Starting approximately on the corner of Spruce Brook Rd and the Berlin Tpke at the Mattabesett Trail sign in Berlin and ending at the the parking lot at 712-836 Edgewood Rd, Southington ~ 12.2 miles and 6 hours with breaks for views and snacks

Today we started our Metacomet adventure. The trail picks up where the Mattabesett ends, but oddly enough, there aren’t any signs letting you know you are on the Metacomet until you finally enter the woods after walking on the road for approximately 35 mins. So starting on the Berlin Tpke, you cross the street (be careful there aren’t any cross walks) and follow the blue blazes to take a right on to Orchard Road. Follow Orchard until just pass Kensington Rd where you will find a blue-blazed telephone pole on your left alerting you to turn left, and once you do you will finally see a sign for the Metacomet. From here the trail is great!

For the next five or so miles the trail is very easy for. The terrain switches from a grassy meadow to a mix of forest floor and some rocks and is relatively flat with only gentle inclines. There is a weird turnstile in the middle of the path early on and I am not sure what or why it is there. It is a pretty serene section with the Crooked Brook babbling on the left and making pretty forest music.

Although pretty and easy terrain, the trail is not as well marked from here to Rte 71. There were a couple of spots that we had to stop and question which direction to go. Some of this is due to the blazed trees falling and some of it is a mystery because other sections were overly blazed.

So continuing on, again it is gentle inclines and some pretty views along the way, until you take a little rock switchback down the hill. It is all loose and craggly trap rock. The incline isn’t so steep, but if you loose your footing there isn’t anything to stop you from falling off the hill. There is however, a beautiful quartz rock at the bottom of this hill so that’s a bonus. Continue on the path until another small hill where you’ll cross Route 71 in Meriden. Drivers were not considerate at all so be very careful crossing here. Also if you want to have a shorter hike there is parking here and it is about 5.5 miles from the start. This is also the first blue oval sign on the trail.

From here you head back into the woods for a bit until you come to a clearing with a water tower. You follow the path and get to have your first view of Merimere Reservoir. It’s a pretty little spot so we took a twenty minute break here and did some stretching and had some refreshments.

The trail continues back into the woods for a few and then back to pavement and up a hill until you come to a bridge that goes over the reservoir. Cross that and then hop back into the woods. The path runs alongside the ridge for about 15 mins and then opens up to the traprock ridge with fantastic views of the reservoir.

The trail continues on weaving in and out of the woods until you come to Castle Craig. For those of you who haven’t, take a few to climb the tower. The views are worth it. We have been here before so we just continued on across the parking lot and back in to the woods.

You’ll get a few minutes more of easy hiking and then the trail gets mean for a bit. There is a long section of trail that goes down hill and it is all loose rock. I have hiked this section a few times and have had the rocks roll under foot before, so easy does it. This section isn’t so bad but when you get to the bottom you immediately take a right back into the woods and go up a hill that just keeps climbing up and up and up. After 15 or so minutes of climbing up, the trail turns to giant rocks and goes up a little more. It’s all worth it as the views are really pretty.

Eventually you come to a road with some sort of sub-station. Take the the left to go back into the woods and from here it is about an hour of gentle descent to get to the parking lot. There is a really cool boulder with a nose and some more pretty views along the way.

Overall the views made up for the lack of blazes and the road travel. We also found a pretty pink flower which we learned later is called a Robert geranium, or “Stinky Bob.” Apparently the leaves when crushed can smell like burning rubber.

Adventurers Included: Jes, Dana, Bryan & Dogo