Park Pond in Connecticut

Trip Overview

Originally had planned to go to nearby Winchester Lake, but when we got there it was quite windy and the water was white cappy and just looked like a lot of extra work for a paddle. Looked in the books (CT boating guide and CT & RI gazetteer) and this place wasn't far away at all. What a gem! We got there and saw calm water, although a fisherman was leaving and said it was rough out further. We said it looked better than Winchester and the worst that could happen was we would turn around. I don't know what he thought was rough about it although I don't tend to paddle out in the middle of these places, I thought it was perfect. Yeah it had some small waves from the wind but nothing like whitecaps and definitely not unpaddlable! We poked our way around the edges and even went past a spillway up a couple hundred yards into a skinny but beautiful inlet to the pond. Not much in the way of wildlife, a heron, hawk, ducks, fish, and some turtles. But extremely clean and clear looking water that made me wish I'd worn my bathing suit! We poke paddled and stopped and ate lunch in a quiet cove and finished in about 21/2 hrs and then went around a 2nd time in about 13/4- 2 hrs. It looks like there is a summer camp but it wasn't in session now so there wasn't the noise you might encounter if it were in session. All in all a real nice easy paddle.

Accommodations:

Has a drive in boat launch for motorboats (8 mph limit)(no water-skiing) and shallow enough to put in canoe or kayak. There also was a port-o-let across the street in the parking area.

Directions:

From Rte 44 in Winsted take Rte 263 past signs for Winchester Lake turnoff to a left turn on Blue Rd. boat launch on left, parking on right.