Vernal pond along the Menunkatuck Trail near the Iron Stream in the Timberlands town forest. Guilford, Connecticut.
Length
11.0 miles (17.7 km) [1]
Location
Connecticut
Designation
CFPA Blue-Blazed Trail
Use
hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, fishing, mountain biking (parts of the trail), other
Hazards
hunters, deer ticks, poison ivy
The Menunkatuck Trail is an 11.0-mile (17.7 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail in Guilford, Connecticut and, currently, is almost entirely on protected land owned by the Town of Guilford, the Guilford Conservation Land Trust, the Regional Water Authority (RWA) and on Cockaponset State Forest land.
The mainline (official "Blue" "non-dot") trail is primarily a north / south linear trail with a northern trail head which terminates at the Mattabesett Trail near its southernmost point (approximately 1.3-mile (2.1 km) east of the Mattabesett Trail's intersection with (and "Bluff Head" parking lot on) Connecticut Route 77.
The current southern trail head terminates at a parking lot just outside the Town of Guilford's bulky waste site (and "Stump Dump" on Sullivan Drive just off Goose Lane (41°18′45″N72°40′28″W / 41.3125°N 72.6745°W / 41.3125; -72.6745) although the official Menunkatuck Trail blue-blazes end just after the Menunkatuck Trail splits southward from the "White Trail" in the Nut Plains Woods (Guilford Land Conservation Trust). South of Nut Plains Road the trail to the Guilford dump is marked with red-orange plastic ribbons tied to trees. Eventually the plan is for the Menunkatuck Trail to be extended to Long Island Sound (possibly via some road walks) but the trail currently is approximately 3.0-mile (4.8 km) directly due north of Guilford Harbor (and approximately 2.0-mile (3.2 km) due north of US I-95.).
The trail walk can be extended southward from just outside the waste site on Sullivan Drive by following a red-orange plastic ribbon marked trail through the Guilford town-owned East River Preserve to a trailhead on Clapboard Hill Road north of the intersection with Meadowlands. By walking from the East River Preserve trail head on Clapboard Hill Road and then down Meadowlands a ways the trail head to a nature trail on Audubon Society property (the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary) can be found and can extend the walk a bit farther.
^
Colson, Ann T. (2006). Connecticut Walk Book West (19th ed.). Connecticut Forest and Park Association. ISBN 0-9619052-6-3.
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