Mt. Frissell, Round Mtn., MA/CT, 10/29/06

[threecy]

Round Mtn., CT, Mt. Frissell, MA/CT

Date Hiked: 10/29/06

Trails(s) Hiked: Mt. Frissell Trail

Total Distance: ~3 miles?

Difficulty: Moderate

Conditions: Submerged trail at the beginning, weather ranging from clear and sunny to snow and limited visibility

Special Required Equipment: None

Arriving at the parking lot, I was only the second vehicle there. After the hike I determined this person must have gone up Bear Mountain, as there was not a soul to be seen on the hike I went on.

The first part of the hike, from the MA/CT marker trailhead to the fork in the trail, was terrible. The recent rains had submerged the trail in up to half a foot of water. After attempting to walk on the side of the trail (and running out of dry ground), I paused for a few minutes, gave up on the trail, and pushed my way through the mountain laurel on the south side of the trail.

The next challenge was the snow storm that had just moved in. The open ledge of Round Mountain and Mt. Frissell made for extremely windy conditions. Visibility dropped rather quickly, however it came back after I summitted, as some blue sky opened up briefly.

Though most of the hike is flat to moderate, there are a few steep sections on both mountains that may require some very minor climbing.

Looking south at Lake Riga from Round Mountain

Looking west at the Catskills from Mt. Frissell

 

[Greg]

Thanks! That is a great area.

 

[threecy]

It definitely doesn't fit the image I had of Connecticut hiking...surprisingly good views, pretty remote, nice alpine feel on the summits. The more I hike this region, the more I want to venture into the Catskills for some hikes soon.

 

[Greg]

I've spent a fair amount of time hiking the Riga Plateau and your evaluation is right on. Not a huge area, but some great hiking can be had there. Some other recommendations in the area if you haven't already done them is Race Brook Falls/Mount Race, Alander and Brace in NY.

 

[threecy]

Did Race a few weeks ago, nice mountain...Brace looked like a nice mountain, but I didn't plan or feel like going to it yesterday. Might try to do that and Bear in a day sometime.

 

[Mike P.]

threecy, how did you do Race? (Okay it's probably here) The best part of Race is south of the summit where the AT skirts the top of the cliff for sometime, 4/10 to 1/2 a mile. The summit is neat too but the cliff walk is the most exposed part of trail south of Moosilauke in NH.

If you are going up from the Mt. Washington Road (or whatever it's called in each state) you should have no problem doing Bear & Brace in the same day, you could skip over Frissell & Round again.

Several years ago some friends & I (including my Mom & my wife - we were dating then) did a key swap hike, some started in CT & Some started in NY we met on Frissell swapped keys & then went to the other persons car. This enabled us to hit Brace, Frissell, Round & Bear (the fastest hiker, from CT did Lion's Head, Bear, Round, Frissell & then Brace.

My chief knock on doing Brace & Frissell from this road is you miss the other scenic views. On Brace you have a nice waterfall, yesterday would have been very worthwhile, when dry the flow is a tad anemic + views on South Brace. As I mentioned on my other post, the walk from Brace to Frissell is the best part of Frissell.

 

[threecy]

I did Race via the Rack Brook trail (didn't have much time that day, wanted to do that and Everett, so it was the best option).

I hiked down Frissell to the three state marker and observed that that was a nice hike (from the summit, around to the highpoint, and down the west face). I'm thinking I might do Bear/Brace in the spring when up north is still pretty wet.

Round Mountain was pretty nice...if I were older and more patient, I would do lunch there or something.