Posted By auntie on September 5, 2015

8.18 miles; hampton, ct

i decided to make this my last hike before leaving for ireland, and have i mentioned i plan to be hiking in ireland soon? i will be leaving monday.

i’ve hiked here before, but i got rained out that first time, because i only did a small part of this large trail system. today i got to see a lot more, and it’s a very clearly marked and blazed set of trails. lotta horse traffic; i think the park is mainly used by the ct horse council for riding. the weather was better today too, much cooler.

jack o’lantern mushrooms

came across this massive patch of jack o’lantern mushrooms. jacks look very much like golden chanterelles, but they are poisonous lookalikes. jacks also glow in the dark, and if i’d gotten to the trailhead a half-hour earlier, i might have seen them glowing.

beaver lodge on black spruce pond

i started this hike from the parking area near black spruce pond, and as i came out of the woods to the shore of the pond, the wind came up and it got very gloomy. i was afraid i was about to get rained out once again, but it was just a windy little front passing through.

airline trail

the connecticut airline trail passes through this park. it’s not as nice and tidy as it is further south in lebanon. i think i actually crossed it one time without realizing it.

excellent signage

this park has the most excellent signage i’ve ever encountered anywhere. nice kiosks with the gps coordinates and the elevation on them, and maps with a “you are here” indicator at almost every trail junction. so impressive. this particular one even had a name—grand junction—i guess because it sat at the intersection of four trails.

not recommended for horses

as i mentioned, there is obviously a lot of horse traffic on these trails. i stepped around big piles of manure almost everywhere except this one maybe 1-mile stretch of the blue-and-white blazed trail. of course, this section involved a lot of boulders and rocks, so it was no walk in the park, so to speak!

all in all, this was a wonderful park and a great trail system. there were some elevation changes, but they were gradual and i hardly even noticed them. you don’t have to do 8+ miles on it, either. there were lots of opportunities for shorter loops. highly recommended.

you can find goodwin state forest in the hikefinder. trailhead, trail map, courtesy of the connecticut deep.

so this is my last post before leaving for ireland. i hope to have my next hiking post up wednesday night, assuming i don’t collapse from exhaustion before i get a chance to post. i may or may not put up a non-hiking post or two… stay tuned!

Categories: CFPA Trails, Connecticut, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 7–10 miles, CT, Hampton CT