Rules: Foot travel only: no vehicles, bicycles or horses. Dogs must be leashed. Blue trails sometimes pass through private property. Practice Leave No Trace principles on your outing.

Walkability: Moderate to difficult due to some very steep sections, rocks in the trail, and some sections on rock. One section includes a steep wooden stairway which is a little difficult to get onto (going up the stairs in the direction we walked). Without the stairway, some rock climbing would be required.

Total distance: 4.2  miles (abt. 2.5 hours not including breaks) In addition, if you drive one car, there is an additional 1- mile walk back to your parking spot on roads. 

Elevation change: 404 feet up, then down.

Caution: This trail skirts most of the Hull Forest Products property. An active hunting club leases the property year round. They hunt during legal seasons and may also do target practice in the off season. There are warning signs. Don't stray into this area on your hike.

Environment:  This is the longest leg of the Nipmuck Trail in Ashford, and has no intersecting roads, so there is no bailing out. We hiked this leg on a lovely late September day, and went from the trailhead on Barlow Mill to the end of the leg on Boston Hollow Road (northern trailhead to southern trailhead). 

The trail begins with an upward climb, leaving the bottom of the hollow and moving to the top of it. The climb starting where we did is less steep than the climb from Boston Hollow Road. Once at the top of the escarpment,  most of the walk is fairly level with intermittent ups and downs.

There are several different environments on this hike, including hemlock trees with little undergrowth, deciduous sections with saplings coming up where old trees have died, and areas of dense mountain laurel under deciduous trees. This is another area that is beautiful when the mountain laurels bloom in June. One constant along this trail is the plethora of large rocks which have dislodged from the rock face. Other large stones are glacial erratics, deposited when the glacier retreated.

We crossed five or six small stream beds on the route, and all were completely dry since rainfall is significantly lower than normal this year.  A hike on a day after a good rain, or in a season with normal rainfall, would require some rock jumping to get across these waterways.

We noted zero invasive plants along the trail. This is a refreshing difference from some of the shorter, more heavily traveled trails in town. 

The best part of this trail may be the fabulous view from the edge of the escarpment overlooking Boston Hollow Road and looking southeastward, coming at the 3.5 mark on our hike (0.7 miles from the Boston Hollow Road trailhead). This view includes four sets of ridges, with the farthest likely to be in Rhode Island, some 20 miles distant. There are places to sit on the rocks to enjoy this view, but be careful! They are right at the edge of the steep drop down to the bottom of the hollow.

Directions: Barlow Mill Road has no sign identifying it. It turns north off Boston Hollow Road within sight of the wooden bridge over Bigelow Brook. Travel about 0.7 miles north on Barlow Mill Road to just before crossing Bigelow Brook (at the old mill site). There is parking opposite the trailhead, which is marked by a Hull Forest Products sign. The Boston Hollow trailhead has space for 2-3 vehicles, and a typical Blue Trails signboard with a map of the trail.

Link to Connecticut Forest and Parks Association interactive trail map: https://ctwoodlands.org/explore-trails/interactive-map/ On a computer, type in "Nipmuck" and select "Nipmuck Trail" to see this section. On a phone, zoom in to locate area.

Back to the Nipmuck Trail Overview page. Link to previous leg of the Nipmuck Trail, 14F Eastford Road to Boston Hollow Road. 

September 2025