Quinnipiac Trail – part 1 – Transcending Mountains

This hike occurred on May 11, 2014

Trail Heads:
102 Chestnut Lane, Hamden, CT – There is parking on the side of the road for 2-3 cars to park off the road. There’s also enough space to park along the side of the road.

6 Banton St, North Haven, CT – This parking area is in a dead-end area directly behind a service station on Rt-15. There’s quite a lot of parking available.

Length/Distance: According the Connecticut Walk book, the route between the trail heads on Chestnut Ln and the beginning of the Quinnipiac Trail was 5.4 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 5.27 miles.

Summary: We began from Chestnut Lane since it had higher elevation and the hike would be all downhill or flat.

We hiked along the trail until we came to a road.

There was a bit of a road walk along a busy road with poison ivy along the edges but we managed to get to the next portion of trail without incident.

At the trail entrance into the woods by the road, there was a sign warning that portions of the trail might be impassable but it had no date to indicate how long it had been there.

We decided to press on. The trail wasn’t bad for the next mile or so. Then we came to an area where the water crossed the trail and there was no way around.

We decided, what the hell, we’ll ford it. So we went through the water; it came up to our knees. We pressed onward. There was more water.

And then more water. There was some really cool flowers blooming underneath the surface of the water.

The amount of water we slogged through was impressive. First there was a few sections where we waded through waist deep water, then later rib deep water. Eventually, there was one place where the water came up to the top of my 6’1″ hiking companion’s shoulders. I ended up swimming/bobbing across that portion of water.

It was an adventure, rather like an application to participate in the next Survivor. It seemed Amazon-esque, without the poisonous/highly dangerous creatures to avoid. Though the mosquitoes got progressively worse throughout the hike; by the end, we felt like mosquito buffet tables. There was also knee high poison ivy, practically dripping with urushiol. Perhaps it was the regular dunking in the river but neither me nor my hiking companion developed any urushiol-induced contact dermatitis (poison ivy rash).

It was not a hike I’m eager to repeat. Thankfully, the rest of the Quinnipiac Trail doesn’t parallel the river.

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