Connecticut – Hop River State Park Trail

October 5. 2020

We arrived at Charlie Brown campground in Eastford, Connecticut yesterday afternoon. We will be here for 5 nights. Not many people in the campground but they are sold out for the weekend.

Great campsite on the river amongst the fall colors.

We were up early and had a relaxing morning while waiting for the temperature to improve. We are prepared for cool weather and this morning we used some of our warm weather gear.

We parked at the eastern end of the Hop River State Trail.

The Hop River State Park Trail is a rail-trail that follows the former Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad.

It really was a beautiful start to the trail. However the trail surface changed dramatically after we crossed the bridge above. The trail looked like it was rarely used and to make things worse we took a wrong turn and ended up on a single track with railroad ties exposed.

Walked across this dilapidated bridge. Lenny said better get a picture because we are not crossing again.

Our wanderings took us to the wrong side of a “private property do not enter” sign. The property was owned by Care Camp. I looked at their website and learned that it is a camp for individuals with special needs. They have a therapeutic horseback riding program. The facilities were beautiful.

We eventually found the correct trail and it was well worth the effort. The smooth hard packed trail surface and the variety of scenery in the colorful forest puts Hop River Trail on my list of favorites.

The many rock cutouts were amazing – cool on a summer ride and chilling today.

There were bridges, three tunnels and of course the fall forest. The trail was on a trailbed at times high above the river or going through the rock cutouts.

First time we’ve ridden in a tunnel with lights.

We hardly noticed the slight uphill grade as we road the trail east to just beyond the Bolton Notch parking area. The weather was cool and when riding through the rock cutouts I was chilled, especially on our return when we really picked up some speed.

Sign at Bolton Notch parking area. Willimantic, where we began our ride is not listed but we were about 14 miles out. If you add our wanderings it’s a bit more.🤪

Beautiful leaf covered trail. There were a few miles where the leaves were being blown off the trail. Lenny is looking at a tree seemingly growing out of the rocks.

I would definitely ride this beautiful trail again. After such a wonderful start to our 100 miles here, we are looking forward to riding more Connecticut trails.