Hartford County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: August 4, 2001
Author: Dan Case

I followed Denis Hanson's directions - whatever road repairs were going on are long done now.

It's West Street, not West Road, and it helps to look out for the signs to the picnic area at Howell's Pond. There's one at CT 20, and they take the same turns. If you're coming up to West Hartland from the junction of CT 8 and CT 20 in Winchester you hit this turnoff before any real downtown, so keep your eyes peeled. At the T intersection, the turnoff to the Tunxis WMA trailhead is Wilderness Road.

My guess is that it's about a quarter-mile to the junction, then 0.35 to the overgrown woods road that wends up to near the summit. Along that, however, you should expect to hike about another 0.4 mile or so. Total hike one-way is about a mile, maybe more. Along the first two roads, the land on your left is private and posted, and the land to your right has CT DEP markers.

Height of land along this road is an area with an overgrown field to the left and a slight slope up to bare rock on the right. The bare rock is not the summit, however convenient it might be for it to be so. From this point, begin bushwhacking, trending to the northwest, where higher ground is just visible. You will pass several candidates in this generally passable second- and third-growth forest before you finally see a slightly clearer area with a fern bed (in season, anyway). Behind it slightly stands a cairn about three and a half feet or so tall, with the highest ground around just to its west. I can only assume that this marks the 1,398+ foot spot and thus the county highpoint, several hundred feet from the wood road.