Penwood State Park - November 8, 2015

I don't know how long this weather is going to last, so I have to take advantage of it.  Today I took a 6.5 mile hike at Penwood State Park in Bloomfield, CT.  I have been to Penwood several times before, but have never hiked on the Metacomet Trail.  I decided I would do that today.

After walking along the paved road next to Gale Pond, I turned left onto the Metacomet and immediately started climbing.  There was a little up and down here, but eventually it leveled out.  The trickiest part was that the trail had a lot of loose rocks and there were a lot of leaves covering the trail.  It made for rather treacherous footing and made me regret not bringing my hiking poles.

Along this section of trail, I found an area where people had created rock sculptures.  This also seemed to be a place where people created little memorials to loved ones, either people or pets.  I saw two photographs wrapped in plastic bags tucked in among the rocks.

Rock sculpture and memorial.

 The Metacomet meets the paved road near Lake Louise.

Lake Louise

 From Lake Louise, I planned on hiking up to the Pinnacle.  There are two ways to climb up.  You can either continue on the Metacomet or you can take an old road.  I chose to go up on the Metacomet and come back along the road.  The Metacomet is more direct, but steeper.  There are rock steps placed into the hill to aid the climb.

Steps leading to the Pinnacle along the Metacomet.

The climb was worth it.  It got washed out in the picture below, but the Heublein Tower in Talcott Mountain State Park was visible on one of the peaks looking south along the ridge.

The best of the fall colors have gone by, but it was still quite beautiful.  The park was quite busy with other hikers, runners, and mountain bikers.  Everyone out making the best of another gorgeous fall day.

Mary Edwards Mountain Property - October 18, 2015

Hike of a little over two miles on the yellow trail of Granby Land Trust's Mary Edwards Mountain Property. 

Stone Valley Trail (East Side) - October 3, 2015

This hike is located in Colton, NY.

We didn't have a lot of time for a hike today, so we decided to just go as far as we had time for and turn around. We lucked out and got an absolutely beautiful autumn day. The river, falls and foliage were all spectacular. The entire family agreed this was well worth the visit, and we wished we had more time.

We parked on Riverside Drive in Colton (just a little north and across the river from the intersection of 68 and 56) near the fire station. There is a small parking lot at the turn-around at the end of the street, but it was pretty full when we got there. This is the southern starting point for the trails on the eastern side of the river. Using a PDF map of Stone Valley from Potsdam.edu, which had numbered points of interest, we hiked almost to #5 (High Terrace) before turning around.

The trail was well marked with signs that gave a little information about the river and also showed you where you were along the trail. This was especially helpful to us since we had limited time and wanted to make the most of it.

A great hike that allowed us to get out and enjoy the scenery without a large time commitment.