Poplar Hill Road – Route 44
8 Miles
05/08/2011
This was, to be honest, one of the least interesting stretches we’ve done on the Metacomet. It was an easy 8 miles, with most of the terrain being moderately flat for CT. The hike started out in the middle of a neighborhood, with the trail leading from the road right through a “right of way” in front of a house. The first half of the trail weaved you in between houses and down quiet residential roads. The second half of the hike sends you into MDC property, which was peaceful and quiet. One thing about both the Mattabesset and the Metacomet Trails is that they are right in the middle of some very populated area’s. You find yourself on top of various mountains, but still surrounded by the sound of traffic, and the sounds of lawn mowers, children playing, chainsaws. You never really feel like you’re far away. The second half of this hike was quiet and we heard very little to remind us that we were pretty close to civilization.
A word of caution on this stretch of trail: We encountered a lot of poison ivy! We saw it along the trail pretty much from start to finish but there is one tiny section of trail I would skip all together if I were to do this hike again. CT Walk Book East Map ME-5a (pg 62) shows a crossing of Rte 4, after that crossing you hike in a pipeline and then cross Pratling Pond Road. Just skip the pipeline, go around that little section after the Rte 4 crossing, there is plenty of shoulder available, you’ll literally be 50 feet from the trail anyway, and you can easily pick the trail back up at Pratling Pond Road. We encountered a downed tree that was covered in several massive vines of poison ivy. In order to get to the break in the fence for hikers you have to squeeze yourself in between this huge, poison ivy covered tree and some pricker bushes. Then, once you get past the tree you’re faced with ground that’s just littered with poison ivy. We managed to work our way through it but it really wasn’t worth it and we really wished we had just gone around. I don’t know if/when, the poison ivy covered tree will be removed, but until it is it’s just not worth it.
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