Length:                 Canal Road parking lot to Route 140 Mill Complex parking lot; 4 ½ miles

                                Route 140 Mill Complex to Letterbox; 2  miles

                                Canal Road to Letterbox; 2 1/2 miles

Difficulty:              Easy. Flat paved surface.

To start at the Canal Road parking lot; Take exit 47W off of I-91 and follow Route 190 west for 1.3 miles. Turn left onto Route 159 south. Take the first left onto Canal Road and follow to the parking lot.  

To start at the Route 140 Mill Complex parking lot; Take exit 45 off of I-91 and go west on Route 140. Just after you cross over the Connecticut River will be a mill complex on your right. Take the narrow road down along the canal to a parking lot.

The Windsor Locks Canal was built by hand between 1827 and 1829. It is 5 ½ miles long, 80 feet wide, but only 4 ½ feet deep. Three locks were built to accommodate the 30 foot elevation drop along it’s route, as well as an aqueduct to carry the Canal over Stony Brook. The Towpath, which is the hiking/biking path today, was used by horses to pull the boat traffic through the Canal. The Canal was built to enable boating traffic to avoid Enfield Falls, a series of rapids along this section of the Connecticut River. After the railroads came along, it functioned as a power source for nearby mills.

Starting from the Canal Road Parking Lot, the trail heads south. You cross through the fence and over the inlet gate. This is where the water enters the Canal from the Connecticut River. If you look out towards the river, you can see where it was dammed long ago to divert the water into the Canal. The Towpath is paved with a strip of grass bordering both sides.  NOTE: One side of the path drops down to the Canal, while the other side drops down to the Connecticut River. Not recommended for children on bikes. Just shy of 2 miles, the Connecticut River splits at Kings Island. After about 2 1/2 miles you’ll come to the Stony Brook Aqueduct, where the Canal is diverted over Stony Brook. Once you cross over the brook, look to your left where you’ll see first a Sycamore tree, then a fisherman’s path and finally three large cement blocks. Look behind the cement block closest to the fisherman’s path to spot a red brick on top of a flat rock. Underneath this rock is the Windsor Locks Canal Towpath Letterbox, which also has a small rock on top of it to protect it.. Please be careful of the thorns. Continue on along the path and spot a beaver house along the Canal. After you’ve traveled about 3 ½ miles you’ll pass under a railroad trestle that crosses over the Connecticut River and Canal and runs parallel along the Canal. We had two Amtrak trains pass through on our journey. The trail ends at a chain link fence by the Route 140 Parking Lot after 4 ½ miles.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009