“The Shenipsit trail extends 41 miles from the Cobalt area of East Hampton to within 3 miles of Massachusetts.” -CT Walk Book: East
We began our hike on Gadpouch Road (a dirt road) in Cobalt. It took us 2 passes to spot the blue blazes & realize that a tiny pull-off that will fit 2 cars (at most if they’re not large cars) was where we were supposed to park. Unfortunately there was also a terrible dip just before the pull-off that made pulling into the turn-off not so good for little Hyundai Accents. Ahren managed to back in without scraping bottom but only barely.
The hike began with a steep ascent up to Great Hill Ridge (0.4 miles). I just love starting out with a steep ascent, no time to warm up and get the blood pumping and leg muscles warmed up, just out of the car and up, up, up.
The view from the top, however, was quite worth it. Once you reach the top you meet up with a white-blazed lookout trail, follow it 100 yards and you’ll be rewarded with a lovely view of Great Hill Pond and the Connecticut River.
After enjoying the view you continue along the ridge through a nice, easy to hike, forested area, there are no more views to speak of. During this part of the hike we ran into a few downed limbs & such. There had been rain & high winds the two days prior to our hike so we ran into a lot of trees & branches across the trail. In order to do our part to help make the trail passable for others we, mostly Ahren (aka: Side Track), cleared everything we could safely clear.
Down the trail you run into what the Connecticut Walk Book refers to as an “attractive cascade” (approx 2.4 miles) & another summit, Bald Hill (elevation: 893ft) (2.9 miles).
There is also an old, abandoned quarry where we spent some time looking at various rocks containing various colors of quartz & mica. If you like rocks this is a good area to check out as there is a huge pile of discarded rocks & according the to CT DEP website it’s perfectly okay for rock collectors to come into this area & take rocks home. We pocketed a few ourselves. Usually the rules is leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures but this quarry is an exception to that rule. 🙂
The final 5 miles of this hike followed tote roads, unfortunately. Unless you’re looking to complete this hike in an effort to complete all of the CT blue trails I’d recommend just turning back after you enjoy the quarry and cascade. The tote roads in this area are very well known to ATV riders & are in pretty bad shape in places, flooded after any rain & are littered with beer cans, beer bottles and garbage. It’s unfortunate that users of these roads have such little respect for the forest’s they’re riding in. I’m not even going to get into the fact that the ATV’s aren’t even allowed to ride there yet they’re there anyway. I think the CT DEP is fighting a losing battle in this area.
That being said I should point out the the Meshomasic Forest, like any forest, deserves our respect. This forest is special though because it is the oldest State Forest in New England & the second oldest in the country.
“The Meshomasic State forest was originally purchased was to provide private landowners with examples of good forest management. The current management goals for the forest include maintaining a quality supply of water for the Portland town reservoir (located within the state forest), protecting timber rattlesnake habitat, and keeping the forest as a showplace for proper timber management
Currently, about 75 acres (300,000 m2) per year are harvested. This is a sustainable rate of harvest that also increases biodiversity in the forest and makes the forest more resistant to such disasters as uncontrolled wildfire and destructive insect outbreaks. The “big pines” are left alone and occasionally maintained to give the appearance of a virgin forest.
In the late 19th century and again in the 1940s two quarries in the Meshomasic State Forest were quarried for feldspar and mica. The quarries are still open to the public and rock collectors to explore.
From the early 1950s to 1970s Nike Missile Site HA-36 was located off of North Mulford Road in the Meshomasic State Forest. It was one of over 300 missile-defense sites around major cities during the Cold War. Nike Ajax anti-aircraft missiles were located at HA-36 to protect Hartford’s aircraft industry from Soviet bombers.” -Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshomasic_State_Forest)
Where exactly do you find the entrance to great hill ?
It’s really hard to spot, there’s very little roadside parking, just a pull-off that will fit 2 cars. It’s on Gadpouch Road (which is dirt), in Cobalt, CT. The parking area is between Old Town Road and Depot hill Road. Parking is on the south side of the road, trail starts on the north side. We drove past it a couple times before we spotted it. It’s been awhile since we were there so I hope this helps! Happy hiking.