Mt. Frissell Trail, about 3.8 miles roundtrip.
Mt. Frissell, South Slope
For Mother's Day, the girls and I decided to tackle another state highpoint. After a lovely morning with Hugh, the three of us took off for northwest Connecticut.
There are two approaches to the trailhead. Unfortunately, we were forced to take both of them. First, we drove south from Massachusetts along Mt. Washington Road (which turns into East Road). We were forced to stop before arriving at the AMC parking lot, however -- a large tree had fallen across the road. Undaunted, we turned around, drove back up East/Washington Road, turned right on Route 41 and then headed down into Connecticut.
An hour later, we were driving north on Mt. Washington/East Road, coming up from the south.
We finally arrived at the little parking lot and readied ourselves for the hike. For the girls, this meant picking up a large stick and walking around with it for a while.
The trail starts a few dozen feet north of the parking lot. The parking lot is in CT, but the hike begins in MA...here's the state border by the side of the road.
We turned left a few feet north of this marker and began our hike along the unmarked, red-blazed trail.
Sage was quite happy to be out of the car and ran ahead of us for a while.
After a couple flat tenths of a mile, the going got steep as we ascended Round Mountain.
We topped out and beheld some nice views.
We then crossed the top of Round Mt...
...stopping to sit on occasion...
...and running when we felt like it. Mt. Frissell is the mountain just ahead of us.
We descended into the Round Mt./Mt. Frissell col...
...then went back up a bit until we were near Mt. Frissell's summit.
The blazed path leads to a fork very close to the top...here's a patch of trees in the middle of the fork.
From this point, one takes a left and follows the blazed path to reach Connecticut's high point, or one takes a right and walks fifty feet to the top of Mt. Frissell, staying on the Massachusetts side of the mountain. We decided to visit the highpoint first.
Not long after taking the left, the path winds down the somewhat exposed south slope. Views are plentiful here.
We soon hiked into Connecticut and found the green highpoint/border marker and cairn.
Here's my little homemade flag...
...and here are the girls with theirs.
We lounged a bit and ate our traditional summit treats, then decided to visit the actual summit before heading down.
Standing at that previously mentioned fork, one can turn right and see the summit area. In the picture below, the girls have found the cairn while I stand at the fork.
The cairn, with a nearby register:
We signed our names, then headed down. On the way, we saw some nice flowers...
...a tree that Alex decided "looked like scissors" (she took the photo below)...
...and "two trees helping a fallen tree" (Sage's words and photo).
The hike took about 2 and a half hours, including the time we used for breaks.
This was the perfect way to spend Mother's Day. Hope all the other Moms out there had a great day too.
