I’m just going to come out and say it. Of all the Blue Blaze Trails of Connecticut this is not the best one. In fact, depending on when you ask me and what mood I’m in I’ll either say you should just head to the middle of it at Indian Falls State Park or that if the trail was a horse you would take it out the back and shoot it.
This blog will give you all the information you need to safely navigate it ( incredibly this will be the first time anyone has put a digital gpx map of this trail online!) or you can also view this as a guide to what to miss and where the juicy bits are ( more of Indian Falls later). If you are trying to do all the Blue Blaze Trails in Connecticut as I am then you’ll have to do this trail so….I’m sorry in advance. If you aren’t on a mission to do all the Blue Blaze Trails then skip to the bit about Indian Falls State Park ( its great) and avoid doing any other part of this trail.
So Wikipedia and almost every online resource about this trail is wrong. Its not 9 miles. In fact its 14, and I believe the idea behind this trail after it was chopped short by housing developments in the 1930s and 1940s was to try and lengthen it slightly and use it as a way of linking 3 nature reserves.
This trail does indeed link the nature reserves, but in a way that will leave you frustrated and dissapointed so in fact you wonder why anyone bothered at all.
A bit of history
The Paugussett Blue-Blazed Trail was originally created with the help of the Great Depression era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) while Indian Well State Park was a Works Projects Administration (WPA) project.[
Indian Well in Shelton is named after the pool beneath the waterfall at the entrance to the state park as well as for the legend of a Native American tragic romance between a Paugussett brave and a Pootatuck maiden.
Paugussett is the name of an Algonquian-speaking[ native American tribe and sachemdom existing in southwestern Connecticut in the 17th century.
Derby Connecticut was once known as “Paugussett” before it was renamed in 1675.
The Trail itself
We left cars at both ends and started at the southern end. We started the trail with a kind of amble through the backs of houses, under power lines and a general feeling that this was not going to be the best trail we’ve seen. Hope Lake was a nice pick me up in the first few miles, but we soon settled in to a weird cross country scramble of ‘abandoned Connecticut’ Not far enough away from houses and roads to be quiet peaceful wilderness and not close enough to civilisation to have decent paths. The worst of both.
We went through a garden with no flowers which was reflective because…well…it was just rocks and a wall so it had to be, and the first few miles of bridges built by scouts and happy brand new signs lulled you into the false sense that you would be looked after for the whole trail. Happy well made signs faded away and were replaced with a confusing route where throughout the day when you were presented with two path options and one looked like it was going somewhere fantastic you were guaranteed you were going to take the other one that looked abandoned.
Blue Paint Anarchy
I’m sure the person that blue blaze painted this trail meant well. Despite that they need to be banned from ever picking up a brush again. The issue is not the blue markings, but the double blaze symbol used to indicate a turn or change in direction is imminent. On all the other blue blaze trails I’ve done the indication of this change in direction is immediate, obvious and in your line of sight directly ahead of you. With most trails you see that you will be turning left soon, you anticipate it and then it happens. The entire blue blaze way is beautiful in its simplicity, but its weak spot is the human brain and the hand holding the brush.
In the early few miles of this trail your patience will be pushed to the limit as you blunder a number of times along an obvious trail only to find that you missed an insignificant trail off to the side with no obvious marking to tell you that the trail is changing path or direction. The person marking this trail expects you to scan every single tree on both sides of you constantly to make sure you get the turns. It drove me MAD. The person that marked this trail uses the blazes to confirm that you have finally made the right choice, rather than avoiding you trying every other option first. I used colourful language that was bluer than the blazes.
The USA ‘Most steam crossings per mile’ record.
Not only does this trail cross a lot of streams, it does it vindictively. When you get to the inevitable crossing every few minutes you revel in wonder as you look up and down the bank to understand how on earth anyone thought that the chosen point was the easiest place to cross. Its funny the first 40 times. Then its really tedious.
In the middle of this trail is a few miles of cracking trail. Once you are safely within Indian Well State Park sanity returns. The trail is well marked ( to the point where there are even little apologetic signs about difficult terrain ahead). This park has some fantastic views and wonderful rocky scrambles in places, and with a lake and shoreline below is the sort of place you could spend all day at. In fact you should, don’t waste it on any of the trail once it has left the State Park.
Poets path was another optimistic gem sadly top and tailed by lacklustre trail. As you wheeze up a steep incline to walk along a ridge then come back down again you are rewarded with a number of wonderful painted quotes from poets and painted stones. Its really rather wonderful. In fact this feeling kind of summed the whole trail up. There are some wonderful viewpoints and hidden gems on this trail.
So much of it is utterly devoid of point you find that overall the gems seem wasted. I’m sad for the amount of effort in some places when other bits of this trail feel like its been 3 to 4 years since the world ended and you are following an arbitary route through the woods defined by an inmate escaped from prison trying to escape police with sniffer dogs.
Verdict
With so many stream crossings you’ll be hard pushed to decide if you are doing a wet hike or a bad river wade. Save your patience and sanity and enjoy the middle at Indian Wells State Park and avoid either end of this trail that will drive you mad with how badly marked it is and how one person answered the question ‘ just how many streams can you cross at the widest point possible before people stop coming altogether’.
Combined with the weird ‘backyard ramble’ and tour of some of Connecticuts ugliest Power Lines you could go to literally any other trail and have a better time. I have tried very hard to bring the best of this trail to print, but deep down my indifference to this trail shines through. Its both lovely and awful in equal measure leaving you feeling sad for the nice bits ruined by the mess that is the rest.
Useful Info
Parking
1st Car Drop – Northern Finish
East Village Road; Road Shoulder (3 spaces)
2nd Car Drop/Southern Start
Buddington Road; Road Shoulder (4 Spaces)
Distance and Elevation -14 miles – 2000ft of ascent
Garmin GPX info of our route and downloadable GPX file click here
One thought on “Paugussett Trail Guide”