Cat-Hole Pass to Castle Craig is a 5.1 mile lightly trafficked out and back trail located near Meriden, Connecticut that features a lake and is rated as difficult. The trail is primarily used for hiking.
We did the Cat Hole Pass trail and enjoyed it. It is a bit challenging but I wouldn’t say hard, more moderate than hard. It leads to very pretty views and takes you past the reservoirs again pretty. As stated in previous posts the parking is simply a pull off on a main busy road that people drive very fast on so be careful. I will certainly go back there are a lot of trails. The one very disappointing thing is the amount of trash at the parking area. But otherwise would recommend this trail
Nice trail and barely anyone out. Wear boots, it's muddy in places! I would call this moderate, not hard. Parking is a little sketchy. The immediate area next to the trail can maybe accommodate three cars and has a considerable drop-off for anything besides an SUV/truck. Perhaps a further five spaces a few hundred feet south.
This trail is super fun— lots of messy, rocky, wet, slippery scrambling (it’s January, after all) and beautiful scenery. I highly recommend the blue trail up AND back, as you can take the road down from the Castle but what’s the fun in that? The parking situation worked out great for me but there are only a few spots off the road unless you bypass the first part of this hike and park in the lot at Hubbard. I can’t wait to do it again. A favorite for sure.
great trail! not much trail marking on the loop leading back to the trail head.
Shoulder season w plenty of mud. Fine as long as you are cautious.
Great workout. Very rocky, wear appropriate shoes- I turned my ankles a couple times. Go clockwise if you prefer going up scrambles. After castle craig it’s mainly a paved road, but it was a nice recovery after the rocks. Pretty good hike, I would wait til summer to do it again with all the leafs and rocks.
So we did not follow the red hike that AllTrails gives because there was a cop blocking that road. We ended parking in Hubbard park (near mirror lake) and walked to reservoir road, entering some trails by Merimere Reservoir. We walked along some woodsy trails until reaching the incline at the base of the mountain, which was just a short distance a way from the Castle / peak. So the hike kind of started off with the Castle for us. From there we decided to take the trails all the way to the West Peak which had another great view. Finally we came down and took the woodsy trails back, so there was less scaling up and down. Really nice hike overall. Similar location but different from the route this app gives.
Got slightly of course at the beginning, and sadly didn’t have quite enough time to make it to the top without running out of sunlight, but we were rewarded with a gorgeous view and sunset! A windstorm the night before made for a few down trees and lots of leaves on the ground. This was a diverse trail with some trundling over rocks and a few long, flat stretches. Would love to come back with time for the entire hike.