We hiked this leg on a crisp sunny autumn-like day. It was delightful, except for one section, described below.

Rules: Foot travel only: no vehicles, bicycles or horses. Dogs must be leashed. Blue trails sometimes pass through private property, so stay on the trail. Practice Leave No Trace principles on your outing.

Walkability: Moderate due to exposed roots and rocks in the trail, but it's moderately level. The logged section was a challenge. We don't know how well the trail will be cleaned up by the steward once the logging operation is ended.

Total distance: 2.7 miles.

Elevation change: 196 feet (up + down).

Environment: Caution: This leg ends on busy Nott Highway (Rt. 74). See note at bottom.

This is a lovely trail, mostly fairly flat with a few ups and downs but nothing steep, and some places with rocks embedded in the trail which makes for tricky footing. There is almost no mountain laurel along the way, so the forest floor is open with lots of ferns, and understory trees and saplings as well as many old tall trees. It was a dry day and we had no trouble with wet areas though it's easy to see that walking there after a rainstorm would be a bit messier. There are a couple of streams that have purpose-built wooden bridges, and a couple of others that have side-by-side logs that straddle the stream, or big rocks for stepping over the wet areas.

All was beautiful and calm until the 1-mile mark when we came to the sign shown below: Trail closed due to logging. There was no activity on the site, so we ventured in anyway, hoping all of the trees with blazes had not been removed. The scene was one of devastation, but probably familiar to many Ashford residents. It appeared that several hundred acres had been pretty much clear cut. (See panorama photo below.) We managed to pick our way across the wasteland, finding many of the blue blazes plus a helpful cairn of rocks right in the middle where there were no marks. The trail was often visible even if the trees with blazes were missing, though there were a few spots where we got lucky in our guess of which way to go. Basically keep traveling in the same direction until you reach the woods again. The width of the logged area was about 0.4 miles. We are not recommending traveling through here, but just letting you know it's passable though it requires walking through and over slash from the logging, and ruts from the equipment.

Once we navigated that section, we were back in the green woods for another pleasant mile or so. There was  no sign on that side to say the trail was closed for travelers coming in the opposite direction. We passed many stone walls, some in remarkably good condition. At about 1.75 miles we came out on an abandoned road, where we made a left turn. Just at that point there is a nice stone cellar hole, intact on three sides, plus more stone walls all along the old road. We crossed into state forest land and came to Lipps Brook, where we made another left turn to follow the brook. It's clear from the well-worn area around the creek banks that this is a favorite fishing area. In fact, we saw one fisherman there. It's a lovely wide brook with calm pools on this dry day, and the water is very clear. We could see fish in the brook. The bank is not steep. We continued a short distance to Nott Highway (Rt. 74) and the end of our hike.

Directions:  To begin this leg, go up Marsh Road in Willington for about 0.4 miles from Rt. 44. The trail crosses Marsh Road at the beginning of the woods just past #44. There is a sign on the west side that says "No Parking Private Property" and the trail is right there. We parked about 100 feet farther north where there is space cleared on both sides of the road.

Link to Connecticut Forest and Parks Association interactive trail map: https://ctwoodlands.org/explore-trails/interactive-map/ On a computer, type in "Nipmuck" and select "Nipmuck Trail" and navigate to see this section. On a phone, zoom in to locate the leg.

Back to the Nipmuck Trail Overview page. Link to the next leg of the Nipmuck Trail, 14B Nott Highway to Perry Hill Road. 

September 2024

NOTE: Rt. 74 is very busy at the end of this leg. The trail crosses at a low point with traffic traveling fast from both sides because it is coming downhill. It's also a passing zone, which means vehicles might be going well over the speed limit. Cross quickly and with care, and do not walk on Rt. 74. We had left a 2md car at the trail parking lot on the north/east side of Rt. 74 and a bit down the road toward Rt. 44. We crossed, got on the inside of the guard rail, and continued on the blue trail for a short distance and then turned right on the spur trail that leads to the parking area. Much safer than walking on the road. Another note: There is logging taking place with trucks exiting right at that parking area. Take care when parking so that you are not in the way of the trucks.