Leg 4 of CT AT, Housatonic River Walk to Pine Knob Loop

*8.4 miles, and ~1400 feet elevation gain* I love doing the Appalachian Trail, hike by hike, in order. This takes all the guesswork out of the “which hike to do this weekend” question which used to take up a lot of thinking time! I would research the hike, read the reviews, check the weather…and pretty much go back to each of those actions over and over in various orders! So…this one marked the 4th leg of the CT portion of the Appalachian Trail and it felt like a ‘welcome to spring’ kind of hike. If you’ve done the river walk you know it is this pretty, narrow, windy trail along the river…and for the first 4+ miles it is pretty flat. River on your right, field on the left.

It is the cutest little path that you ever did see! 🙂 But then…after this river walk section…the incline begins! Nearly all of the climbing is in this second half of the hike so if you want to eat I suggest a light snack otherwise you will feel like you are walking uphill with a weighted belt..like me! Hehe. The next few miles will be up and down, you’ll cross a couple busy roads (leash up the dogs if you have them! roads kind of come out of nowhere) and there will be this little overlook a couple miles in to the climb..

Hello tired pups in bottom right! Captain found a mud puddle, dug himself a little hole and flopped down like a pig! Good boy.

And then…hang in there..almost done! You will come to a point (see pic below with sign on tree) where you have to CROSS this little river and it was super high so we had to cross barefoot and carry our shoes. Kinda fun but only cause temp was like 70 degrees so…keep that in mind. And then FINALLY, FINALLY, we saw the link to the blue (pine knob loop trail). Note, it is the SECOND blue marking and not the first. Take a right at second blue marking and you will begin a lovely descent of about .7 miles down to the Pine Knob Loop Trail parking lot! (PS we drove 2 cars up and left one at Housatonic River parking and other at Pine Knob lot.) Hope you enjoy the pics…let me know if you decide to try it!