The Jericho Trail is a CFPA Blue Blazed 3.5 mile trail near Watertown in Connecticut. The trail has scenic rocky ledges, forest and stream crossings and finishes at its northern terminus where it meets the Mattatuck Trail and the famous Old Leatherman Cave which was also part of my 343 mile Old Leatherman Loop Fastest Known Time adventure. This trail is also included in my Best Trails of Connecticut Guide.
Full Guide
The Jericho Trail is a CFPA Blue Blazed 3.5 mile trail near Watertown in Connecticut. The trail runs almost entirely through the Mattatuck State Forest. It starts at the Southern terminus at a car park and finishes where it meets the Mattatuck Trail at Cranes Lookout which is also the location of one of the Old Leathermans Caves.
There is a linking trail called the Whitestone-Jericho Connector Trail joins this trail with the Whitestone Cliffs Trail.
Jericho Trail
The trail ambles gently upward over the course of the 3.5 miles taking in stream crossings and huge rocky outcrops and ledges on both sides.
Jericho Brook Waterfall
There is a waterfall about halfway along on Jericho Brook which is the how the trail got its name.
Cranes Lookout
The 800ft summit with panoramic views is a few metres from the end of the trail and well worth walking up a few metres to enjoy.
The Leatherman Cave
In 1883 in Connecticut in the USA a man known as The Old Leatherman appeared with startling regularity between 41 towns in a loop that spanned 365 miles. Every 34 days he would appear at the same town. He did this for 6 years before dying on the 20th March 1889.One of his most famous caves is at Cranes Lookout.
Parking
Parking is located in a small parking area of Echo Lake Road here.
For many years, the rock formation on the Mattatuck Blue Trail in
Watertown that is beneath Crane’s Lookout has been called the Leatherman Cave. This is not correct. In the first 16 editions of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association’s Walk Book from 1937 until 1990, it was called the Rock House. For unexplained reasons, in the 17th edition in 1993, the name changed to Leatherman’s Cave and stayed that way for subsequent editions. This cave it is like no other Leatherman Cave that is known. All other caves are near roads, as the Leatherman was a walker not a hiker and have a nearby source of water. The cave at Cranes’ lookout has neither and is a rather long and difficult uphill climb. I can find no record of there even being a trail there in he 1880’s when the Leatherman roamed.
The true Leatherman Cave appears on a CFPA third edition Walk Book map published in 1946. It is on a feeder trail to the Mattatuck about 400 feet from Route 6. The GPS coordinates are 41.64113,-73.09253.