2020-1-5, Hammonasset River, Madison, CT

 On 2020-1-5, I explored trails near the Hammonasset River, to the south of Lake Hammonasset.  I made an interactive map showing the area I visited.  I refer to location numbers I put on the map.  Here's a link to the interactive map: https://arcg.is/0XWP0b .

Here's is a static screenshot of the northern part of the interactive map.


Here's a static screenshot of the southern part of the interactive map.


There are maps of the trails that I was on south of CT-80 from Madison Land Conservation Trust.  Here are two links to Madison Land Conservation Trust maps:

http://www.madisonlandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MLCT_Bailey_Trail_North.pdf

http://www.madisonlandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MLCT_Shepherds_Trail.pdf

On each map, you can scroll down and find information in text form about the areas shown.

1.  Where I parked on the shoulder of CT-80, near the northeast end of a stretch of CT-80 with a widened shoulder.

2.  I was on a white-blazed trail that started near where I parked.  I was standing on a bridge over the Hammonasset River.  I was under the bridge that CT-80 used to cross the Hammonasset River.



The CT-80 Hammonasset bridge looked to me like the Bixby Creek Bridge in the Big Sur section of California's coast.


2.  A view of the Lake Hammonasset dam from the white-trail bridge.

3.  A view of the Hammonasset River from a blue-blazed trail.


4.  A view from the blue-blazed trail that goes to a road called Shepherds Trail.


5.  A broad, curved stone wall next to the trail to Shepherds Trail.

6.  As I walked downstream along the west side of the Hammonasset River, the blue-blazed trail got more and more indefinite and uncleared.  Here, the trail went across what appeared to be a back yard.


7.  Someone had recently made an attempt to do some trail clearing and marking.  There was pink surveyors tape hung apparently to mark the trail ---- the blazes got more sparse.  You can see in this picture where someone did some pruning of the growth on the floodplain.


Near 7.  I crossed on this log, twice, using my hiking poles for stability.


8.  As far south as I got on the blue-blazed trail.  This is looking southerly.  The trail appeared to dissolve into a wet meadow.  


9.  On my way back, I took this picture showing a waterfall on the east side of the Hammonasset River.  It was unclear where the blue-blazed trail ran at this point.


10.  Back on the white-blazed trail, I noticed several rocks that were covered with what appeared to be animal hair but what must actually have been some sort of dead plant growth.
















David Reik

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