The trail guide provided by the city described this hike as moderate, and I am glad they did, as we may not have tried it otherwise. Rating the difficulty of a trail is subjective. For us, this trail was strenuous. But we will be back, as it was a blast!
After reading reviews, we learned we should start to the right of the dam and go counter-clockwise.
The beginning trail is very steep, and it would have been much harder to go down than up. It's a great feeling to put those muscles to the test! It leveled off a bit, and we thought the hard part was over. Little did we know what was ahead.
Here we were, face to face with rocks. Steep rocks. And to be honest, I'm no spring chicken. As a matter of fact, I don't think any of the participants were under 50 years old, and some are in their 60s.
There was no turning back, unless we wanted to skid down on our rear ends. So up we went!
We felt like wonder women when we reached the summit :)
This was our most difficult trail to date, and the view was definitely worth it.
Providentially, our devotional turned out to be based on James 1:2-3
When our hike is harder we get stronger and we revel in it. We enjoy the difficult trails on our hikes, but resist them in our lives. Counting it all joy is much easier on a trail than in a trial, but the testing of our faith develops perseverance. Sometimes we have to keep persevering to reach a better view ahead.*
"Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."
.
As we continued, it looked like we were headed down, but we started going up and were rewarded with another view. We left the trail to explore along the quarry side, and as we ventured north we could see the Hartford skyline.
Returning to the trail, we reached another amazing view, this time overlooking the reservoir.
We descended the mountain, crossed a footbridge and turned left to depart from the blue trail and return to the parking lot. This was a very pretty walk, and a nice way to wind down from our adventure.
Address for GPS: 703 Westfield Road, Meriden CT - this will take you to the one-way entrance.
Trail Map: http://www.meridenlandtrust.com/Giuffrida_quad.pdf
Length: 2.25 miles
Duration: 2:38 - We did a lot of exploring - this could be done in less time.
Calories burned: 727
Difficulty level: strenuous
*Adapted from "With God on the Hiking Trail" by Nathan Chapman
