The Ellington Hockanum River Committee is a growing group of wilderness volunteers who have dedicated many hours of labor to creating hiking trails along the Hockanum River in the Town of Ellington, CT. since 2005. This group became officially recognized, as a subcommittee, by the Ellington Conservation Commission in July 2010 and has received modest funding for trail tools and materials and for trail publicity starting in July 2011.

The EHRC has established 3 hiking trails along the river and they are named the Windemere Avenue Trail, the Franklin Street Trail and the West Road Trail. These trails follow along the river with scenic vistas of the waterway and benches at intervals for relaxation and viewing of water, marshes and wildlife in all seasons.

The Ellington Hockanum trails have been cleared and are maintained by Committee volunteer members year-round to protect and permanently preserve vital open space along the river with the support of the property owners of the many parcels involved.

The Ellington 4H Club - Goats, etc. - has adopted the Hockanum River as their favorite site for periodic Clean Up events and has been very successful in removing large quantities of litter and other items, from the waterway and from along the woodland shoreline.

Clearing of the Hockanum River of obstacles has been another goal of the Committee and is slowly gaining momentum in keeping the river open for seasonal canoeing and kayaking, but many obtructing trees persist to be removed in this and coming seasons. The eventual plan is an Ellington Annual Canoe and Kayak Race maybe in the spring of 2013.

The printing and distribution of Ellington Hockanum trail pamphlets with maps is underway. Additionally, this website has printable maps for all of the trails in the 4 towns on the Hockanum River.

Presently, the EHRC volunteers work to maintain the 3 hiking trails on Tuesday mornings year-round and are always seeking new members to assist in this rewarding work. To volunteer or for information please email Ann Harford, chairman, at alharford@att.net or call 860-872-0406.


For information on the trails maintained by the Committee, click on the appropriate Trail Link or on the trail itself within the "Enlargement of Hockanum River Trails Area" block below.
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*The word HOCKANUM comes from the Native American word "Hocquaun", meaning a hook-shaped or crooked river.