Hike or Bike Case Mountain

Located in the southeastern section of Manchester, Connecticut, the Case Mountain Recreational Area encompasses 640 acres (2.6 km2) of combined open space and watershed land stretching from the Glastonbury border north to Case Pond. Some trails lead south across the Glastonbury border to a larger area of land owned by the Town of Manchester to maintain the Buckingham Reservoir and provide drinking water to Manchester. The land around the reservoir is open to recreation. While there is a hill named Case Mountain in this area, locals refer to this entire trail system and forest in Manchester and Glastonbury simply as “Case Mountain.”

Case Mountain has a vast trail network for hiking and mountain biking, maintained by Manchester Conservation Commission and the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. The terrain is very rocky and hilly, making for somewhat difficult hiking and challenging mountain biking. Bring a trail map and good footwear.

The carriage path, a wide smooth gravel trail with white markings, leads visitors from the Spring Street parking area to the summit of Lookout Mountain (elev. 744 ft) and loops around to Case Pond. Visitors often mistake Lookout Mountain for Case Mountain (elev. 735). The summit of Lookout Mountain has benches and a kiosk and gives visitors a great view of Downtown Manchester, Downtown Hartford, and the hills off to the west.

The Shenipsit Trail is a blue-blazed trail running north-south through the area. Starting in East Hampton and going north to Somers, the Shenipsit trail covers over 40 miles (64 km), about 5 of those miles are within the Case Mountain area. In the Glastonbury section of the Shenipsit Trail is a stretch of the trail known by local mountain bikers as “Slick Rock”. There are two vistas on this section of trail providing views of Hartford, but not nearly as panoramic as the views from the top of Lookout Mountain.

Mountain biking is a very popular activity at Case Mountain. Case Mountain was voted the Best Ride in Connecticut in Mountain Bike Magazine by readers. Bikers tend to stick to single-track trails, such as the locally famous "Metavomit" trail. The terrain on these trails is rocky with many steep climbs and descents. Rocks, logs, boulders, and man-made ladder-bridges are often intentionally incorporated into these mountain biking trails. Trail-braiding, when short trails are created that go around an obstacle or technical section or short-cut a sharp corner, is a large problem on mountain-bike trails at Case Mountain, the result of beginners riding on advanced trails.

(Information taken from: http://www.mountainsummits.com/pphikes/connecticut/casepphike.htm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Mountain)