Shenipsit Trail Part 2 - Tangled Up in Blue

Starting at 107-157 Dickinson Rd, South Glastonbury and ending at 117 Imperial Drive, Glastonbury, CT ~ 8.34 miles and 3hrs 42mins

The second section of the Shenipsit starts with almost an hour of road walk through some neighborhoods. Being an 85°F plus day, I was very happy to get off of the blacktop and enter the woods. It was a sort of fake start though. Before getting to forest floor there is a section of dirt road that leads to grooved concrete then wood chips and then finally (finally!) the woods. That particular section is not that great. Route 2 is on your right and a shooting range is on the left. Passing the shooting range is unnervingly loud — and the shots can be heard even miles further down the trail.

The trail is not well maintained — there are several sections that are overgrown, and there were a few confusing spots where we missed the marker. The picture of us crossing the stream is one example. We missed the left turn before the down hill to the stream.

This section is primarily flat (small hills) with a few zingers mixed in. I recall one uphill that our calf muscles were aware of. Of course in true blue-blazed-fashion, just as we were thinking we were at the end, there were a couple of hills thrown in. The trail had a few muddy sections and was also pretty buggy, but neither were horrible.

The best part of the trail was the rocks. This trail is a very sparkly one. There are many sections of quartz and schist. The schist rocks are covered in black tourmaline and garnets. There are also many large boulders and split rocks.

Some cool plants along the way: