Hike #2
Salmon River Trail
Colchester, Connecticut
Distance: 6.9 miles
Date Hiked: 11/6/2011
Date Published: 12/17/2012
Salmon River Trail
Colchester, Connecticut
Distance: 6.9 miles
Date Hiked: 11/6/2011
Date Published: 12/17/2012
After my experience on the Metacomet, I decided to try and find some less difficult hiking. I browsed around http://www.ctmuseumquest.com/ for a while and found out about the Salmon River Trail located in Colchester, CT.
I remember visiting the area when I was younger, with the family of a childhood friend and their family dog. So, since Jaci already told me she wasn’t interested in joining me on this adventure, I decided to take Roscoe. At the time of this publishing, he has become a world-class hiking dog. There is no hill too steep or cliff too high. He runs up, down, left, right, back and forth all while looking at me like “What in the world is taking you so long?” But, at the time of this hike, I wasn’t sure what he was capable of. So, we took it slow and he remained on-leash for a good section of the hike.
A day earlier, when I originally intended to hike this trail, I discovered that the Comstock Bridge; one of only a handful of covered bridges left in CT (which you can read more about at http://www.ctmuseumquest.com/?page_id=352) was under construction. In fact, it was disassembled. I thought I might be able to park on the other side of where the bridge usually is (north of Rt. 16). Fail. There was a temporary parking area there…but no available spots. Then I thought, maybe I can park on the south side of Rt. 16 and cross under the Rt. 16 Bridge. Fail. The water was too high.
In hindsight, I suppose I could’ve parked, crossed Rt. 16 and walked over to where the trail begins. But, by the time I got done driving and walking all over the area, I decided just to hike in the section of forest south of Rt. 16. The hiking in this whole area is nice. So, if you find yourself in the same parking predicament as me, check out the trails to the south of Rt. 16. But, you shouldn't have any trouble finding parking…since the construction on the Comstock Bridge is now complete.
On the day of our actual hike, I got up early and I was the first car to park in the temporary lot. Success! I checked out the construction being done to the bridge and hit the trail.
The trail skirts along the river for a bit then starts a moderate climb. I say moderate because, at the time, I struggled a bit. Thankfully, the climb heads up the ridge at such an angle that you aren’t climbing straight up. And, the reward for making this little climb (so early into the hike) is the view overlooking the river you see at the top of this page. This, being early November, the leaves had already changed and a good majority had fallen off…but not completely…more on that in a moment. For now, just know that I took the picture with my phone and we trekked on.
The trail swings lazily this way and that for about 2 miles, before coming to a sign that points two ways…left (back in the direction you came, towards the Comstock Bridge) or right (to the North Loop). According to the research I’d done, the trail is known as a lollipop trail…meaning you follow one path in, eventually reach a loop to complete, and follow the original trail (the “stick”, if you will) back out.
Since this hike, I’ve learned to trust Roscoe and follow him whenever I’m unsure which way the trail heads. 99% of the time, he is right. But on this hike, being our first together, I was still unsure of his “judgment” and thought he probably just smelled a squirrel or rabbit or some other critter that had recently gone that way. What I’m telling you is that, even though I’m usually pretty good with directions, I found myself in a moment of being directionally challenged. So, even though everything I read told me to hike the trail in a “clockwise” direction (towards the arrow pointing North Loop), I went “counter-clockwise”. Not the biggest of hiking errors, but it did cause some concern later when I started to not see the landmarks I expected to see.
One of those “landmarks” is an old beat up car…which is supposed to be right there in the middle of woods. When I didn’t see it, I began arguing with myself over the logistics of someone removing a car from the middle of the woods. This is how I pass the time in the middle of woods…arguing with myself. At least, in the arguements I have with myself, I’m still always right...no matter what.
As we continued to go the “wrong” way, the trail descended slightly and we passed a woman collecting mushrooms. Over the course of the next year, I’ve often wondered if what she was doing was illegal in any way. She was wearing a lanyard with a laminated badge…so she DID look all official and whatnot…but it is something that stuck in my mind. I remember reading something about mushroom picking being illegal during certain months. Regardless, these trails are designed in a way that they should be left alone. Take in what you take out and don’t take out anything you didn’t originally take in and all that fun stuff. I didn’t give her a hard time but, if I thought about back then, I would have asked her some questions to make sure she wasn’t doing anything she shouldn’t be.
Eventually, the trail leads you into Day Pond State Park. There is a pond (Day Pond?) with a beach here and, even though the sign says no dogs, it was November. So, in the absence of sunbathers and swimmers, I decided to try and get Roscoe to go in the water. At this point, we'd had him for about seven months and, up until now, the only water he would go in was the kiddie pool we bought him over the summer. He's a Lab...so swimming should come naturally. But, this was the first of many failed attempts to get him to swim. He follows us around wherever we go so we knew it would eventually take one of us (me) getting into the water first. Again, this being November, it wasn’t happening on this day. So, we moved on from the beach and headed back to the trail.
The next section of this hike was an interesting one. About a week before the hike, Connecticut and the surrounding areas were hit with what is referred to as the Snowpocalypse, a freak snow storm on Halloween (which is really early for snow in these parts). At the time of the storm, a lot of the leaves were still on the trees. The combination of leaves and heavy snow made for quite a mess. Some people were still without power as we were hiking the trail...a whole week later.
I lost the trail several times (which is always fun) while trying to re-route around fallen branches. It wasn’t all bad, though, as we eventually made our way to the abandoned car I was looking for. I’m happy to report it is still just sitting there…right in the middle of the woods. So, I was right about it being a logistical nightmare to get a car out of the woods. Like I said, even when I argue with myself, I'm always right. It was also at this point that it finally occurred to me that I had definitely gone the "wrong" way earlier. Up until this point, there was a lot of “This can’t be right! Can it?” going on. So, it was good to finally put all of that to rest.
Fortunately for me, it is a loop trail so eventually I would run right back into the area where I made my blunder. Before we made it back to that point, however, I had my second run in with a true wild animal. Up the trail about 100 yards or so was what looked to be a coyote.
Those of you who’ve read through my Hike #1 recap are familiar with the Black Rat Snake we encountered on that section of the Metacomet. As with that experience, I never felt like I was in any real danger because the coyote was moving off in the other direction. But, also like the experience with the snake, I was really caught off guard.
We had stopped to take a drink and, as I was packing up, Roscoe let out a low growl. At the time, he was only about a year old and I hadn’t heard him growl like that before. Now, he will stare out the window of the house and growl at passers-by but even that has a sense of “this is my house…stay away!” There, in the middle of the woods, it was more of “I’m not comfortable here…let’s get a move on!” So, I packed up, started back on the trail, looked around and saw the coyote trotting off away from us.
Recently, I was reading about the difference between dogs and coyotes and I’m less sure now that it actually was a coyote I saw that day. According to a woman who is raising a coyote in Wyoming, dogs walk with their tails high while coyotes keep them low. I’m pretty sure that whatever I saw had its tail held high. So, it is possible that it was someone’s dog off-leash but it didn't look like a dog...and, I didn’t see any other hikers in the area. Truthfully, I hadn’t seen anyone for a couple of miles…since we left the area of Day Pond.
With the threat of coyotes in the area, we picked up the pace. Eventually, we made it back to where the lollipop trail begins, followed the “stick” back out, passed the spectacular view and made our way back to the car. But, not before another failed attempt to get Roscoe to swim.
I remember visiting the area when I was younger, with the family of a childhood friend and their family dog. So, since Jaci already told me she wasn’t interested in joining me on this adventure, I decided to take Roscoe. At the time of this publishing, he has become a world-class hiking dog. There is no hill too steep or cliff too high. He runs up, down, left, right, back and forth all while looking at me like “What in the world is taking you so long?” But, at the time of this hike, I wasn’t sure what he was capable of. So, we took it slow and he remained on-leash for a good section of the hike.
A day earlier, when I originally intended to hike this trail, I discovered that the Comstock Bridge; one of only a handful of covered bridges left in CT (which you can read more about at http://www.ctmuseumquest.com/?page_id=352) was under construction. In fact, it was disassembled. I thought I might be able to park on the other side of where the bridge usually is (north of Rt. 16). Fail. There was a temporary parking area there…but no available spots. Then I thought, maybe I can park on the south side of Rt. 16 and cross under the Rt. 16 Bridge. Fail. The water was too high.
In hindsight, I suppose I could’ve parked, crossed Rt. 16 and walked over to where the trail begins. But, by the time I got done driving and walking all over the area, I decided just to hike in the section of forest south of Rt. 16. The hiking in this whole area is nice. So, if you find yourself in the same parking predicament as me, check out the trails to the south of Rt. 16. But, you shouldn't have any trouble finding parking…since the construction on the Comstock Bridge is now complete.
On the day of our actual hike, I got up early and I was the first car to park in the temporary lot. Success! I checked out the construction being done to the bridge and hit the trail.
The trail skirts along the river for a bit then starts a moderate climb. I say moderate because, at the time, I struggled a bit. Thankfully, the climb heads up the ridge at such an angle that you aren’t climbing straight up. And, the reward for making this little climb (so early into the hike) is the view overlooking the river you see at the top of this page. This, being early November, the leaves had already changed and a good majority had fallen off…but not completely…more on that in a moment. For now, just know that I took the picture with my phone and we trekked on.
The trail swings lazily this way and that for about 2 miles, before coming to a sign that points two ways…left (back in the direction you came, towards the Comstock Bridge) or right (to the North Loop). According to the research I’d done, the trail is known as a lollipop trail…meaning you follow one path in, eventually reach a loop to complete, and follow the original trail (the “stick”, if you will) back out.
Since this hike, I’ve learned to trust Roscoe and follow him whenever I’m unsure which way the trail heads. 99% of the time, he is right. But on this hike, being our first together, I was still unsure of his “judgment” and thought he probably just smelled a squirrel or rabbit or some other critter that had recently gone that way. What I’m telling you is that, even though I’m usually pretty good with directions, I found myself in a moment of being directionally challenged. So, even though everything I read told me to hike the trail in a “clockwise” direction (towards the arrow pointing North Loop), I went “counter-clockwise”. Not the biggest of hiking errors, but it did cause some concern later when I started to not see the landmarks I expected to see.
One of those “landmarks” is an old beat up car…which is supposed to be right there in the middle of woods. When I didn’t see it, I began arguing with myself over the logistics of someone removing a car from the middle of the woods. This is how I pass the time in the middle of woods…arguing with myself. At least, in the arguements I have with myself, I’m still always right...no matter what.
As we continued to go the “wrong” way, the trail descended slightly and we passed a woman collecting mushrooms. Over the course of the next year, I’ve often wondered if what she was doing was illegal in any way. She was wearing a lanyard with a laminated badge…so she DID look all official and whatnot…but it is something that stuck in my mind. I remember reading something about mushroom picking being illegal during certain months. Regardless, these trails are designed in a way that they should be left alone. Take in what you take out and don’t take out anything you didn’t originally take in and all that fun stuff. I didn’t give her a hard time but, if I thought about back then, I would have asked her some questions to make sure she wasn’t doing anything she shouldn’t be.
Eventually, the trail leads you into Day Pond State Park. There is a pond (Day Pond?) with a beach here and, even though the sign says no dogs, it was November. So, in the absence of sunbathers and swimmers, I decided to try and get Roscoe to go in the water. At this point, we'd had him for about seven months and, up until now, the only water he would go in was the kiddie pool we bought him over the summer. He's a Lab...so swimming should come naturally. But, this was the first of many failed attempts to get him to swim. He follows us around wherever we go so we knew it would eventually take one of us (me) getting into the water first. Again, this being November, it wasn’t happening on this day. So, we moved on from the beach and headed back to the trail.
The next section of this hike was an interesting one. About a week before the hike, Connecticut and the surrounding areas were hit with what is referred to as the Snowpocalypse, a freak snow storm on Halloween (which is really early for snow in these parts). At the time of the storm, a lot of the leaves were still on the trees. The combination of leaves and heavy snow made for quite a mess. Some people were still without power as we were hiking the trail...a whole week later.
I lost the trail several times (which is always fun) while trying to re-route around fallen branches. It wasn’t all bad, though, as we eventually made our way to the abandoned car I was looking for. I’m happy to report it is still just sitting there…right in the middle of the woods. So, I was right about it being a logistical nightmare to get a car out of the woods. Like I said, even when I argue with myself, I'm always right. It was also at this point that it finally occurred to me that I had definitely gone the "wrong" way earlier. Up until this point, there was a lot of “This can’t be right! Can it?” going on. So, it was good to finally put all of that to rest.
Fortunately for me, it is a loop trail so eventually I would run right back into the area where I made my blunder. Before we made it back to that point, however, I had my second run in with a true wild animal. Up the trail about 100 yards or so was what looked to be a coyote.
Those of you who’ve read through my Hike #1 recap are familiar with the Black Rat Snake we encountered on that section of the Metacomet. As with that experience, I never felt like I was in any real danger because the coyote was moving off in the other direction. But, also like the experience with the snake, I was really caught off guard.
We had stopped to take a drink and, as I was packing up, Roscoe let out a low growl. At the time, he was only about a year old and I hadn’t heard him growl like that before. Now, he will stare out the window of the house and growl at passers-by but even that has a sense of “this is my house…stay away!” There, in the middle of the woods, it was more of “I’m not comfortable here…let’s get a move on!” So, I packed up, started back on the trail, looked around and saw the coyote trotting off away from us.
Recently, I was reading about the difference between dogs and coyotes and I’m less sure now that it actually was a coyote I saw that day. According to a woman who is raising a coyote in Wyoming, dogs walk with their tails high while coyotes keep them low. I’m pretty sure that whatever I saw had its tail held high. So, it is possible that it was someone’s dog off-leash but it didn't look like a dog...and, I didn’t see any other hikers in the area. Truthfully, I hadn’t seen anyone for a couple of miles…since we left the area of Day Pond.
With the threat of coyotes in the area, we picked up the pace. Eventually, we made it back to where the lollipop trail begins, followed the “stick” back out, passed the spectacular view and made our way back to the car. But, not before another failed attempt to get Roscoe to swim.