Shenipsit Trail & Dark Hollow Brook
Posted By auntie on January 19, 2017
1.89 miles; South Glastonbury, CT
This was another Peter Marteka-inspired hike (see this article in the Hartford Courant) in Glastonbury. And I’m ashamed to say I didn’t have the ovaries to go through the Dark Hollow Brook culverts under Route 2, so it ended up being a pretty short, albeit interesting, hike.
Pavement on Old Route 2
This hike starts on a dead-end road just to the north of Route 2, which is, in this part of the state, a 4-lane limited access highway. It follows the route of the old Route 2, before some dangerous curves were straightened. There is a long stretch of the old cement pavement with traction grooves. I was also following the blue blazes of the Shenipsit Trail, which passes through here.
Cement-henge
This weird and sad-looking collection of cement piers is on the left a bit into the woods, just past the Glastonbury Gun Range. No idea what they originally supported.
Green Blazed “Shortcut” Trail
After passing the cement pillars and crossing over an old stone highway bridge, you come to a green-blazed side trail on your right, which heads south to two massive culverts that carry Dark Hollow Brook underneath Route 2. They are also a shortcut on the Shenipsit Trail, which does a long road-walking detour to avoid crossing the highway.
Yeah, No.
Dark Hollow Brook was running quite briskly through the culverts, and I just didn’t fancy getting wet, or worse, slipping and falling under a highway with no cellphone reception (I am cursed with a vivid imagination). As a result, I didn’t get to see the whole second part of the hike as described in the article.
Shenipsit Sign
I must say, though, that the sight of the blue blazes marching away into the woods north of Route 2 was quite compelling. I really, really just wanted to keep walking. I was so inspired that I decided to plan a through-hike of the Shenipsit, using maybe Ubers to go from trailhead to trailhead.
As always, you can click the map, above, to see a detailed view and description of this hike. Also, I recommend you visit the Connecticut Forest & Park Association’s interactive map of all their blue-blazed hiking trails in the state. The Shenipsit Trail runs from East Haddam to Stafford Springs, approximately 50 miles.
I’ve been told that the concrete pillars were an old gas station and the foundation next to it was either a toll plaza or the building for the gas station.
Could be.
[…] is all that’s left of an abandoned section of Route 2. I have previously explored this area in some detail here, so I won’t say much, except that there’s a very nice portajohn at the Glastonbury […]