Hike #38: Lion's Head - Salisbury, CT

Date Hiked: Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Estimated distance: 2.35 miles
Weather: 80°F, sunny
Resources:  Berkshire Hiking, Hike the Hudson Valley, Agile Trekker, Hiking the Taconic Range,
Highlights of the trip:  views from the top
Progress toward 2016 hiking goals:  38/52 hikes; 143.49/250 miles; 31.37/25 miles on Tunxis Trail


My hiking partner contacted me with an idea for a hike that would allow me to check off one of my hiking goals for the year:  Hike on the Appalachian Trail.

This was a relatively short hike, but since I hadn't been out hiking in a couple of weeks, I was a little afraid of biting off more than I could chew.  This hike was perfect.

You can get instructions on how to get to the trail head from Berkshire Hiking, linked above.  I will note that the center of Salisbury is a mess right now with a paving job going on on Route 44.  Hopefully it will be done before too long.

We got to the trail head parking lot around 9:45 and were the only ones there.  The beginning of the trail is on the east side of Bunker Hill Road and from here we had fantastic views of the surrounding countryside.

We crossed Bunker Hill Road and entered the woods.  Before long we started a fairly steady climb to the summit.  The Appalachian Trail, blazed white, came in on the right and joined the trail we had been on, which was blazed light blue.  We reached a flat area where the trails diverged.  The Appalachian Trail heads to the right up a short, but fairly steep hill to the top.  This is the route we took, but you can also stay straight and take the blue trail which loops around to the top and is not as steep.  We took the blue trail on our way down.

White-blazed Appalachian Trail.

The view from the top is well worth the climb (and it really wasn't that bad a climb).  We could see Twin Lakes to the east (where we were headed after our hike) with Toms Hill behind it.

Twin Lakes to the east.

Looking southeast.

As we stood taking in the view, we heard voices approaching.  A young couple from Florida arrived.  I believe she was through hiking the AT and he was joining her for the week.   We had a nice chat with them and headed out.  There were a couple of other guys that looked like through hikers taking a break under the sign for the summit.

We continued on the trail until we came to the plateau (mentioned on the Berkshire Hiking website) with nice views looking north.  Maybe Bear Mountain in the distance, I am not sure.  I was supposed to download the PeakFinder app, but it hasn't happened yet.

We left the plateau and headed back along the blue trail.  It looped back around to the place where we had taken the steeper climb up to the top, and then we went back down along the trail to the car.  Not a long hike at all and round 500 feet of elevation gain.

Once we got out of the mess that was downtown Salisbury, we made our way over to my friend's cabin on Twin Lakes and had a picnic lunch and caught up.  At other times, we've come out here to go kayaking, but today it was just yakking.  Hiking and having a picnic with a friend is a great way to spend a summer day.

Salisbury: Kayaking on Twin Lakes

I forgot to post this back in May.  My friend, Lori, has a cabin in Salisbury on Twin Lakes.  She invited me to go out and go kayaking with her.  It was a beautiful day.

We paddled along the shoreline and were able to get pretty close to a Great Blue Heron. 

We watched the kids from Salisbury School out practicing rowing and paddled our way down to the area between the two lakes.  It is really shallow here and a couple in a small motor boat that had come through, but then got themselves in a bind.  There was a bit of that testiness that sometimes happens between spouses that was a little embarrassing to be witness to, but we've all been there.  We offered to pull them if needed and commiserated a bit to try and lighten the mood.  In the end, they managed to free themselves and were off.

We went briefly into the "twin" lake.  It is much larger and deeper than the one we came from and would be worth exploring on another day.