Ragged Mountain is among the most popular hiking destinations in Connecticut, and over the past few years has become a trail running hot spot as well. This loop consists of a few miles of the Metacomet trail, one of the blue-blazed trails maintained by the CTFPA, and a connector trail blazed in the same blue with an additional red stripe. There is a popular Strava segment of this route from West Lane in Berlin, CT, traveling clockwise around the loop (362 attempts by 108 people at this time), but you can start and finish from any point on this loop and travel in either direction. Note that your time on this route is not precisely the same as your segment time, because the segment starts down closer to the road than you need to, and ends shortly before connecting both sides of the route to close the loop. The FKT is for the closed loop & only the loop (so that you can start at any TH).
The southern portion of the trail has especially great views from the top of traprock cliffs, and is an amazing place to catch the sunrise on a more leisurely outing. I highly recommend visiting this park and hiking the loop at least once before any speed attempt. There are a number of other trails and following the right path can be tricky, especially because much of the terrain is technical enough that you can't look up. The top male and female times are owned by runners who have completed this route at least four times, some of them have done it dozens of times. Have fun!
