Coney Rock Preserve Hike - April 10, 2014

On a particularly lovely evening after work, my hubby Matt & I met up to hike one of our favorite spots, the Coney Rock Preserve located in Mansfield off Chaffeville Road.  The land is comprised of two parcels, one owned by the town of Mansfield, and the other is part of Joshua's Trust.  We feel very lucky to live so close to so many forests and trails; now that life is settling down, we are making an effort to use them more often.  Anyhow, the land itself seems to be a ridge of some sort that seems to level off near the top.  At the trailhead is a well marked sign and a board with a map of the different trails on the properties.

 

We started up the ridge along a white blazed trail which was rather well marked.  The start was a bit steep but not as aggressive as the Castle Craig inclines.  As you made your way up the ridge, the trail tended to switch back and forth a bit, often with clever arrow signs to point the way:

 

On the way up the ridge, I noticed that many of the trees were oaks of some sort, based on the leaf litter on the ground.  As we got further up the ridge, a beautiful hemlock grove opened up in front of us.  It was nice to see that not all the hemlock trees were destroyed by the recent blight.  Each of the trails in the preserve, it seems, have their own name.  This became apparent just past the hemlock grove as we came to an intersection with Chaffeeville Trail, which turned to the left and continued deeper into the preserve.  To continue on the trail we were on would have taken us across the preserve in the direction of a very old white oak tree.  More on that later.

 

Hemlock Grove

We decided to turn left onto the Chaffeeville Trail, which was rather nice.  It continued for a ways along some old scenic stone walls.   We hit another junction, this time with the Olsen Trail.  We turned left onto the Olsen Trail and followed it along until we crossed over into the Joshua's Trust part of the preserve, which was easy to tell based on the white diamond shaped signs indicating the trust's boundary.  In this general area is where we hit a T junction with the yellow-blazed Chapin Trail, which brought us right across the preserve and thru a pretty mountain laurel grove, which I would like to see again in June when it should be in full bloom.  Just past this, the trail hooks around and takes you under an overhead wooden sign to indicate your arrival at the outlook point.

The outlook point was nice.  There was a sheer drop which one would want to be aware of when approaching the edge.  There was also a pretty stone bench with these words inscribed in it:  I saw the last leaf of fall ask the first snowflake to dance.  We enjoyed the outlook for a little while but then realized we would soon be running out of daylight if we didn't start moving.  We continued along the Chapin Trail, which brought us slightly downhill and then back towards the left.  Eventually we reconnected with the Olsen Trail, took it back towards the Chaffeeville Trail, and almost headed right back down the ridge, but realized we had some time to cut back across the preserve to pay a quick visit the "Great White Oak".  The tree itself was magnificent.  Of course, I had to stop to take a selfie to prove I was there...

We headed back and then down the ridge, just in time to lose daylight.  It was a really nice way to spend the evening.  

The town of Mansfield publishes a brochure on the preserve's trails which is available online.  The brochure says there are over 5 miles of trails on the properties. I would say we probably did about 2 miles based on the time it took us to do.  This would put my running total at 5 miles.  95 to go!

For more information, visit:  http://www.mansfieldct.gov/filestorage/1904/5357/coney_rock.pdf