Jericho Trail

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Jericho Trail
Jericho Brook water falls over ancient broken dam into pool below.
Length	3.4 miles (5.5 km)[1]
Location	Mattatuck State Forest, Watertown (near Thomaston and Plymouth), Litchfield County, Connecticut
Designation	CFPA Blue-Blazed Trail
Use	hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, fishing, rock climbing, geocaching
Highest point	Crane's Lookout, 810 ft (250 m)
Difficulty	Easy to moderate difficulty, some rock scrambling.
Sights	Naugatuck River Valley, White stone cliffs, Rock House, Crane's Lookout.
Hazards	hunters, deer ticks, poison ivy

The Jericho trail is a 3.4-mile (5.5 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail in Watertown, near the border with Thomaston and Plymouth, Litchfield County, Connecticut. The trail is contained almost entirely in a section of the Mattatuck State Forest. The mainline trail is a linear north–south "hike-through" trail.

The trail is listed as one of the three short Waterbury Area Trails in the Connecticut Walk Book West.

The Jericho trail is a linear trail with a trailhead and parking area at the trails southern terminus on Echo Lake Road and a connector trail leading to Connecticut Route 262 in the west. The northern terminus terminates at the trail's intersection with the Mattatuck Trail near the Rock House and Crane's Lookout. Notable features several scenic overlook views including an 810-foot summit with a 270 degree panorama (Crane's Lookout 41°37′45″N 73°03′23″W / 41.6293°N 73.0565°W / 41.6293; -73.0565). The trail stops just before Crane's Lookout and the Rock House underneath, both which are on the Mattatuck Trail.^[2] The trail is maintained largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.

The Jericho Trail is primarily used for hiking, backpacking, rock climbing,^[3] and in the winter, snowshoeing.

From the north it is also possible to connect to the Jericho Trail via the Mattatuck Trail (which can be found in Black Rock State Park), or to hike in using either of two unmarked paths (which include dirt road portions), one off of Park Road the other on.^[4]

The trail is named for Jericho Brook which the trail follows for a length of less than a mile in the upper northern half of the trail route.^[1]

The Leatherman was a nineteenth-century vagabond who traveled approximately ten miles a day in a thirty-four (34) day circular route between New York's Hudson River in the west and the Connecticut River in the east. His circuit was also bounded by Long Island Sound in the South and the Litchfield Hills in the north.^[4]

He was found dead in March 1889 near Ossining, New York, in his Saw Mill Woods rock shelter (apparently of mouth cancer due to his use of tobacco) and is buried at the Sparta Cemetery, Route 9, Scarborough, New York.^[5]

The mainline trail is blazed with blue rectangles. Trail descriptions are available from a number of commercial and non-commercial sources, and a complete guidebook is published by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association in the Connecticut Walk Book west. A map of the Thomaston and Watertown sections of the trail is available from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection at its website.^[6]

Weather along the route is typical of Connecticut. Conditions on exposed ridge tops and summits may be harsher during cold or stormy weather.^[7]

• Blue-Blazed Trails
• Leatherman (vagabond)
• Mattatuck State Forest
• Naugatuck Railroad
• Naugatuck River
• Watertown

Books – Connecticut hiking [edit]

• Colson, Ann T. (2005). Connecticut Walk Book East (19 ed.). Rockfall, Connecticut: Connecticut Forest and Park Association. pp. 1–261. ISBN 0961905255.
• Colson, Ann T. (2006). Connecticut Walk Book West (19 ed.). Rockfall, Connecticut: Connecticut Forest and Park Association. pp. 1–353. ISBN 0961905263.
• Emblidge, David (1998). Hikes in southern New England: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont (1 ed.). Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books. pp. 1–304. ISBN 0-8117-2669-X.
• Keyarts, Eugene (2002). Pietrzyk, Cindi Dale (ed.). Short Nature Walks: Connecticut Guide Book (7 ed.). Guilford, Connecticut: Falcon Publishing. pp. 1–192. ISBN 0-7627-2310-6.
• Laubach, Rene; Smith, Charles W. G. (2007). AMC's Best Day Hikes in Connecticut (1 ed.). Guilford, Connecticut: Appalachian Mountain Club Books. pp. 1–320. ISBN 1-934028-10-X.
• Ostertag, Rhonda; Ostertag, George (2002). Hiking Southern New England (2 ed.). Guilford, Connecticut: Falcon Publishing. pp. 1–336. ISBN 0-7627-2246-0.

Books – Connecticut history and geography [edit]

• De Forest, John (1853). History of the Indians of Connecticut from the earliest known period to 1850. Hartford, Connecticut: Wm. Jas. Hamersley. pp. 1–509.
• Hayward, John (1857). New England Gazetteer: Containing Descriptions of the States, Counties, Cities and Towns of New England (2 ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Otis Clapp. pp. 1–704.
• Trumbull, Benjamin (1797). A Complete History of Connecticut - Civil and Ecclesiastical. Vol. I (1818 printing ed.). New Haven, Connecticut: Maltby, Goldsmith & Co. and Samuel Wadsworth. pp. 1–1166.
• Trumbull, Benjamin (1797). A Complete History of Connecticut - Civil and Ecclesiastical. Vol. II (1818 printing ed.). New Haven, Connecticut: Maltby, Goldsmith & Co. and Samuel Wadsworth. pp. 1–1166.

Specific to this trail:

• CT Museum Quest Article on the Jericho Trail
• CT Museum Quest Article on the Whitestone-Jericho Connector

Government Links:

• State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection page for the Mattatuck State Forest, including a map
• State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Forestry Division Letterboxing Clues for Mattatuck State Forest
• Town of Watertown Website

Leatherman:

• The Legend of the Old Leatherman
• Cold Spots: The Legend of the Leatherman