Man Eater

The Man Eater climb is on the high tide line and is public land like a rock that sticks up out of the water, it is legal as per the court case precedent with the guy who used to walk the high tide line in front of the mansion in Greenwich CT who won against the rich guy in court as the law was already so about the hightide line. The issue is that to get to the climb most easily, you have to cross a semi private beach that requires a beach pass at certain hours in the summer. After 5:30pm (it becomes public & lifeguards leave) or potentially as late as after 8:30pm (the staff leave) you can go in with no trouble but if you are there in the morning or day before then without a beach pass, they may have to call the police. They will under no circumstance allow you to walk into the rocky area below the bluff from the McCooks side at least because they said it is a legal liability for the town. Many people and I cross through the rocks there everyday in the evening and I had never had anyone say anything about it until I thought it would be okay to go there before 530pm, making the approach through there to the high tide line cutting along the edge of of the beach. That is the easiest approach but you can't do it during those hours in the summer. The Niantic Bay Beach on the far east end of the boardwalk is the long stretch of beach and also requires a beach pass until 530pm. Gates close at McCooks at 830pm but not there for the Black Hawk fishing parking which is open even at 4am. You can walk the boardwalk to the (east end) bridge there at anytime for free from hole in the wall parking or across the street then walk or swim the tide line back the way you came to the climbs XD just be careful of rocks in the water and all. You can go to Hole In The Wall at night, it is open 24/7 but it is patrolled & enforced from 7am to 530pm in the summer. To go to the beach there before then, you'd have to pay to cross that area to the rocks which they will not allow you going at all during those hours though they do fishermen on the east side of the rocky bluff area where there's another way down into the rocks and they told me to retrieve my things I left below the bluff, I'd have to pass through a path in the center of the bluff thick with poison ivy leading onto the tall slab face right above the Man Eater boulder or perhaps the east end. I was not allowed to cross the rocks from the McCook side but through the center pass ontop of the hill or the east end fisherman's entrance so those ways maybe legal or allowed. The rules are tricky but there are loopholes and they are legal.

Walk the high tide line from McCooks to The Reaper's Grotto after 530pm. There's a public access sign where the sidewalk meets the gravel path that's above the rocks and grotto but Crescent Beach is private. While it is in the public access area you need to stay within 6 feet of the high tide line on the approach while passing Crescent Beach or approach from the public access sign not across Crescent beach. Here even more than the stretch of rock at McCook's may you be met by the town/locals legal liability concerns about the rocks certainly if the lifegaurds hired to keep people off the rocks are in the chair there just as it works at McCook's. Still, you can walk straight to the grotto approaching along the hightide line and theres nothing they can do it's federal public land. The gravel path public access area and rocks below belong to the town or state but if it is the town they will be afraid of liability and the spot could be blown for rock climbing. They could put up a NO Rock Climbing sign but the grotto is also in the federal public land so its public and legal either way. It is by houses so you should basically be silent at night. This area is very sensitive. It would be good if these beautiful unique features to the Connecticut landscape would be recognized and preserved by the town of East Lyme/Niantic as an extremely rare part of the coastline to be appreciated just as the public access sign says to enjoy the sea. I hope the land here becomes treated like rock in state parks given the public access sign. Silversands SP handles the sandbar well. I believe this could be an even nicer place missing nothing, with climbs to be enjoyed among everything else in Niantic. They should put up enter the area at your own risk signs large and clearly like the swim ones for anything beyond 6 feet from the high tide line.