Paugussett Forest is located on the shores of Lake Zoar and includes a long loop trail along a beautiful shore, an impressive waterfall, and serene wooded hills.
I read about this park and trail online, most of the reviews made it out to be a very difficult loop. This was also the first time since getting sick that I carried a full backpack with camera gear. I expected the worst but I'll say flat out that I didn't find the trail to be that difficult. There were some steep inclines here and there but overall this was a pleasant trip!
The hike begins along the shoreline of Lake Zoar. This section is beautiful and only occasionally interrupted by the buzz of motor boats ripping by. You can even view the beach of Kettletown state park across the lake at one point. This section of trail was fairly busy with people as two miles into the hike you will come to Prydden brook falls.
This fantastic waterfall drops many times until feeing directly into lake zoar below. We lucked out and had it to ourselves for a solid half hour. It can be tricky to hop along the slippery boulders to capture the entire thing in photos but it was worth the effort. The setting alone makes this worthy of being a top waterfall in Connecticut despite its smaller size
Someone even left a hammock in the trees at the bottom of the large section of the falls. There was a lovely laminated note that read something along the lines of: "This place has brought me so much peace I've left my hammock for you to enjoy, I hope it brings you just as much peace."
I'm paraphrasing but the thoughtfulness was touching.
The only complaint I have is that there was an enormous amount of gnats at the time we visited and they chased us relentlessly throughout the park. The gnats aside, this shoreline to the fall is an amazing out and back trip most people were making that day. We planned to do the full loop so we headed back to the trail. We cut a portion of the blue trail off to head up the white/blue trail.
This blue/white trail followed directly along the brook that feeds Prydden falls. Unfortunately it grows distant from the path rather quickly. We could see other small water falls in the distance but I didn't want to bushwhack or climb down the ravine. Once you cross the small foot bridge over the stream you've truly entered the woods.
The rest of our hike was spent mostly ascending little hills and mountains in the heart of the forest. There was some loose dirt and rock that would be difficult to navigate in bad weather or snow. This made up a bit less then 2/3rd's of the overall hike. This is probably best described as an excellent example of a hike through New England woods.
Near the end of our hike we discovered an interesting grove. We passed through two trees that were painted with a design, but directly behind them were more then a dozen other trees painted with what appeared to be lyrics? I couldn't put my finger on the words so it could be from something else but they felt familiar. We lacked cell service so we couldn't look them up at the time.
I would say Paugussett is a lovely forest but the real attraction is the shoreline hike to the falls. We saw plenty of people walking through the woods... many didn't seem to realize how long the trail was as we heard many complaints about getting to the car! But if you have the time I encourage you to go relax in these beautiful woods afterwards.
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