Pequonnock Greenway
off Route 111, Newtown/Monroe/Trumbull, Fairfield County, Connecticut

Directions:

Merritt Parkway (Route 15) north; get off at Exit 48; turn left onto Route 111; (about 3.0 miles up is the Corner Deli which is pretty good or 6.0 miles up is a McDonald's); a little ways before reaching McDonalds, turn left onto Purdy Hill Road;  at the T-intersection turn right onto Old Newtown; there is a pull-off  along the right hand side of the road (just after passing the elementary school); there is an unmarked dirt road entrance here just across from house #205. 

The Pequonnock Greenway is a hiking trail on the old Housatonic Railbed.

Swamp Road off Route 25 (Botsford, town of Newtown)
Pine Swamp (Newtown and Monroe border)
Pepper Street (off Route 25)
over two branches of the West Branch Pequonnock River
Brook Drive
over the West Branch Pequonnock River
Pepper Street
Cutlers Farm Road
behind Stepney Elementary School
William E. Wolfe Park, west of Great Hollow Lake
Purdy Hill Road
east of and parallel with Maple Drive
over West Branch Pequonnock River
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Monroe/Trumbull border east of Route 25Pinus strobus (white pine)
Spring Hill Road
east of and parallel with Main Street (Route 25)
Route 111 (Monroe Turnpike)
between Route 25 on the west and the lake at Old Mine Park on the east
east of and parallel. with Route 25
goes under Route 25
Parlor Rock Park
Whitney Avenue (east of Route 25)
Pequonnock River Valley (west of Indian Ledge Park and west of and parallel with Pequonnock River)
Taits Mill Road
Churchill Road by Helen Plumb Building

East Branch:
Indian Ledge Park
east of and parallel with the Pequonnock River
trail connection west to the West Branch of the Pequonnock Greenway
end of Park Street
down to Daniel Farms Road

Source:

Trumbull Land Trust:  http://www.elbek.com/TLT/Preserves.htm

10/05/2005.  On a cool morning, Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I parked a short distance past the Stepney Elementary School on Old Newtown Road. I wanted to see the position of the Pequonnock Greenway Trail to William E. Wolfe Park. 

What a disappointment.  Unless I am way off base, I think they just do not have a real trailway here. We walked south behind the Stepney Elementary School to catch the blue trail crossing this entry road to the radio tower (or whatever it is).  The trail went behind the school all right but soon after reaching the south lend of the school lawn, the trail just disappeared.  We picked up an informal trail and then ran into lots of ATV circular trails.  So I just decided to follow one of the ATV trails.  One headed east downhill to a clearing where they have set up a paint-ball field surrounded by yellow caution tape.  On one of their protective stations they have the words "Jews Suck Dicks" accompanied with Swastikas.  (Maybe some residents should complain and have the offending words removed.)

We walked around the area but all trails seemed to peter out, so we just decided to turn back and return to the car.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = plant blooming on date of field trip 10/05/2005

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Carya cordiformis (bitternut hickory)
Carya tomentosa (mockernut  hickory)
Castanea dentata (American chestnut)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Tilia americana (American basswood)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Chimaphila maculata (striped wintergreen)
Corylus sp. (hazel)
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Gaylussacia baccata (black huckleberry)
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Ilex verticillata (winterberry)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Vaccinium sp. (a low bush blueberry)
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Acalypha sp. (three-seeded mercury)
Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed)    
Amphicarpaea bracteata (hog peanut)
Aralia nudicaulis (wild sarsaparilla)
Aster divaricatus (white wood aster)      *
Aster spp. (small white aster)     *
Chenopodium album (pigweed)
Commelina communis (Asiatic dayflower)     *
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot)     *
Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod)     *
Hemerocallis fulva (tawny day lily)
Lespedeza capitata (round-headed bushclover)
Lobelia inflata (Indian tobacco)    
Lysimachiaquadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe)    
Osmorhiza sp. (sweet cicely/aniseroot)
Oxalis sp. (yellow wood sorrel)    
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed)     *
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Polygonum virginianum (jumpseed)
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal)
Solidago bicolor (silverrod)     *waning
Solidago caesia (blue-stem goldenrod)     *

Sedges:
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)

Grasses:
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)

Ferns:
Lycopodium obscurum (ground pine)
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)

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