Millers Pond State Park Trails

Hike It or Bike It
Millers Pond State Park & Cockaponset State Forest, Durham/Haddam
Septemeber 2016 & November 2023

There are several trails at Millers Pond and aside from the Mattabesett, they all pretty much loop back to the same parking lot near the Durham/Haddam border off of Foot Hills Road. In fact, the park is split down the middle by those two towns, though the pond itself is entirely in Durham if you care to know. Also, it is largely bounded by Cockaponset State Forest and all of the trails, save those that hug the pond, extend into state forest land.

Let’s hike!

My 2008 Mattabesett section hike through the Park.
My 2016 walk around the pond with my sons (White Trail).
My 2023 hike into through the park into the state forest (Red West, Red East, and Yellow Trails).

2016 TSTL (White Trail) Hike

Now into the double digits for our 2016 Sky’s the Limit Challenge hikes, I was feeling confident about our chances for completion. (Well, let’s be honest – we all knew we’d complete all 14.) Millers Pond afforded a leisurely stroll around a pond.

With plenty of rock throwing opportunities for the boys. Perfect.

The first half of our hike was as simple as these things get – a flat walk down a wide, graded trail along the west side of the pond. Calvin took a little while to get going for whatever reason, but upon seeing his brother scooting along, he got with the program and we pretty much flew down to the first interesting stop along the hike.

I’ll rejoin you after a bunch of pictures.

Just past the dam and graffiti was the official Sky’s the Limit photo spot. It was a lovely patch of grass and wildflowers that the boys enjoyed for a good twenty minutes. They picked flowers for mama, not understanding that their microscopic stems wouldn’t survive the trip home, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

After the photo frolic, the trail re-enters the woods and becomes decidedly rockier and more interesting to traverse. Of course, Calvin loved this while Damian’s pace slowed dramatically.

This stretch is also part of the Mattabessett Trail which is part of the New England Scenic Trail. I’ve started to whisper suggestions into Calvin’s ear, like, “You know, you can walk that way and go all the way to the beach!” and, “Hey, if we keep walking this way on this blue trail, we’ll go all the way to that white tower (Heublein) near our house and can keep going all the way through Massachusetts!”

He is started to get excited about that kind of talk now, which is pretty great.

As we neared the end of our hike, the boys became very interested in geology. Calvin spearheaded the effort and peppered me with a ton of questions. “How did these rocks get here? How old are they? What makes rocks? Why are some rocks white and some gray? What the difference between pebbles and rocks and stones and boulders?” On and one he went, and I tried answering them to the best of my ability.

In the end, he was most interested in igneous rocks, of course, and wondered where all the volcanoes are. I’ve learned it’s really tough for a five-year-old to comprehend geologic timescales, but that’s okay. “Really, really, really, really super duper long, long, long, long time ago” works pretty well.

As we finished up, Calvin’s new (and fleeting, it turns out) love of rocks propelled him to want to take a fairly sizeable one home with us. Fortunately for me, a park ranger was there and I gave her the dad look and she knew how to handle it: “You need to leave that rock here because animals need the rocks to hide under!”

Though saddened, Calvin acquiesced to her authority and dropped the rock.

Then we went home.

2023 Hike (Red West, Red East, & Yellow Trails)

That walk around the pond was fun, huh? As with all parents, I get so wistful when I see those picture of my sons where they were younger. Just agreeing to follow dad into the woods without complaint. Sigh.

And so it was, on my 51st birthday in 2023, I hiked these woods alone on an increasingly dull gray and chilly day. Which… I absolutely loved. Really and truly. I had the day off from work and I was doing what I love. My sons were in school and that was fine with me. My pace, my route choices, my everything. (Yeah, I still miss the young versions of them.)

Starting from the same lot off of Foot Hills Road, I had a decision to make. Which to do first? The five mile loop to the west in Durham or the five mile loop to the east in Haddam?

Actually, I knew what I was going to do before I got here: West first. I had it in my mind that from the far reaches of the trail deep in the Cockaponset State Forest, I’d go on a side quest to Camp Farnum’s trail system. And since I didn’t know how long that would take, I wanted to be sure to get to it. I began by following the same simple path I took with my sons years ago.

For some dumb reason I veered off to follow a woods road. This isn’t exciting. All it did was add to my mileage for no reason at all.

Eventually I reached where the Mattabesett joins the white trail and took it the quarter mile southwest until it intersected with the red trail. The red trail is a large loop of about eight miles in total. There are a few cut-offs along the way, but for the most part, it is what it is. And what it is, apparently, is a trail built for mountain biking as much as hiking. Having hiked it, I can’t imagine biking it would be too fun, but I’m not well-versed in what makes a mountain biking ride fun.

But I do know that the constant swerves and unnecessary turns along this trail is pretty aggravating for hiking purposes.

But as I twisted and turned in the gunmetal gloom of mid-November, I got kind of lost in the moment. I think my favorite smell in the world is that of woodsmoke permeating the air on a day just like the day I was experiencing.

It’s not just the smell for me, but the deep-seated memories attached to it. Early camping trips as a kid. My grandfather’s garden. The woods and freedom of my childhood. It was those experiences that led to me doing what I do now – and why I get kind of upset about “kids these days” and their extreme lack of anything similar.

I was paying close attention to my surroundings as I approached the old woods roads to Camp Farnum. The Camp was (and perhaps someday will be again) a cool little woodland escape for disadvantaged kids from New Haven and other areas. The pandemic apparently knocked it down a bit, and I’m not sure it will recover.

It has/had a trail network, but as I passed a heavily “No Trespassing” signed trail, my hopes became slim. I could see that pool and some buildings through the woods, sure, but it was down, down, down a very steep slope. A slope that made me realize that I wouldn’t be checking out the off-limits and likely overgrown Camp Farnum trail system.

I’ll survive.

The trail took me through multiple laurel patches and seemed to try to get to the top of every hump in the forest. As I crested one such hump overlooking a rather pretty and unexpected gorge, I heard a waterfall!

The trail took me up and around and back down the other side of the falling brook for a better view. I dubbed these Farnum Falls and determined them to be nice enough to get their own CTMQ page.

From that stream crossing, I sort of went on autopilot back to the parking lot. That’s not to say it’s not a cool hike, for it is. But I was already calculating my time out in the woods realizing I was only about halfway done the giant red loop here, so I started hoofing it.

So much so that I almost missed the old crumbling building at one point. I have no idea what this was, but it was built darn well by someone at some point. it will probably remain standing for another 100 years.

On this stretch the trail passes fairly close behind some houses (the producers of the woodsmoke I’d smelled). Man, I hope if there are kids living there that they take advantage of having this massive natural playground available to them rather than Fortniting it all day long every day. (I know, I know, old man yelling at clouds…)

Reaching the parking lot allowed me to swig my coffee and grab another layer, as it was getting colder. As I was doing so, I saw this:

It was about 40 degrees. But this dude was jacked and appeared sound of mind.

As I began my eastern jaunt, I saw another person who caused me some concern:

This person, a young woman it turned out, was raking the woods. Literally.

She was a state employee tasked with… raking leaves from the wide dirt road down to the pond. Now, I’m sure… I hope? there’s a good reason for this. But the day was windy. It was mid-November. Her efforts would be erased by the next day. Insert state employee barb here.

Let’s get away from the parking area and back into the comfort of the woods.

The eastern half of the red loop is more of the same as the western half. Less hilly by a smidge, I suppose. But just as curvy and twisty and turny. I mean, seven miles of this type of psychotic hiking takes a toll. Again, I’m sure bikers probably like it? I guess? It makes a ride more exciting than just a boring straight trail? But hiking it is… just dumb after a while.

There’s a cool quarry type of thing I passed pretty near the parking lot. But after a while everything blurs together here. I walked down near the southern tip, but cut across a red/white trail and then wound up bushwhacking back to get to the yellow trail. Ah, yellow. A new color.

I enjoyed the one mile yellow trail, which finished up my time at Millers Pond. It’s the easternmost trail and had a different feel to it. It’s mostly in the state park (rather than forest) and seemed to be more of a hiking, rather than mountain biking, trail. I also came across this little guy:

I tucked him back away and continued along the yellow trail. It took me perilously close to the road which, after a couple hours deep in the Cockaponset on a trail that I’m guessing is only rarely hiked, sort of threw me a bit. But this trail is cool. I recommend the yellow trail for sure.

I completed the yellow trail, walked past the quarry on the red again and made it out to my car. I really enjoyed Millers Pond and I think my lethargy on this page is more reflective of writing about it rather than hiking it. So don’t be turned off by that; Millers Pond offers lots of miles of good hiking on well-cleared and marked trails.

And yes, the park worker was still raking the woods as I left the park.

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Millers Pond State Park
CTMQ’s Millers Pond State Park Intro
CTMQ’s 2016 The Sky’s the Limit Challenge