2021-6-6 and 2021-6-8, Jericho Trail, Watertown, CT

 On 2021-6-6 and 2021-6-8, I visited Watertown, Connecticut, and walked the Connecticut Forest and Park Association Jericho Trail and part of the CFPA Jericho - Whitestone Connector Trail.  I made an interactive map with location numbers that I will refer to.  Here's a link to the interactive map: https://arcg.is/9OKDW .

A screenshot of the southern section of the interactive map.


A screenshot of the middle section of the interactive map.


A screenshot of the northern section of the interactive map.



1.  Since I last walked the Jericho Trail in 2014, parking for the trail on Echo Lake Road has been expanded.  There are now two pull-offs on the south side of Echo Lake Road, and two spaces on the north side of the road, just before the gate on an Eversource road that the Jericho Trail starts on.

1.  I took pictures of what I think is Meadow Hawkweed, Pilosella caespitosa, by the gate.


1.



1.  the leaves at the base of the stalk.

2.  I tried to record the blow-downs because the CFPA likes to know about them.  Here's a blow-down on the Jericho Trail.


3.  A view to the south.  What's that pile of whitish material in the center of the picture?


4.  A lot of blow-down cutting seemed to have been done here recently.



5. A view to the east from the power cut.


6. What's this plant?  It looks a lot like poison ivy, but I don't think it is   -----  unlike poison ivy, the outside leaflets are symmetrical and the leaflet stems are all about the same length.



Near 6.  A blow-down on the Jericho Trail.


Near 6.  About ten feet beyond where the Jericho leaves a track and goes westerly, a trail, blazed blue-yellow, leaves the track and goes easterly.  I believe the sign used to read, "Jericho - Whitestone Connector."


7.  The blue-yellow trail seems to be getting little use.


8.  On the blue-yellow trail.


Near 8.  This is a picture from July 24, 2014.  The trail wasn't getting much use back then, either.



9.  A blow-down on the blue-yellow trail.



Near 9, two more fallen trees.

10.  A white-birch blow-down.




10.  A large blow-down.

11.  There was a discernable tunnel through the mountain laurel.


12.  Branches on the blue-yellow trail.


13.  Where the blue-yellow trail first comes out of the woods into a power cut, I could see no blazes.  I found blazes on rocks among a thicket of brambles.


Near 13.  Looking back through the thicket.


14.  The blue-yellow trail joins an ATV trail here.


Near 14.



15.  Where the blue-yellow trail meets Echo Lake Road.  It looks like you could drive over the asphalt curb and park on the shoulder.


16.  A blow-down on the Jericho Trail.



16.  An outcropping on the Jericho Trail.

17.  Multiple large blow-downs on the Jericho Trail.


18.


20.


21.


22.  The Jericho Trail is in a canyon here.



Near 22, a collection of fallen trees.


Near 22.


Near 22, a high blow-down.

23, a jumble of blow-downs.



Near 23.  Another jumble of blow-downs.

24.


25.  A large blow-down that has become a step due to the blocking of the flow of debris flowing downhill.



26.



27.


Near 27, a short scramble.


Near 28.




28.



29.


30  An outcropping.


31.  A large hemlock blow-down.


32.  A small waterfall and the remains of an ancient milldam are on what I thought was a little-used blue-blazed side trail.  I now believe what I thought was a side trail was really a 263-foot section of the main trail that most people bypass.


33.  Another outcropping.


North of 33.  The Jericho meets the Mattatuck Trail which, like the Jericho Trail, is blazed with blue blazes.



David Reik

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