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◂︎ Mandy & Lexi's Connecticut Adventures
Hampton
Hampton
Reservoir
Date visited: 3/19/2021
This is a reservoir that was near the Air-Line Trail and Blue Flag Meadow trails. We stopped here just to take some pictures.
Blue Flag Meadow
Date visited: 3/19/2021
I'm not sure the name of the trails, but the signs indicated this was Wolf Den Land Trust land. We hiked a short trail that led to the lake.
Air-Line Trail
Dates visited: 3/19/2021 & 1/13/2022
See Also: Portland, East Hampton, Colchester, Hebron, Columbia, Lebanon, Windham, Chaplin, Hampton, Pomfret, Putnam, Thompson
The Air-Line trail is another one of those old railway lines converted to a multi-use trail. This one passes through many towns in the eastern part of the state. We've done some small segments of this trail. On our first visit, we walked most of the Hampton section, and then headed into Pomfret. We passed by a horse farm. There is also a warning sign about free roaming farm dogs. We saw such a dog, but he retreated back to the farm when we approached. We walked some more of the trail the next winter. When we finished up the Chaplin section of the trail, we crossed over into Hampton.
Air-Line Trail
Date visited: 3/15/2026
This is the three mile stretch of trail running southwest from Kenyon Street (where we left five years ago) to Estabrook Road. This stretch of trail was quite boring, especially on a gloomy day this time of year. We passed a few ponds, a farm, and one old abandoned truck. There were a couple of muddy areas that I actually had to carry Mandy and Lexi over so they wouldn't need a bath when they got home. This certainly wasn't our best adventure, but at least it got us out of the house.
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Air-Line Trail
Date visited: 8/2/2026
This was the section of the Air-Line Trail that runs from Estabrook Road, where we left off back in March, to South Brook Road, where we left off back in January of 2022. This section runs a bit over 2.5 miles, so our walk out and back was a little longer than 5 miles. We actually started in the middle near James L. Goodwin State Forest, and walked to the south end first, and then back to the north end. This section is pretty unremarkable, with nothing of particular interest. We briefly checked out a side trail that ran over a boardwalk, but there wasn't much to see there either. I'm pretty sure we've completed the trail from Windham through Pomfret, including the Chaplin and Hampton sections. We started the trail back in 2020, and we still have some more to do. We will get to it eventually.
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Hemphill Woods
Date visited: 9/12/2022
I'm not going to sugar coat it. This was a bad trail. It was terribly overgrown. Luckily, most of the time it was fern plants that had taken over, but hopefully we didn't walk through anything poisonous. This was particularly tough for the dogs, since they were low to the grown and always had ferns in their faces. The first part of the trail wasn't too bad, but once we got to the loop, it was very difficult to follow the trail. It is also rocky in places, and with the overgrowth you couldn't see the rocks. It was also terribly boring. Other than some stone walls, there is nothing that is very interesting or unique. There's one picture that was taken in the town of Canterbury, as the very far corner of the trail crossed over into that town for a split second. There's a picture of it on the Canterbury page. This is the second Joshua's Land Trust trail we hiked that was badly overgrown, the first being Two Sisters Preserve in Chaplin. Save yourself and don't visit either of these! I'm going to do a lot more research the next time I attempt a Joshua's Land Trust trail.
H.E. Preston Preserve
Date visited: 4/9/2023
This Joshua Land Trust property has great reviews on the All-Trails app, but I found it to be just okay. It starts out with a wide path that leads to a small muddy stream that you have to walk through in order to reach an open grass field. There's no trail through the field, you just have to cross the field to get the loop trail that goes through the woods. The whole thing is about a mile. The loop is down hill until it reaches a small stream, and then you have to climb back up. This was our yearly Easter morning hike, and I was a bit underwhelmed.
James L. Goodwin State Forest
Date visited: 5/16/2023
This was a loop trail around Black Spruce Pond, that was mostly in Chaplin, with a bit of the trail dipping into Hampton. The pictures below are from the Hampton section. The trail was mostly flat, but a bit rocky in places. It wasn't all that interesting.
