Date visited: 10/4/2020

This is a hiking trail around a reservoir. This is another instance where All-Trails labeled it "easy", but the terrain made it very difficult. Lots of rock scrambles if I remember correctly. I seem to recall falling a couple times on this one. The dogs are low to the ground, so they had less issues!

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Date visited: 2/21/2021

This is another great Connecticut State Park located in Middlefield and Middletown, CT. The actual falls are in Middlefield, but a good deal of the trail is in Middletown. This was a very beautiful park to hike in the winter. Despite the packed snow, it was easy to navigate.

Date visited: 11/14/2021

The grounds of the former estate of Colonel Clarence S. Wadsworth are open to the public. There are a series of trails around the estate, some of which connect to Wadsworth Falls State Park. From the amount of dog walkers we saw, it is a very popular place to take your dog for a walk!

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Dates visited: 2/12/2021 & 12/12/2024

I must have driven past this place hundreds of times, but this was the first time I stopped to check it out. It's pretty much just a walkway along the Connecticut River with views of the Arrigoni Bridge. The walkway actually turns and goes through a tunnel under Rt 9 leading to Downtown Middletown. They have music piped into the tunnel!

We parked here and went through the tunnel that leads to the downtown area. The parking is free at this park, so this was a way to avoid paying for street parking. We are here for the walk, so I needed the extra steps anyway!

Date visited: 6/12/2021

Highlawn Forest Trails are a series of trails in Middletown maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. They maintain all the blue blazed trails in Connecticut (the ones signed "Blue Blazed Trails"). Their headquarters are located in the same parking lot as the trail head. There are a number of different trails here. We started out with the main loop, known as "Camille's Way". This is a pretty basic wooded trail. The path is very well maintained. The highlight was the beautiful pine forest about two thirds of the way through the loop. After we completed the loop we walked some of the other trails: "Camelia's Trail," "Ruth's Crossover," "Sarah's Path," and "Discovery Loop". There was no mention on any of the signs about who the trails were named after.

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Date visited: 12/13/2020

Pistol Creek is an old golf course in Berlin, that's been converted into walking trails. They extend across the street and down a very steep hill where they cross the border into Middletown. These photos were from the Middletown section.

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Date visited: 12/11/2021

It had been nearly a week since our last adventure, so we braved the damp conditions and wound up in Middletown. While it was gray and soggy out, it was nearly 60 degrees so at least it wasn't cold. In fact, it was about 18 degrees warmer than the Hartford area. We must have driven through the weather front on the way here. This paved biking/walking trail starts at the Wesleyan University athletic fields and follows Long Lane for a little over mile. It's basically just a wider sidewalk, but it gave us something different to do and got us out of the house on a damp and dreary day.

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Date visited: 1/2/2022

It was another unseasonably warm, but dreary early January Day. It rained all morning, but the rain stayed away in the afternoon, and we were able to get the hike in. The preserve is on Connecticut Forest & Park Association Land, and the two loop trails we hiked are called the Scovill Loop Trails. There's a north loop that runs for about a mile. Part of the trail runs along an old set of railroad tracks. I guess the tracks aren't used anymore, since the trail blazes clearly indicate the railroad path is part of the trail. The southern loop runs about six tenths of a mile, and is a little less interesting. Both loops overlook the Connecticut River.

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Date visited: 1/2/2022

Ron McCutcheon was a lifeguard and a swim instructor who taught swimming well into his 80's. According to the Middletown Press, when McCutcheon was 85, he was recognized as the oldest lifeguard in America. This was back in 1982. The park is named after him, and features a swimming area and beach on Crystal Lake. We hiked a short trail on a thin stretch of land that protudes into the lake. There are other longer trails here as well that we didn't have time to explore because it was late in the day. Other amenities at the park include playgrounds, athletic fields, and picnic areas. This must be a pretty happening place in the summer, but in early January there were only a few dog walkers there.

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Date visited: 2/23/2022

This is a typical town park, with athletic fields and a playground. It also has a series of hiking trails. We hiked a "figure 8" loop trail that ran for about a mile. It was the day after a snow and sleet storm, but we were still able to make it through the trail okay. In fact, there was so much sleet on top of the snow, that the ice was able to hold my weight and I didn't sink through.

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Date visited: 3/26/2022

This is a short, half mile stone dust loop through a "nature garden". Unfortunately, the day we visited was too early in the spring for anything to be in bloom. The trail was a bit muddy. It started to pour shortly after we finished this trail, so it's a good thing it was short.

Date visited: 8/27/2022

This is a nice Middlesex Land Trust trail that loops about 2/3rd of the way around the pond. The last third of the loop requires a walk on a semi-busy road that lacks sidewalks. The main part of the trail that runs along the east side of the trail is part of the Mattabasett Trail, which is also part of the New England Trail. The entire loop was about a mile and a half.

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Date visited: 3/24/2023

It's hard to believe that there was a paved trail 30 minutes away that we hadn't visited yet. This is a section of the Middletown Multi-Use Trail. Most of that trail runs along side busy roads, except for this section which was built on an old trolley line. There is no parking lot for this trail. It seems to be used mostly by the residents of the neighborhood. There are a number of different apartment and condo complexes the trail travels between. We parked on the road on Moss Glenn, the location of one of the trail heads. A short connecting trail leads down a hill to the main trail that runs along side the Mattabesset River. We first headed west, where the trail passes under Route 217 near the Cromwell border, and out to a small body of water named West Lake. There used to be a way to loop around the lake, but two bridges are out so it's no longer passable. The paved trail continues along side West Lake Drive, but we turned around and made our way east to the other end of the trail that leads to an industrial park, where we saw some deer. We then headed back west to where we started near the middle of the trail. The old trolley trail is slightly over two miles long, so we walked for more than four miles here. This was an accomplishment, considering that we walked four miles in our neighborhood earlier in the day during my lunch break. That's a lot of walking!

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Date visited: 12/12/2024

This was a walk through Downtown Middletown, mostly along Main Street. There are two small parks that are decorated for the holidays. It was hard to take photos. The sun is so low in the sky this time of year, and directly behind the holiday displays, but I did the best that I could. There was a gazebo with a Christmas Tree, but we couldn't really take photos of it, since there was a homeless person camped out there. We also headed up the hill and walked through Wesleyan University, before heading back to Harbor Park where we parked.

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Date visited: 12/12/2024

As part of our walk through Downtown Middletown, we also walked through the Wesleyan University campus.

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