At about 1.6 miles from Edgewood Road, the trail suddenly drops steeply and straight down the fall line, then gives a nod to the idea of a switchback, before traversing along the bottom of a rocky cliff. Soon after, I crossed an amazing bridge with fake flowers in the flower boxes, and a couple of Adirondack Chairs set up with a sign saying, “Welcome Hikers”. The trail then began a short road walk section on Mill Brook, Carey Street, and a private driveway before leaving the driveway to the right.
Shortly before a serious scramble up a chimney to a viewpoint, there is a trail register. It is odd to see the register just in the middle of the climb. From here, it is just viewpoint after viewpoint. At some, I could see all the way to Hartford. The trail wanders for miles in the Ragged Mountain Preserve.
Eventually the trail makes a sharp left turn at an intersection with blue-white and blue-red blazed trails. Here it follows along a berm on the north side of a creek. I missed a point where the trail crosses the creek and stays on the south side from then on. Not long after, the trail crosses a service road going to Wassel Reservoir, then a power line, before coming out on a great viewpoint overlooking Shuttle Meadow Reservoir.
The trail follows more or less level on the hill above Shuttle Meadow Reservoir in an area of extensive blowdown. Staying on the ridge, the trail turns southerly, away from the lake. Then, at an unmarked intersection, the trail turns sharply right straight down the cliff. The turn is easy to miss, but I knew I missed it because the cliff-top blazes switched from blue to blue-red. After dropping about 100 feet, first straight down and then along the cliff, the trail leveled out and headed toward the intersection of Andrews and Long Bottom Roads.
I followed Long Bottom Road generally north and stopped in Rogers Orchards store, where they have fresh fruit and cider. At the intersection of Long Bottom with Shuttle Meadow Rd, I spent a long time confused by the trail temptingly leaving the intersection between two street signs. I saw lots of “No Trespassing” signs and no blue blazes. I had to go left about 100 feet to find the blue-blazed trail.
Proceeding north, I missed and had to come back for several intersections where the Metacomet Trail turns suddenly. There are many mountain bike trails in this area; it is easy to get off track. Also, that other famous trail site gets it totally wrong here, taking the unwary on an easy, yet boring route along a pipeline. At one point the trail makes a sharp left turn off a seemingly easy road to head steeply up a notch in a rocky ridge. As soon as I noticed the lack of blazes, I had to go back to find the turn. This trail section finished by crossing up and down across several rocky ridges and ravines, before intersecting the red-blue-blazed connector over to the parking lot at Crescent Lake.
Along the way, some of the birds I identified by sound were Hairy Woodpecker, American Redstart, Eastern Bluebird, House Wren, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse (they are really loud for their size), Red-eyed Vireo, and American Robin. |
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