Quinnipiac Trail: York Mtn and Mad Mare's Hill

I continued my exploration of Connecticut's First Trail by spotting a car at Downs Road and getting dropped off at Kimberly Road in Hamden, just a bit west of Sleeping Giant. We had trouble locating the trail from Kimberly, since new construction had apparently eradicated any blazes you can see from the road, but after walking a bit behind a likely-looking gate, I found a blaze and was on my way. I climbed gradually up Rocky Top and soon came to this little surprise.


A bit further, and some logging had created some beautiful meadow/brushland, but where in the blazes were the blazes??? I searched the edge of the clear-cut in vain, with difficult footing due to the heavy brush. Finally I fired up the gps and started bushwacking towards the road, at which point I discovered the trail.
The trail follows a roadway for spell, then heads into the woods, onto another road, back into the woods and straight up York Mountain, where the view of New Haven was nearly as good as at Sleeping Giant.

As the trail followed the ridgeline, I looked for the Regicides Trail coming in from West Rock Park, but I couldn't find it. Hmmm. It threw me off, as I had expected it to be well-marked.

The trail weaves oddly back and forth between Hamden and Bethany here.

I'm guessing that's Lake Watrous down below.
More and more views - Lake Watrous(?) to the right of West Rock Ridge, and New Haven to the left of the ridge (not shown).
You know how kids roll on those shoes called Heelies? I did that on acorns. Just rolled down the trail on my feet. The nuts were everywhere.

This section of trail needs more blazes. I got tired of not being able to find either the next blaze or the trail tread. I had another "lost" moment, unable to find the next blaze and wondering where in heck the trail was, so I sat down to examine my gps again. Almost to West Woods Road and Bethany Gap! The trail was supposed to take a left around there and descend, so I looked left and found it.

I crossed the road and huffed and puffed up the steepest climb of the day to Mad Mare's Hill at 720 ft. More views. Continuing along the ridge line I stopped to admire this frozen Garter Snake on the trail. The dog walked practically right over it and it still didn't move.

Some mushrooms were growing out of a log. All that scene needed was a chipmunk

These remnants of an old cabin were unexpected. I bet whoever lived here had a spectacular view, but it's a bit overgrown now.

From there, the trail gradually descended over a couple of miles to Downs Road. This was my favorite part of the entire hike.

Even though it was a Sunday in October with great weather, I didn't see a single person on the trail the entire day, and for the most part couldn't hear human noises either. If you want to escape the crowds and enjoy some great views, this is the trail for you, so long as you don't mind a few hills and can deal with a shortage of blazes.