No, But It Kind of Felt Like One
It wasn’t a backpacking trip at all, just a day hike, but it was the first time hiking with my new pack, the Mariposa 60L, and I carried quite a bit of my gear as well. Right now my base weight is 15.5 lbs, and I ended up hiking with that weight, using a combination of my tent, sleeping pad, quilt, water, and some other items.
I hiked Mirror Lake, Castle Craig, and the Merimere Reservoir Loop. It is a nice hike, one I have done once before, but took a different route. Instead of turning immediately at the reservoir into the forest, I hiked fully around the Reservoir, up to the Castle, and took a steep trail down. It was a nice little hike, and I am going to use the experience here to practice my skills at writing about hiking.
Round and Round the Reservoir
Getting to Hubbard Park was a pretty easy drive up the highway for about an hour. The park was absolutely blooming with daffodils all over, featuring at least one sign tacked to a tree stating that it is against the law to pick them. There is a large pond (Mirror Lake?) with fountains where people were gathered around, and one man was fishing with four poles simultaneously.
I found a spot to park, used the thankfully clean port-o-potty, got my shoes, gaiters, and pack on, then headed past a gate on a paved road. The park was busy, and I saw quite a few other people walking down the pavement to and from the reservoir.
The pavement gently undulated up and down, but was mostly flat around the reservoir. There was a small island at the very beginning, where last time my friend and I had turned into the forest. This time, I marched right by. It was about a mile or two on the pavement, and I wasn’t sure if I should regret it or not. It provided the longest hike in the park mapped by AllTrails, but Altra Lone Peaks are not meant for extended pavement walking.
My feet hurt right away, being on the pavement, and still in the zero-drop shoe break in period. It was a lovely walk around the water to my left, though. I watched a tiny wispy little cloud morph before my eyes and gain traction to become a big fluffy cloud that lingered in the sky.
The sky itself was a clear, brilliant blue, and the water of the reservoir clean and vast. On the other side of the water, I saw Castle Craig, high up on a perch overlooking everything. Castle Craig is one cylindrical tower that can be seen from the highway on the way into Meriden. On the reservoir’s opposite bank, I saw crumbles of rock suggesting rock slides and erosion over the years. I could see I would be hiking a gentle grade on the way up to the tower from there.
All around me bloomed signs of spring. No daffodils here, but plenty of little white flowers strewn about, grasses poking up, and buds all over the trees. I imagined the park in summer, full lush, green all around and I reflected on how spring is a sign of things to come.
As I walked, I felt the cool breeze, it was a sunny 65 degree day, and I listened to the people around me talk, and I heard my thoughts as well. I had been inspired by another blogger to hold off listening to music (or podcasts, or audiobooks) while I hike for as long as possible. It really is a different experience, and more meditative. Then when it is time for music, it just hits different.
I reached the end of the reservoir, and admired its beauty with a couple bikers having a snack. I continued on, knowing I would be turning into the woods soon, but missed my turn when I passed a large family and mistook the trail for just a little spring coming through a small canyon on the side of the pavement.
I followed the pavement on a little way, and saw some beautiful yellow flowers just beginning to bloom on a few trees, before I realized I had gone too far and turned back, consulting the trail app as I rerouted myself.
Worth a detour
I found my way to the trail, realizing I had to cross over the little creek to get into the woods. It didn’t look like a trail entrance at all, but I traversed my way over to walk on the dirt, and my feet immediately sang their praises of the earth, so much more comfortable than the pavement walk had been.
The trail was blue blazed on the way up, and marked decently, but I still got turned around one time, amid lots of fallen trees. There were also a couple very steep and rocky sections that didn’t look much like a trail at all, so I just took whatever route seemed most direct.
Out in New England, and on the AT in general, there aren’t many switchbacks to be found. This was not the AT, but it was the Metacomet range, formed of hardened volcanic rock. It was good practice for me, I reasoned, seeing as I will be hitting the Pennsylvania rocks quite early on in my AT flip flop thru hike.
After a few steep sections, it was rocky cruising most of the way up, save for one or two very wet spots leftover from the winter, necessitating a little going around. This trail was incredibly peaceful, and I only saw two other people on my way up.
Crowded Castle Craig
The trail to the Castle had followed right next to the water for a while, then gradually went so far inland that I realized I couldn’t see the reservoir anymore. Once I got closer to the Castle, the trail came back to the ridgeline, much higher up than before, for a beautiful view of the reservoir below.
Ridge walking on the Metacomet is some of the best hiking to be found in central CT, and I was loving the views, as I watched a hawk and vulture circling near the ledges, and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Looping around the ridge, I found a dip then one more little climb up to the Castle.
I saw a few people heading away from the castle, down another trail, when I was approaching. When I got there, I saw a few teenage boys up on the castle itself, and two couples scattered about, eating a snack. I was ready to do the same. There was a large parking lot and some picnic tables, and a headstone that described the castle. It all looked very familiar to me.
I was hungry for my protein bar, and sat on a bench in the sun at the foot of the castle, not wanting to head up just yet with people up top. No sooner had I opened the bar, though, did more people start arriving from all over the place, descending on the site. A large family came first, a little boy complaining they couldn’t sit on the bench. Technically I was here first, I thought, my pack and I taking up the whole bench.
Still, they crowded around me, then another couple arrived, and more families with young children. Everyone just appeared all at once, having taking other trails to get to the castle. I scarfed down my bar, and put on my pack, deciding it was time to escape to the top of the tower. Fortunately, as I was climbing the metal stairs, everyone who was up top began descending past me.
It was quite windy at the top of the tower, but I found a spot to nestle in and take in some of the view. I was too overwhelmed with how crowded it was to remember to lookout for Sleeping Giant park, the Long Island Sound, or Mt. Tom in the opposite direction. People kept coming up to the top, and I was surprised it was so crowded on a weekday. Of course, it was the Friday before Easter, so it made a little more sense when I stopped to think about it.
I put my pack back on, and was momentarily delayed by a couple who wanted me to take their picture, then I hastily made my way down and back into the woods. Or I tried to, anyway. I was taking the more popular route down, the one I had taken up the last time. An orange blazed, short and steep trail, and it appeared to be the way almost everyone else was going up and down the peak.
Unfortunately, I got stuck right behind the family who had wanted the bench originally, and it took them a quarter mile at least to let me pass, even though I was directly right behind them. That must have been my karma, as I suffered silently, stuck right behind a little girl who was not at all confident at the steep downgrade.
Finally, I was able to get by them, and rocketed down the slope with my trekking poles taking most of the abuse and sparing my knees. I passed many more people who were going up on my way down, and was very grateful for my solitary climb up on the other side. If it wasn’t for all that road walking, I would have taken that way down, as well.
The steep down was shockingly short, and my AllTrails app took me down several different blazed trails to make a wide, flat dirt loop back around to the parking area. The latter majority of it was right by the highway. As the loud rush of cars became distinct, then blaring, I remembered fondly the feeling of approaching a highway on the Appalachian Trail. After several days outside of civilization, hearing those road crossings meant hot town food and hopefully a shower and clean clothes. It was very nostalgic, and also exciting, knowing I would be having that experience again so soon.
I was also excited to see a walking bridge above the highway. I don’t know why, but I always loved those. It might be because they remind me of the pterodactyl cage in the third Jurassic park movie. Is it weird I like that one better than Lost World?
I always found it a marvel to walk across the highway like that, although the sound of the cars and trucks rushing by underneath was a little overwhelming. For one blessed moment, though, at my halfway point across, both lanes were empty for a pure few seconds of total silence. That was a little magical on such a busy highway. I saw the exit I had taken to get to the park almost right below the bridge; I hadn’t even really noticed the bridge on my way there, as I hadn’t taken it on my first hike.
At the end of the bridge, someone had put deterrents for motorized vehicles (I think) in the form of bright yellow concrete posts that were not meant for people with large packs to walk through. I had to grab the side poles and sort of swing my way around them on the outside.
Final Thoughts
The rest of the hike was uneventful, in a good way. There was another half mile or so of flat trail walking, back into the park, across the way to the parking area. The main park was much more crowded by the time I got back in, approaching 2:30 in the afternoon. There were picnics and people playing volleyball, and moms taking pictures of their little kids waring bunny ears and sitting among the daffodils with Easter eggs strewn about. It was a cute photo op, I had to admit.
It wasn’t really a shakedown hike, as I didn’t take out my tent, and I didn’t use any of my gear, I just carried it. It felt like a practice hike to me, though. I felt much more comfortable in my Altras after that hike, and my pack fit and felt really good on me for the first use. I had bought it online, with no ability to try it on. I also waited too long to hike with it before the return period was over, finishing out my final weeks at work, so that is another reason I am glad it fit well!
I enjoyed the almost five mile hike without any audio, either. I haven’t really done that for years until the last couple times I hiked. Even on the AT the first time, I think I listened to music most of the time. I like the idea of using audio less to get better in touch with nature, and myself.
As I hiked, I thought a lot about various traumas I have been going through, and I felt a lot better by the end of the hike. I also felt less nervous about my upcoming thru. My nerves are nothing compared to what they were the first time, but I still have those nefarious voices of fear in my brain that I am making a terrible mistake and will be a failure if I don’t succeed in hiking the whole thing.
As I drove back home I noticed my anxiety and anger at what I’ve been going through lately growing, as my mind spun out without nature to keep it grounded, but a few times I was able to mindfully pull myself back into the present, and appreciate the bright blue sky and my upcoming hike. I guess at the end of the day, all we can do in life, as on the trail, is take the next step and the next, always moving forward instead of looking back.