Case Mountain can be easy if you take the Carriage Trail, but where’s the adventure in that? I could have been discouraged in my confusion and despairing of my abilities if I hadn’t googled Hartford Courant’s Peter Marteka, my favorite nature writer:
Manchester's Case Mountain recreation area . . . has a reputation of swallowing up hikers and mountain bikers so they have to dial 911 for a rescue. -January 11, 2009
While hiking the Case Mountain trail system, be wary of the spinning heads of fellow nature lovers and mountain bikers. The spinning heads may be from trying to navigate the numerous trails that spread out across the park . . . -November 14, 2000
Just looking at the printed map can make your head spin, but kudos to the town of Manchester for providing the map! Fortunately, most of the trails are well marked, but if not for my Runkeeper app, this hike might have been a bit daunting.
We began on the wide Carriage Path and then moved on to the pink-blazed trail, taking the left fork of the trail.
This is a loop trail that leads to the Lookout Mountain summit, with a view of Hartford and beyond. It’s a quick walk to a nice reward if you're pressed for time, as the total distance to complete this loop and return to your car via the Carriage Path is just over a mile and a half. We reached the summit in 25 minutes.
Some young hikers had spent the night at the summit and were rolling up their sleeping bags when we arrived. Their campfire was still smoking, and we joked about making S’more’s. Turns out they actually had made S’more’s and offered us some! We meet such nice people on the trails.
Rather than completing the pink loop, we took the yellow trail directly opposite of the view and came upon this interesting burl:
Next we turned right onto the blue-blazed Shenipsit Trail and headed toward the Birch Mountain summit. Unless we missed it, there is no view from the summit, and we moved on to the blue/yellow trail. The rocks along this path were impressive, and we found a great place for our devotional.
Deuteronomy 8:7 “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land – a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills.”
There is a moment in hiking that is especially pleasurable - boot removal. There's nothing like loosening the laces, pulling the boots off, peeling off sweaty socks, and reveling in the accomplishment of the day’s hike.
We experience this in daily life too. During the ritual of removal at the end of the day - loosening a tie, removing dress shoes, or dropping a book bag to the floor - we may be tempted to be proud of what we accomplished that day. But we mustn't forget that we are created beings. God has given us the strength for what we have accomplished.
On the trail we struggle to traverse mountains, but we are using legs created by Him. Those mountains we climb were created by Him, and they tremble in His presence. As we walk through life, we might wear the boots, but He wears the crown! (adapted from With God on the Hiking Trail by Nathan Chapman)
We moved on to the Case Mountain Summit. No view, but we still enjoyed the path. We met up with the blue-blazed Shenipsit trail again, headed back to the beginning, and then I got a little confused and almost took us back to the pink trail. Fortunately we ran into a hiker who pointed us to an unmarked trail that lead back to the Carriage Path. Following this trail brought us back to the path and to our cars.
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| This is the corrected route. The map can be found at https://runkeeper.com/user/SusanGayle/route/4449135 |
Address: 680 Spring Street, Manchester CT
Trail map:http: www.mdogct.com/documents/Casemountainmap.pdf
Length: 3 miles
Duration: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Difficulty level: Easy to moderate
Calories: 612
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