Ragged Mountain

This was the one I'd been saving for a real workout with real views, and it delivered on both, with a couple of honest catches. Ragged Mountain is traprock like my favorites, part of the blue-blazed Metacomet ridge in Berlin, and it finally gave me the rock scrambles I'd been after, plus cliff-top views out over Wassel Reservoir. There are views along the way up, too, not as many as Higby, but definitely there, which is exactly what I'd been chasing after a couple of viewless woods hikes.

The heart of the hike is the first 2.3 miles. You climb, scramble over rock, catch views through the trees along the way, and top out at a clifftop with the best view of the day: the reservoir spread out below with the ridges and valley beyond. That stretch is genuinely great, cliff-over-water in the same family as Chauncey but bigger and more rugged. If you want the views, my honest advice is to make the clifftop your turnaround and go back the way you came, an out-and-back of about 4.6 miles.

Two point three miles up to a clifftop over Wassel Reservoir, with views along the way. That stretch is the hike. Turn around there, because the rest of the loop is all woods with the blazes knocked down.

Because here's the catch on the loop. After the clifftop, the rest of the way is all woods, no more views. Worse, the trail was a mess of downed trees, and a lot of them had the blazes on them, so the markings were knocked to the ground and missing in stretches. I passed a few lost hikers, and at points I was basically making my own trail. This is a download-the-map-before-you-go hike for sure, and even then the back half is a slog. I also got caught in a rain shower over the last three miles, which didn't help.

So the verdict: the views-and-scrambles half up to the clifftop is exactly my kind of hike, and I'm glad I finally did it. But the full loop's back half is a viewless, poorly-marked woods walk I wouldn't repeat. Next time I'd do the clifftop out-and-back, get all the good stuff, and skip the rest. Parking is tight, on the street at the end of West Lane, so get there early.