Bishop Swamp

My expectations for Bishop Swamp was an easy gravel path that provided access to the swamp, the resulting hike was very different. 

I found no evidence of trail maps as most people use Bishop Swamp as a fishing and boating area.  So the GPS track below may be the closest thing to a trail map available. 

From the parking area on 603, I started out on a rutted gravel road washed out by years of rains.  A third of a mile in the trail has been overgrown by thorny blackberries and a path has been cut to the left to circumvent.  The understory here is very thick and I couldn’t see much beyond the edge of the trail.  Throughout the first mile, horse flies swarmed overhead and hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of small frogs hopped out of the way in any grass section.  Passing over a gas pipeline utility corridor I paused to let the dragonflies zipping in the sunlight pick off some of my horsefly followers.  I called this section, Frog Gap.

Just past a mile, I crouched under a long section of overgrown trail after which the woods opened up and the trail forked.  I headed right first and started passing thick stone walls and with a little bit of searching found an old foundation.  The area had to have been farmed or used for raising animals, but I haven’t found evidence to back it up.  I called this section of the trail Farmwall.

From here the trail forks again one section that appears to never be used dead ends at private property near New Boston Hill and Hurst Farm.  The other crosses a small (likely man-made) pond before reaching East St.  This side is ungated and you can see attempts have been made to get down it by the ruts in the mud where vehicles get stuck.

Back by the old foundation, the other fork heads along the edge of the swamp but never gets close enough for a real view.  It seems this part of the trails is recent logging roads though probably not for at least a year or more.  Following the trail southwest headed back towards East St and eventually came upon an abandoned house.  The sun was setting just right going through an open window that it looked like there were lights on inside, but pushing through the weeds to the open door proved otherwise.  Gaping holes in the floor show piles of beer cans and graffiti proclaims, “Andover people smoke here, weed is good!”.  I call this “spur” trail the Lily House Trail for the native orange daylilies growing around it.  At over five miles in I was ready to be done and thankfully the last trail to explore looped back to near the old foundation.

So in lieu of blazes or any official map here is my named ExploreCT trail map: