Black Pond WMA

Black Pond Black Hole
Black Pond WMA, Middlefield
January 2026

Another day, another WMA. Wildlife Management Area, that is.

The majority of these places exist for hunting and aren’t worth my time. Note, I’m not saying they are worthless, I’m saying they don’t have established trails for me to hike. Black Pond is sort of in-between. There is a very well established trail here except…

Except it’s kind of ridiculous to give it its own page on this website and, if I’m being geo-pedantic – and you know I am that if anything – the trail is not within the boundaries of the Black Pond WMA.

But whatever. I walked it and took some pictures and it will fill a gap for someone someday, so let’s go to Middlefield and Black Pond! And the black hole of pedantic land ownership quibbles!

The 16-acre WMA property is the marshy area west of the pond and the state owns the north shore boat launch. The pond is owned by the Meriden Water Company. The southern shore of the pond is the 42-acre Roth Preserve of the Middlesex Land Trust. Despite the short length I hiked here, it appears that some of it was on Cockaponset State Forest land, some was on Middlefield town land, some was on Middletown Water Depertment Land, some was on MIddlesex Land Trust land, and exactly none of it was on Black Pond WMA land.

Reminder: This website is awesome.

The trail here starts from a pull-out along the access road before it heads down to the boat launch area. It is wide and straight, but not carefree walking. I’m going to steal a sentence from ExploreCT’s Matt:

“Traprock chunks litter the trail making foot placement a conscious decision.”

Indeed. (I’ve also stolen a great picture from Matt and I’m 100% confident you can tell which one that is.) I made my way up the hill to a swale in the ridge north of Beseck Mountain. It was there I met my old friend the Mattabesett Trail.

And that, my friends, was pretty much that. I walked the blue-blazed CFPA trail, part of the New England National Scenic Trail, south for a minute just because I wanted to see the Roth Preserve sign. Because it’s cool.

If I kept walking, I’d have reached the exposed area high above Black Pond. And if was sunset and clear and if I had a drone, and if it was pointing north towards Mount Higby, and if my name was Matt, it would have looked like this:

Black Pond was a 100 acre tract purchased by the state in 1919 for $1,500 to be used as a wayside state park for travelers. However, nothing really happened with it and it languished in obscurity. Not much has changed with that over a hundred years later. Ironically, during my visit on a chilly gray January Saturday, the lot was pretty full and a bunch of people were out on the pond ice fishing.

It’s free, it’s right off of Route 66 just east of I-91, and, well, why not. I guess.

There you go. Black Pond WMA.