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West Hartford Reservoir
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
5 reviews for West Hartford Reservoir
Excellent running trails! This 5K is a whore. I've been running it for two months and my time has improved only ever so slightly. I would love to see parts of the Red Trail repaved, because when there is heavy walker traffic I end up getting pushed into the potholes at the side. My knees do not like this.
Lots of hills, great scenery, and both bikers and dogwalkers are very courteous. I would love to get a hike in and get off the Red Trail one of these days. The view from the top is supposed to be amazing.
I've been here at least a thousand times and I always love it. Great for walking, hiking, biking and X-country skiing. In the spring, fall, summer or winter it doesn't matter, this place is always gorgeous.
The only possible negative is that you can't go swimming, although I can remember a few times on dark nights..........
The Reservoir is actually quite large and if you get off the main roads and trails you can follow small side trails deep into the woods. Lots of wildlife in the area, especially reptiles and amphibians. I seen many turtles and lots of waters snakes which can be can be quite aggressive. I still have a scar on my thumb to prove it. On occasion I have seen copperheads sunning themselves in the road.
I remember years ago when some fools where thinking about running a highway through the Reservoir and saying how it would have no impact. Yeah right. Fortunately wiser heads prevailed. It would be an absolutely sin to harm this pristine place.
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- Useful (3)
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I ran a quarter marathon on this trail in April. My time was 1 hour, 5 minutes. It was really hard, but totally worth it. I like the fact that the route is closed off to cars. The scenery is beautiful. I look foward to many more runs at the reservior. I wonder if there are days/times when it is more crowded; I probably wouldn't want to run this in the evening by myself.
This is the best running trail I've encountered in all my years. I really like the Farmington Valley Greenbelt (or Greenway, or whatever the hell it's called); but the reservoir has hills and the Green thing is very flat. And while I hate running hills with a passion, I've concluded that everybody needs to run hills.
I won't mention the fact that most lakes, ponds and the like are actually man-made out here, but the scenery is as good as it gets. Just the other day the reservoir was frozen with fresh snow on top. It made me feel like I was running through Siberia.
The only problem I've encountered is those special days when half of West Hartford is there walking their sorry-ass dogs. The owners seem oblivious to the common sense rule of keeping one's dog at one's side. Otherwise the mangy mutts draw their leashes across the whole path, effectively setting tripwires for any passers-by.
Other than that, there is an odd amount of cute girls running the reservoir as compared to the Greenbelt; I guess that has something to do with the remoteness of the Greenbelt and the relative safety of the reservoir.
As for specs, I think the main trail is around a 3.1 or 3.2 mile loop, and contains a 5k marked run. There's a gravel parking lot with ample space and three or four large blue porta potties that I never had the displeasure to use.
Yay, my first CT five-star review!
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Nice 5k, great trails through the woods, can be a tough start to running if you haven't ever/haven't in a while, but it's still a good time. Beautiful scenery. Never had any problems in the summer, but I did have a really creepy experience as night was starting to come earlier in the fall -- usually the MDC guys ride around but I did, on that occasion, feel a little bit threatened. Overall, great place to run in the afternoon, if girls are running late, bring a pal or a puppy.
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- Cool (2)