Hiking a portion of the Metacomet Trail and Ragged Mountain

We frequent Ragged Mountain a lot.  We usually park on West Lane in Berlin and tramp the trails via that access point.  Today we decided to hike a point to point, that included spotting Mike’s bike in the woods.  Mike placed his bike on the trail above Andrews Street, to be able to bike back to the car after the hike.

We drove to Sheldon St, parked the car and walked across Andrews to Carey Street, following it till we turned left into the woods, where the trail started.

It was a short meander to the steep up.  This is one way  rock climbers go up to get to the cliffs.  The up section was narrow and yes I did scream “I am stuck”.  It was a short little climb, but intense.

We landed at the end of the Ragged Mountain Preserve Trail, where a memorial exists to a fallen climber.  We continued on the blue trail, a trail our feet know best.  This was full of ups and downs, vernal pools and great views looking out over the reservoirs.

The blue trail intersects with a few different color trails.

From the where we are on the map “You are here” spot, we are going to the trail to the left.  The next section was fairly easy and we made up some time.

We intersected with the red dot trail, but stayed the course on the blue.

We had to cross over the water company’s paved road.

Next we crossed under the power lines.

We then headed to a ridge that overlooked the New Britain Reservoir and was above Andrews Road.

I loved this section of the trail and I think the deer do too.  Lots of deer scat along this ridge walk.

We then approached the dreaded death signs.

Before the attacked the steep section, we headed up to a set of the power lines to the view.

However we didn’t go out the full view point because we didn’t want to disturb the turkey vultures.

While watching the vultures, we noticed a bald eagle soaring high above us.

He soared off and we headed down the dangerous section.  Ok, I scooted down on my bum.

From here we had about 1/2 mile to the bike.

Mike pedaled a mile to the car and came to pick me up.  It was a great morning to be hiking the rolling hills of Connecticut.

The Details: 5 miles, 3 hours.  Started the blue trail on Carey and left the trail on Andrews St. on the Berlin/New Britain line.  We were on the Metacomet trail and summitted Ragged Mountain.