RoySwkr
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- Sep 4, 2003
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I headed S for a tropical vacation but due to the vagarities of weather it was so cold and windy that I wore a jacket all day, unlike my previous and subsequent hikes in NH. At least there was no snow and the trails were mostly dry. Connecticut is a different sort of place as highway ramps don't have yield signs and entering cars just butt in, much as they do in MA where there are yield signs. The hike was in Giuffrida Park in Meriden CT which is a watershed protection area and has some peculiar rules: http://www.ctparks.net/meriden/giuffrida/rules.htm
Note that they don't believe in Hike Safe as food and beverage are not allowed outside the picnic area - I don't know how thoroughly this is enforced but certainly many hikers didn't carry packs. As there were no bugs, we didn't use Deet which would have violated the rule against Repelling.
I had printed a poor map from the Internet and there was a worse map posted, a better map which we should have had is at http://www.meridenlandtrust.com/Giuffrida_quad.pdf but it still doesn't show all the trails and herd paths. We first took the blue trail up Chauncey Peak which started out as steep dirt and ended with hands-on scrambling up traprock - a candidate for the CT Terrifying Twenty-Five. There are several rocky bumps with cliffs overlooking the lake, but in the other direction is a stone quarry which has cut nearly up to the ridgeline - I was surprised there were no warning signs or fences. There was a more gradual descent N along the ridge to a col with an old canal.
We started off on a blue trail we thought went up Lamentation but apparently our maps were in error and we were headed the wrong way. We then bushwhacked uphill until we joined a yellow trail which led to the summit with views of the Hanging Hills which we had climbed many years ago. We headed N on the blue trail to the next bump then back S to the 3rd bump. We started down a red trail but when it looped back uphill we made a bushwhack shortcut to the old shelter. The last part of the hike was a woods road along the reservoir back to the parking lot.
Note that they don't believe in Hike Safe as food and beverage are not allowed outside the picnic area - I don't know how thoroughly this is enforced but certainly many hikers didn't carry packs. As there were no bugs, we didn't use Deet which would have violated the rule against Repelling.
I had printed a poor map from the Internet and there was a worse map posted, a better map which we should have had is at http://www.meridenlandtrust.com/Giuffrida_quad.pdf but it still doesn't show all the trails and herd paths. We first took the blue trail up Chauncey Peak which started out as steep dirt and ended with hands-on scrambling up traprock - a candidate for the CT Terrifying Twenty-Five. There are several rocky bumps with cliffs overlooking the lake, but in the other direction is a stone quarry which has cut nearly up to the ridgeline - I was surprised there were no warning signs or fences. There was a more gradual descent N along the ridge to a col with an old canal.
We started off on a blue trail we thought went up Lamentation but apparently our maps were in error and we were headed the wrong way. We then bushwhacked uphill until we joined a yellow trail which led to the summit with views of the Hanging Hills which we had climbed many years ago. We headed N on the blue trail to the next bump then back S to the 3rd bump. We started down a red trail but when it looped back uphill we made a bushwhack shortcut to the old shelter. The last part of the hike was a woods road along the reservoir back to the parking lot.
