Roosevelt Forest, Stratford, CT

I met up with a fellow CT NEMBA Trail Ambassador, Ed Perten, on Saturday morning and rode at Roosevelt Forest, which claims is the only town owned forest in the State of Connecticut. Not sure what distinction that provides but this place is a little nugget amongst the spreading metropolis of Shelton, Stratford, and Trumbull. Besides being mostly a collection of dual track trails, probably old cart roads going back 100 years, then MXers and ATVers probably tore it up for awhile until the town realized what was happening and put up signs all over the place indicated no motorized vehicles are allowed.

One note of caution, the park has tight visitation hours, 9 AM to 4 PM. Don't park on the street, Peters Lane, near the park entrance because you will get a ticket. This would be a great place to for beginners just learning to ride or for intermediate riders looking to hone skills and have some fun on some natural terrain features, namely rocks. Tons of little hucks, up-and-overs, and some really nice rollers. Forget Racebrook Tract, I am bringing my daughter here to learn how to ride.

The main parking area can accommodate many cars but on Saturday it was partially flooded with the huge rain storm we had earlier in the week. There is a picnic area/camp ground right there and another further back in the woods. If people are allowed to camp here, then I wonder if you can get gate access at night and possibly night ride here!

Ed and I ventured into the northern section of the forest up near where Route 8 passes by and the Shelton town line. There is a little used trail that heads up that way and then we circled back, basically bushwhacking our way back to the main trail.

There is this board walk that runs through a swampy area that could use some improvements.

I think this was the only trail marker with a map that we came across.

Up in the north section of the forest is this Glacial Erratic which is about the size of a house.