Doggin'
Connecticut: Best of the Best
As the temperatures drop, you may notice
your dog getting friskier. Autumn is the best time of year to
get out and exercise with your dog on Connecticut trails. Connecticut
can be a great place to hike with your dog. Within a short drive
your canine adventurer can be climbing hills that leave him panting,
trotting on some of the most historic grounds in America, exploring
the estates of America's wealthiest families or circling lakes
for miles and never lose sight of the water.
BEST PLACE FOR YOUR DOG TO SWIM: Lower Paugussett State Forest.
For about a mile into the hike along Lake Zoar the water is tantalizingly
close but access for your dog is problematic due to high banks.
Then, out of nowhere, you reach a small sandy beach where your
dog can glide into the cool waters.
BEST ONE-HOUR WORKOUT FOR YOUR DOG: Macedonia Brook State Park.
The prize for adventurous dogs is Cobble Mountain with its splendid
vews to the west across the Hudson River to the Catskill Mountains.
PRETTIEST HIKE FOR YOUR DOG: Gillette Castle State Park. The
pride and joy of William Gillette's 184-acre estate was his three-mile
narrow gauge railroad that looped through the woods below the
castle. The rails are gone but the bed makes a fanciful pathway
for your dog's travels through the park.
BEST HIKE TO VIEWS WITH YOUR DOG: Ragged Mountain Preserve. The
trail trips along exposed cliff edges for a good distance on
the way to the 761-foot summit and its south-facing vistas.
BEST BEACH TO HIKE WITH YOUR DOG: Bluff Point Coastal Reserve.
It takes a mile hike to reach Bushy Point Beach and it is only
open to dogs from September 16 to April 14 but it is worth the
trip and worth wait.
BEST HALF-HOUR HIKE WITH YOUR DOG: Pachaug State Forest. The
largest state forest in Connecticut harbors the best short trail
through blankets of ferns, Eastern hemlock and Atlantic white
cedar in the Rhododendron Sanctuary. yOur dog will be dwarfed
by the magnificent thickets of native rosebay rhododendrons over
ten feet tall.
MOST HISTORIC HIKE WITH YOUR DOG: Black Rock State Park. The
Mattatuck Trail visits the Leatherman Cave, one of the rock shelters
used by an itinerant traveler from the late 1800s, clad totally
in leather, who moved among Connecticut villages for 25 years.
BEST OPEN-FIELD HIKING WITH YOUR DOG: Collis P. Huntington State
Park. The country lane rambles of the estate known as Stanerigg
cover miles across wooded bumps and acres of fields.
BEST PLACE TO CIRCLE A LAKE WITH YOUR DOG: Burr Pond State Park.
The canine hike around Burr Pond, almost universally wide, often
flat and traversing airy hemlocks and yellow birches is the best
circumnavigation of a lake in Connecticut.
BEST PLACE TO LOSE YOURSELF IN THE WOODS WITH YOUR DOG: Westwoods
Trails. Almost 40 miles of marked trails criss-cross the property
and your dog can find himself trotting across almost anything
under the heavily wooded canopy - cobbles, packed dirt, smooth
rock, boardwalk.
Find out about these and other destinations for your dog in DOGGIN'
CONNECTICUT: THE 57 BEST PLACES TO HIKE WITH YOUR DOG IN THE
NUTMEG STATE, $12.95. So what are you waiting for? Your dog will
want to look for the spectral black dog of death (page 51), hike
on the trail where the only four-train wreck in American railroad
history took place (page 121), look for Connecticut's only lizard
(page 73), hike past the site of the world's first successful
condensed milk factory (page 29), visit the 165-foot Bavarian
tower of a liquor magnate (page 57)...
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