Hike #14: Tunxis Trail (Hurricane Brook) - Hartland, CT

Date Hiked:  Saturday, March 12, 2016
Estimated distance round-trip: 5.46 miles
Weather: 60°F, sunny
Resources: CT Forest & Park Association (CFPA) Interactive Trail Map, CTMQ Hikes, Short Nature Walks in CT starting on page 15 
Highlights of the trip: driving Pell Road, streams and waterfalls
Progress toward 2016 hiking goals:  14/52 hikes; 45.79/250 miles; 4.6/25 miles on Tunxis Trail



One of my 2016 hiking goals is to hike at least 25 miles of the Tunxis Trail.  I have hiked sections before, but I'd like to start fresh.  This hike is the first step toward reaching that goal.

Twenty-five miles is certainly a modest goal, but one made slightly more difficult by wanting to round up a hiking partner.  I will often hike by myself, but being able to place a car at one end of the trail section and start at the other makes things a lot easier.  The northern end of the Tunxis is also pretty remote and a partner is a good idea for safety.


Before venturing out, I did some research using CFPA's CT Walk Book.  I wanted to start at the northern end of the trail near the Massachusetts border and hike south to either Route 20 (2.8 miles) or Old Route 20 - Walnut Hill Road extension (4.6 miles).  My hiking partner was up for the longer distance, so we left my mom-mobile (minivan, which currently only has seating for two because of the street hockey nets and other equipment loaded in the back) near the gate at the corner of Walnut Hill Road and Pine Street and headed off in her Jeep for the trail head.

According to the Walk Book, there is parking on Pell Road near the trail head.  For most of its length, Pell is a dirt road.  I had read Steve Wood's account of his mom driving her minivan along this road and figured we could leave the car at the corner of Pell and East Pell Roads.  Well...as we drove along, we started to wonder if the minivan would be able to get us back to the Jeep when we were done.  The Jeep was doing fine with its high ground clearance, but the van would be another story.  We turned on the GPS and noticed that East Pell was a lot shorter than Pell and would take us out to Route 179 (Granville Road).  We decided to drive out East Pell just to see how that road was and see if it would be easier for the van.  Well, hello!  Just a short distance down East Pell, the dirt road turned to pavement and there was a little parking area!  That would have been nice to know!

Looking at a screenshot of the Interactive Map from CFPA, you can see that the parking area actually appears in Massachusetts, just north of the trail head on McCarthy Road.  Looking at Google Maps, there are houses along this road, so it would probably work.  Where we ended up parking (after driving most of the length of Pell Road) was on East Pell Road, I would guess roughly at the edge of the green area on the map below.  It was a short walk in to the trail head from there.  If you decide to park on McCarthy Road, you need to drive around and not try to go up Pell Road.

Now, on to the hike!

At the trail head, there was a little sign giving mileage amounts to Route 20 and beyond and a trail register.  I signed in and we started hiking.  Before too long, we came to the CT/MA boundary marker.  On the Massachusetts side, there was a large field with a camper in the middle of it.

The trail started to head down hill.  It became steeper as we approached a stream with a nice little waterfall.  Check out this quadrangle map and see how close the contour lines are.  I think this might be the stream referred to as Trailhead Stream in the Walk Book.

Huge pieces of quartz.

Pretty little waterfall.  You can judge how steep the trail was here.

There were a couple of brook crossings and in one area we could see the DEEP lean-to.  I had hiked in to this point from the other direction in 2012, and the lean-to was in pretty rough shape.  We did not go over to look at it today, but I think it may have undergone renovation because it had a new metal roof on it.

Hurricane Brook

Hurricane Brook waterfall.  Bridge for Hurricane Brook Road is on the right near the top.

Hurricane Brook was probably the low elevation on the trail.  We then started climbing and made our way to the top of Trillium Hill (no view).  It is here on the interactive map (see above), that there is a trail notice indicating that the trail is closed for timber operations.  I did not know this before we started hiking, but there was nothing going on today as we hiked through there.

Unfortunately, I think the Trail Notices section of the CFPA website needs some work.  When I use the interactive map and see that there is a trail notice, there is a link for more information.  That takes me to a general page where I can click the link for Trail Notices.  The notice for this section of trail is not even listed.  There are listings for other trail closures, one dated from 2012.  Is the trail still closed in that location?  Maybe, but now I am not sure that I can trust this listing.

We came out to Route 20 and turned left, walking just a short distance up the road and crossing where we saw the CFPA tags on the trees.  The trail on this side of Route 20 was a lot easier than the other side.  We came to what I thought might be Balance Rock Road (mentioned in the Walk Book, but not included on their map!)  I was using the MapMyHike app, so I pulled out my phone to see if I could tell where we were and sure enough, it had us standing on Balance Rock Road.

Before long, we came to a nice little stream (Morey's Brook?) with several areas of little waterfalls.  There were signs here indicating an alternative trail for high water, which takes you over a bridge.  We opted to stick to the main trail and we crossed the brook just below the bridge.

We hiked a little farther and came out on old Route 20 (extension of Walnut Hill Road).  The road here is beat-up asphalt and there was an SUV driving toward us (we had seen that the gate was open when we dropped off the van).  I was hoping it was a DEEP employee dropping off a bear (see Steve Wood's description of what he saw), but no, it was just a couple out exploring.  They soon turned around and came back.  We took old Route 20 back to the van and drove up Route 179 (NOT Pell Road) and picked up the Jeep.

This was an excellent hike!  It feels really remote and the waterfalls, while not showstoppers, are very nice.  The trails were very well blazed and extra information was written on the blazes in a couple of areas (for high water by-passes).

I used the Walk Book when planning this hike and I would make a couple of recommendations.  I would suggest looking at the interactive map on the CFPA website.  It is probably more up to date and you can also see elevations listed on the contour lines.  For some reason, the maps in the Walk Book include the contour lines, but no way of determining the actual elevation.  Also, Balance Rock Road is not shown on the printed map, but you will see it online.

On to Pine Mountain!


Elevation Data:

I'm still trying to figure out the elevation graphic on MapMyHike.  As I mentioned somewhere else, the graph does not match the numbers printed below it, but I think that is because two different methods are being used.  One way probably uses GPS info and the other maybe uses some kind of underlying terrain map of the area.  I really have no idea.  What I had not paid attention to before was the elevation gain.  I assumed it was the difference between the max and min, but it is not.  Perhaps it is cumulative elevation gain?

My guess is the low point on the graph is Hurricane Brook and the high point to the right is Trillium Hill.  After Trillium Hill you make your way down to Route 20.  Everything to the right is the trail between Route 20 and old Route 20.  You can see it was a lot easier than the first part of the hike.