Date visited: 8/28/20

The Hockanum River Linear Park consists of a number of trails that follow the Hockanum River through East Hartford, Manchester, Vernon and Ellington. They are not all connected, but they are all very interesting. It all starts here, where the Hockanum flows into the Connecticut River on the East Hartford shore. There are three primary sections of trail in East Hartford. The first is called the Meadow Hill Trail and runs from Great River Park at the mouth of the Hockanum, to Main Street behind Dunkin'.

This is one of the funkier sections of the Hockanum River Trail, and that is saying a lot. The trail can be accessed from the Great River Park walking trail, right before the bridge that goes over the Hockanum at the mouth of the river. It curves around and passes under Rt 2, then runs alongside the east side of Rt. 2. It continues under the power lines, then under East River Drive, then back under the power lines. It then turns right and runs along side a water treatment facility on a flood control levee, before ending at a cement stair case next to the Dunkin' (which used to be the strip bar, Kahoots). Believe it or not, that's not the only water treatment facility this trail will pass!

As we walked this trail a couple weeks after Tropical Storm Isaias, we had to cross a few obstacles, so instead of walking the trail back, we followed Pitkin street by Founders Plaza to get back to Great River Park. It's a good thing I knew where we were going, because these signs were no help at all!

Dates visited: 8/12/2020, 9/1/2020 & 10/14/2020

The next section of trail is a series of individually named trails. They form more or less a continuos path, that runs about 2 1/2 miles. We initially tried to do this trail about a week or so after the Tropical Storm. There was too much damage to proceed. We came back a few weeks later, and it was passable, but there were still a lot of obstacles to cross. It starts behind the East Hartford Town Hall, where you can see yellow police tape had recently been taken down (probably due to the storm damage). This section of the trail is mostly built up on elevated boardwalk. This must have been some undertaking to build. This part of the trail is also the part that is in the most disrepair. It was obvious that much of the damage pre-dated Tropical Storm Isaias. The trail has been re-routed around the damage, seemingly much of the boardwalk might not be really necessary. It is still a shame to see it in this condition, because it is obvious that a lot of care and effort were expelled in building this trail.

The first part of this trail is actually pretty scenic, with good views of the river. But you can definitely hear the traffic from nearby highways. The Hockanum River Trails are never a complete escape to nature. It is like they built the trail wherever they could find room. Part of the trail passes by landfills and construction yards.

As we got to the Martin Park section of the trail, we encountered an obstacle that was nearly impossible to cross with the dogs. A tree had fallen and completely crushed the boardwalk, but there was so much brush and stuff on the sides of the trail, there was no way to walk around it. I actually crossed myself by climbing over the tree, put the camera and water bottle down, and then went back to get the dogs and carried them over.

We actually did the last portion of this section on a different day about a month later. This is the "Hillside to Olde Roberts" section. I initally tried to approach this from the Olde Roberts side, but couldn't find the trail head. So we started from the trail head on Hillside Street. The initial part is like the rest, mostly on elevated boardwalk. After that it becomes an "unimproved" trail. This part of the trail is not blazed, but easy to follow as it pretty much just runs along side the river. We saw two very large deer running on the other side of the river here. We then encountered a nice man-made waterfall, before the trail veered south, away from the river and headed to Olde Roberts Street. I figured out why I couldn't find the trail head on Olde Roberts. It is because you can't actually get to Olde Roberts. There is too much damage and the last tenth of a mile or so is not accessible.

Dates visited: 8/12/2020 & 10/14/2020

Like the above section, we tried to do this trail just after the storm, but there was too much damage. We came back a couple months later, and it the damage was cleared away. Like the last section, this section is also built up on elevated boardwalk, but seems to be in better condition. The trail starts at a parking area of Chipper Drive, and ends at Labor Park. There is a walk way that actually continues a bit over a cement bridge leading out to Burnside Avenue. There is also a small loop trail, completely built up on boardwalk, called Labor Fields Loop.

This is the end of the East Hartford section. There is a gap before the trails pick up again in Manchester.