River to Ridgetop South

• White Trail – 2 miles
  • Starting from the parking area off Mt. Archer Road it is a long slow climb uphill on well traveled trail to reach a set of farm ruins. These are pretty substantial with several piles of rocks and stonewalls though less distinct than I was expecting. The trail then cuts across the property along a main wall and returns along the other side of the hill which was much wetter requiring some stone hopping.
• Orange Trail – 0.5 miles
  • This trail completes the outside loop of the property, but appears to be the least used.  It is well blazed but doesn’t seem much traffic. It follows the road and actually utilizes it for a few feet at the two driveways it crosses and bends into the woods around a marsh inbetween.
• Yellow Trail – 1.2 miles
  • From the ruins the trail heads off towards the ridge through the stonewall following the rough edge of Czikowsky Hill. It could cross over Mount Archer’s highpoint but seems content to make full use of the property boundary. The overlook marked on the map doesn’t provide much of view even in winter other than obstructed views to the hills beyond through the trees.
• Red Trail – 0.8 miles
  • The most winding of the trails here covering the rolling terrain it crosses a small stream and had several wet areas that required rock hopping after winter rains. It provides access to the blue access trail from Pickwick’s Preserve
• Blue Trail – 0.4 miles
  • I didn’t actually hike this since I used a different parking area, but would be a woodsy slow climb up to meet the red trail.

From the preserve brochure: “The 101-acre Chauncey Eno Preserve, named for the late owner of the property and former first selectman of Lyme, was acquired by the Lyme Land Trust in 1998 through private donations. Mount Archer Woods is a Town of Lyme-owned 275-acre property, purchased in 2003 with private donations and funding from the Town of Lyme, the State of Connecticut and The Nature Conservancy. In 2006, an anonymous donor purchased and donated an easement on the 18-acre Pickwick’s Preserve, providing access to the trails from Joshuatown Road. The preserve was named for the donor’s Shetland sheepdog.”

• Peter Marteka – More than 400 miles of trails and a ‘gnome hunt’ to explore in Lyme’s ‘River to Ridgetop Preserves’ (2024)