Richard H. Goodwin Trail

Linear Trail in East Lyme, Salem, Lyme, and East Haddam, CT

Parking: See Section List below

Trail Map-Overview      Trail: 13 miles


The Richard H. Goodwin Trail is one of Connecticut’s newest long trails, completed in June of 2016 thanks to the Eightmile River Watershed committee. It is named for Richard Goodwin who led the Connecticut chapter of the Nature Conservancy for 50 years and was chairman of Connecticut College’s arboretum.

The trail travels 13 miles across the towns of:

The trail is almost entirely within the Eightmile River Wild & Scenic Watershed.  The trail is easy to moderate hiking and fairly well-blazed with yellow diamonds centered with a green “G” though there are several key junctions which could be better blazed expect to take a misstep or two.  Most sections are multi-use (most notable exception is the Yale property) so check the individual pages.

I ran the length of the trail with a friend in March 2020 and at a relaxed pace it took us just under three hours.  After the trail check out nearby Fox Farm Brewery for a beer or a fantastic grinder at Salem Prime Cuts.

Section List:

West to East (exact section distances are rough and still need dialing in)

Other Sources:

Nehantic State Forest East Lyme

★★☆☆☆

41.437927, -72.262657

Nehantic State Forest | East Lyme Block Connecticut State Forest 1,931 acres in East Lyme Parking: North End: Medium sized lot at the end of Holmes Rd …

Chapal Farm Preserve

Unexplored

41.437281, -72.337727

Chapal Farm Preserve East Haddam Land Trust 109 acres in East Haddam, CT Parking: West end:  Medium sized lot near Rt. 82, East Haddam, CT East end:…

Hartman Park

★★★☆☆

41.426842, -72.286704

Hartman Park Lyme Town Park / Lyme Land Trust 302 acres in Lyme, CT Parking: Small lot near 122 Gungy Rd, Lyme, CT Trail Map     …

Darling Road Preserve

★★★☆☆

41.447833, -72.296345

Darling Road Preserve Salem Land Trust 142.5 acres in Salem, CT Parking: Small lot at 428 Darling Rd. and shoulder parking near 470 Darling Rd. Trail Map     …