On 2021-12-10, I set out to see the new bridge on the blue-red trail that connects Tynan Park with the Mattabesett Trail in Middletown, CT. I included trail-maintenance information because these trails are Connecticut Forest and Park Association trails and the Connecticut Forest and Park Association likes to receive trail reports. I made an interactive map with location numbers. Here's a link to the interactive map: https://arcg.is/11fbSH1 . I'll put in three, static screenshots of the interactive map going from east to west.
1. A map posted at the Tynan Park parking area.
1. The code brings you to
http://www.etrailhead.net/trails/8 which brings you to a map with the wrong "You are here" indicator.
3. People have gone to a lot of trouble to clear a four-foot-wide corridor for the blue-red trail where it goes through an area that used to be a field but that is being allowed to move towards being a forest.
6. This bog bridge travels downhill. Wet wood is very slippery, particularly wood on which the walker is traveling with the grain, as is the case here.
7. This is a blow-down on a section of trail that has been re-located in the last year. I think that any blow-down, even one that is not hard to step over, tends to make the trail harder to follow.
7. Another blow-down on the re-located section of trail.
7. A new bridge of interesting construction. Huge timbers support the main span. The railings are mostly made of pressure-treated lumber, but the top rails are natural branches.
10. A mess of blow-downs where a small stream crosses the trail.
11. A hemlock blow-down. Despite wooly adelgid, I saw many old, healthy hemlocks along the blue-red trail.
12. Where the blue-red trail meets the blue-blazed Mattabesett Trail. How long can this laminated paper sign be expected to last? There is a similar sign on the Tunxis Trail that is about twenty years old.
13. Two uncut blow-downs, plus one that has been recently cut.
13. Another set of two blow-downs.
15. The trail now goes between two blow-downs which have fallen in opposite directions. I think the trail used to go to the right of the still-standing tree with the turn blaze on it.
18. Another low blow-down.
15. I turned around because it was getting late. On the way back, I took a picture of a cut root between the two blow-downs that the trail now runs between. Apparently, someone intends the trail to take this route.
12. Another sign near where the blue-red trail meets the Mattabesett. There wasn't any similar sign saying how far it was to Tynan Park.
8. The western end of the new, curved bridge.
7. Looking northwesterly along where the blue-red trail used to go. There was no bridge, and that was usually no problem, except occasionally when there was a large, un-fordable stream here. I believe the spillway of a reservoir feeds into this stream. When the reservoir is overflowing, there is a lot of water in the stream.
4. A muddy section of trail. I think the problem here is that water oozes out of the hillside. Flowing water is not the problem. The water table has come to the surface here. Maybe a longitudinal mound of gravel a foot high and three feet wide would solve the problem. But some might say that such a mound would be a narrow road, not a trail.
2. A hadn't started taking pictures of blow-downs when I encountered this blow-down on the way out.
On 2021-12-11, I hiked from CT-66 to the point I turned around on 2021-12-10. Here's a screenshot from the amended interactive map.
31. Another CFPA map with a QR code. This takes you to the same map that the code at 1 takes you to. Here, the "You are here" indicator is correct. http://www.etrailhead.net/trails/8
27. It was a misty day. The trees are eastern red cedars, I think.
23.
A well-known hiker, apparently on August 10, 2017, was pulling himself through this natural arch by grabbing on a rocky protrusion near where the blue paint in the upper left is now. The protrusion came loose and fell on his leg, cutting his flesh to the bone, and breaking the bone, his tibia, I think. He was with his grandchildren. Help took about three hours to come. He was brought off the mountain in a sled-like device that was towed by an ATV, I think. He was back to hiking by early spring, as I recall.
Between 23 and 21. These are white birches, I think. At first, I thought they were gray birches.
Between 23 and 21. This looks like a white birch leaf.
21. A white ash blow-down.
Near 21. Another white ash blowdown. As is often the case with Connecticut trails, the Mattabesett runs along an old road here.
20. A low blow-down 100 feet or so from where I turned around on 2021-12-10.
24. A steep ascent in the mist.
28. Lots of this plant along the trail. I think it's an invasive buttercup, maybe Ranculus bulbosus.
28. The front of the leaf.
30. On the Mattabesett, just northeast of where the blue-red trail goes off to the CT-66 parking area. I turned around here and went back to my car.
31. The device which at least used to function as a kind of turnstile. I think it counted me eight times on 2021-12-11 because I kept going back to my car to get stuff I had forgotten. Despite the mist, I saw, I think, seven other hikers.
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