SUMMARY: This new 1.4-mile lollipop-loop takes hikers past hayfields and old stone walls as it loops down a gentle hill and back up again. This open space is full of deer, turkey, and coyote (leash your dogs). Avoid this trail during mud season, since the hillside is poorly drained and the trails susceptible to damage.
***SPECIAL NOTE: As of February 2024, Eversource is wrapping up their project to replace towers with monopoles. Their lines cross a wet section of the trail just before the loop portion of the hike begins, as well as the red spur trail, and these portions of the trail system are officially closed until their work is complete. Impacted sections may be impassible for a time after Eversource removes their timber matts. The Trails Committee will be assessing the trail as work proceeds. This is also a trail to generally avoid in the spring due to mud. Plan on doing this hike later in the season. Finally, please stay on the trail and off of the hayfields during the active growing season, since people walking across the field can damage the farmer's crop of hay. After the hay has been cut, and during the winter, it's OK to explore the fields.
PARKING: #47 East Village Road. This is the entrance to an access drive that leads to the parking lot. Look for a "Trailhead Parking" sign on the east side of the road.
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| Click map to enlarge |
MAP: The full official trail map is located HERE. Use our Google Map #1 to geolocate yourself along the trail while hiking.
BLAZE COLOR: White
CONDENSED DESCRIPTION: Follow the white blazes. Shortly after crossing the powerlines, turn left off the farm road to follow the loop in a clockwise direction. Take the red spur to the edge of a hayfield and return. Complete the white loop and return to your car.
FULL DESCRIPTION: The trail begins at the back of the parking lot and turns left to enter the woods. Follow the white blazes as the "stem" of the lollipop loop runs parallel to a long stone wall with an active hayfield on the other side. The trail will then jog to the left to cross the stone wall, and then back to the right along the middle of the field, which is very narrow at this point. We've been told the narrowing walls were used to pen sheep for shearing.
Follow the white blazes and arrows carefully. At the powerlines, the trail will go left, follow the powerlines a short ways, then cross the powerlines and turn RIGHT to reenter the woods on a farm road. (Note: While under the powerlines, there will be a farm road heading off to the left. Do not take this road. Remember to follow the white markings).
***The loop begins immediately after crossing the powerlines. This loop is easier in the clockwise direction, so look for the trail junction and turn LEFT off of the farm road. This will allow you to cover the areas with trickier footing while going uphill. (It is easier to take a bad step going downhill when you have more momentum).
The utility corridor will be just off to your left as you begin the loop portion of the hike. For this challenge, you'll take a quick detour onto a spur trail over to the base of the hill that gives this preserve its name. Look for the red blazes on the left before the trail veers away from the powerlines, and follow them across the powerlines and to the edge of a hayfield. During the off-season, this can be fun grassy hillside to explore (do not walk on the fields if hay is actively growing). The smooth hill is a geologic formation called a drumlin. For this challenge, though, you can turn around directly and head back to the white-blazed main loop.
Continue around the loop, gradually downhill, and watch for the blazes to take a sharp right to follow the grade for a spell, before joining an old farm road and heading back up the hill. This area was a pasture some decades ago, evidenced by large "wolf trees" that matured with outstretched arms in open fields, as well as acres of invasive Japanese barberry, a shrub that tolerates soil compacted by livestock. The old farmers knew which parts of their land they could plow and grow crops and which areas could only be used as pasture or woodlot. The existing hayfields at French's Hill are the superior areas that could be cultivated.
The trail will eventually return to the old farm road where the loop began. Turn right onto the farm road and retrace your steps back to your car.
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