page_title: Lillinonah Trail
section_title: Trail route
hierarchical_section_title: Lillinonah Trail / Trail description / Trail route
caption_attribution_description: Lillinonah Trail. Blue-Blazed CFPA foot path which circles the upper Paugussett State Forest (and Lake Lillinonah/Housatonic River) in Newtown, CT. Al's Trail Association (Newton Trail Association) Newtown Trailway sign on tree on Lillinonah Trail. Blue-Blazed CFPA foot path which circles the upper Paugussett State Forest (and Lake Lillinonah/Housatonic River) in Newtown, CT
context_page_description: The Lillinonah Trail is a 5.9-mile Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" in the lower Housatonic River valley in Fairfield County and, today, is entirely in Newtown. Most of the trail is in the upper block of Paugussett State Forest.
  The mainline trail circles the Paugussett State Forest "upper block". The west, north and east portions of the trail are shared with the northern section of Al's Trail—a ten-mile trail in Newtown.
  The Lillinonah Trail today is composed of four sides in a square "loop".
  Notable features include the Hanover Road parking lot and boat launch, semi-obscured scenic views of Pond Brook inlet and Lake Lillinonah, a climb to a high point of 480-foot, a very large oak tree, several stone fences and foundations and a demonstration of a maple sugaring technique known as "sugarbush" near the Echo Valley Road parking lot. The Lillinonah Trail is maintained largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association and the Newtown Forest Association.
  The Lillinonah Trail appears to have been a larger trail in the 1940s based on the map in the 1940 CFPA Connecticut Walk Book.
context_section_description: The western section of the Lillinonah Trail parallels Pond Brook on high eastern bank running south to north.  The northern Lillinonah trail section follows the Housatonic River/Lake Lillinonah from west to east but turns inland to the southeast before the junction of the Housatonic River with the Shepaug River.  Inland the trail traverses a hill to a high point of 480 feet and descends south-east until it reaches the western bank of the Housatonic River/Lake Lillinonah.  The eastern section of the trail follows the western bank of the Housatonic River/Lake Lillinonah until just before a point on the shore to which is anchored a line of buoys to the Shepaug Dam at the southern end of Lake Lillinonah.  The southern section of the Lillinonah Trail begins at the Paugussett State Forest parking lot at the end of Echo Valley Road.  After skirting a private property lot it generally travel north and west along the Paugussett State Forest upper block boundary.
  The Lillinonah Trail traverses several high river bank ridges with scenic views of the Housatonic River though they may be obscured by foliage, particularly in the summer.  This 3.2 mile section of the trail near the river banks is designated a 'scenic trail' by the Connecticut Department of Environment Protection (and who close it from December 15 to March 15).
  Several year-round and seasonal streams cut across the trail to flow into the Housatonic River.
  The Lillinonah Trail travels near several "milepost" markers labeled with the letters "CL&P" (Connecticut Light and Power).
  A few miles south of Lillinonah Trail on the Housatonic River can be found the Lake Zoar Blue-Blazed Trails which span both the west and east banks of Lake Zoar.  The Zoar Trail is on the western bank of Lake Zoar in the lower block of the Paugussett State Forest in Newtown.  The Kettletown State Park trails are on the eastern bank of Lake Zoar, primarily in Kettletown State Park (in Southbury.
  'Al's Trail' overlaps with the Lillinonah Trail for the first four miles of each.  The two separate shortly before the Lillinonah Trail reaches the Paugussett State Forest parking lot at the end of Echo Valley Road.  Al's Trail continues for six more miles through Newtown, Connecticut, ending near the grounds of the former state mental institution known as "Fairfield Hills" (AKA Fairfield State Hospital).  Newtown currently (2010) has a proposal to turn these former grounds into a town recreational with multi-use trails.
  There are marked and unmarked trails and dirt forest roads which cross the interior of the Paugussett State Forest Upper Block, some of which connect to the Lillinonah Trail.  The Polly Brody Fire Road is a wide dirt road which arcs from the end of Echo Valley Road through the center of the state forest block.  A shared-use trail (mountain biking, horseback, & hiking) known as the Upper Gussy Trail has been built by members of the CT Chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association and Newtown Bridle Lands Association.  The Upper Gussy Trail is a State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection officially approved shared-use trail.  The State DEP now has an official Upper Paugussett Trails Map with all the recognized trails in the forest. There are connectors between these trails (including the White Trail).
caption: Newton Forest Association Sign marking Al's Trail on the Lillinonah Trail
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