Cross Farms
108 acres in Tolland, CT
Parking: Large lot at 167 Rhodes Road, Tolland, CT
Trail Map Trails: 1 mile Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Hiking
The trail starts just inside the park entrance across from a small parking area. The trailhead sign is weathered and the map of the trail has been torn away.
I waded through a sea of ferns as the trail alternated between overgrown and oddly clear. The trail splits at several points in its southeastern portion, not including the one noted on the trail map above that heads to Old Cathole Rd. As I reached each fork I took whichever one seemed better established because trailblazes were very far and few between.
I ended up at the back of the soccer fields at 8/10s of a mile and came out onto a wide crushed stone path. The path seems to be newly constructed (as of July 2019) and leads directly to Tolland High School. I retraced my steps and took a dirt path that led to the 17th hole of the disc golf course. I followed the bridges and uphill passing several of the baskets before coming out near Hole 5 which also seems to be the start of the fitness trail. Several different obstacles line the wide grass corridor towards Birch Grove School.
This clearly wasn’t the loop trail indicated on the map above and my best guess is that the trail has been either been hidden by the well traveled disc golf course or entirely subsumed by it. The GPS track below shows the rough 1 mile loop hike which I finished by walking around the baseball fields back to my car.
Cross Farms main attraction is its 18-hole disc golf course. The course was established in 2006 and is rated a B+ by the community on The Disc Golf Scene. The course starts from the gravel lot past the kid’s jungle gym uphill and between the tree line and the upper soccer field. The course is wooded but easy to follow. Several baskets are out of the line of sight which can be challenging for a beginner and the trees are challenging for the rest.
History:
The property was purchased by the town in November 1993.
Links:
- UDisc – Cross Farms
- CTMQ – Cross Farms Recreation Complex (2021)
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Last updated July 9th, 2019
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