Blue-Blazed Trails

The Connecticut Forest and Park Association has a series of Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails throughout Connecticut. They claim that there is over 800 miles of such trails, much of it is through public land, but sometimes private owners allow walking on the trails through their land. Their website is: http://www.ctwoodlands.org/. I have already walked some of their trails in Hampton and Chaplin so today I wanted to connect into Eastford. The trails are for the most part well marked with blue blazes (see picture). This particular walk is a very pleasant forested walk. You can park at a trail-head on route 44 in Eastford and travel as far south as you wish until you hit route 97. This part of the walk is about one and a half miles. I would rate the dificulty at a 5 for it's verticle climb (on the way back) of about 300 feet and the sometimes slightly rough walking. As is usual with such trails a double blaze (see below) means to beware of changes in the trail (a turn, a fork, etc.). This would be a great trail to take with friends, but not a picnic walk as there is no place to really set a picnic lunch. You can walk this trail at a fairly quick clip if you want.