There is still a lot of room for development at case mountain; however, many of the good boulders are a little obscure and require some bush wacking. There is a large 12 foot tall boulder about mid way on the red trail that has many of the better routes as of yet. About 800 feet north of the yellow-red trail hidden within forest there is another rocky area that has several establish boulder problems and a few more that are still in the works.
"Gollum's Playground" is an area with many potential routes of varying grades. Several easy and hard ones. It is comprised of a large vertical wall broken into 3 segments, and 90 deg to it is a long fully featured overhanging wall. There are also a couple other rock outcroppings nearby that are good warm-ups. This area can be developed to have multitudes of routes and may be one of the largest bouldering spots in Case.
Case Mountain is a large forest and is very popular with mountain biking. As such, the best spots to park and hike in depend on the area you are looking to climb. There are a couple parking lots around the park including Line St, Case Ponds Lot, Spring St., and Birch Mtn MTB Parking area (along the road there). Also there are some neighborhoods where you can park along the street and walk on a narrow section of town-owned property that juts between private property to get to the park such as on Dennison Ridge Rd and Rock Ridge Rd. For these it's best to check out Manchester's GIS information to ensure you walk on public grounds.
Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Other spots that are not listed: "Mud Wall" on left side of Red-Yellow trail, a not-too shabby rock wall but the bottom is in a small mud pit. Worth a try on drier summer days. hiking/biking up the red-yellow from there, I saw 3 boulders that mayyy be large enough to put up a route on each. There may also be a rock ledge, which may be the one described, facing away from the trail on the right side.
Also, On the Yellow Trail, just off the carriage path, (hike up the carriage path from Case Ponds Lot, take a left part way up on a small trail that takes you to yellow) there is an overhang "cave" area that looks cool but definitely needs pads as the fall zone looks rough. Not too many route options but doing a rainbow up one side to the other could be fun. There is also a geocache here. Following the trail further brings you to larger walls that could be good if cleaned, tho most are easy v0's.
There is a very long wall/outcropping just SE of the water tower at the end of Laurel Rd (not allowed to park at the towers though) that has lots of potential pending cleaning. The best spot I have found (haven't checked out Red Trail Boulder) looks like an outcropping just North of Rock Ridge Rd near some mtn bike trails on a hillside. There is an overhanging wall with interesting rock and a vertical wall 90 deg to it with lots of cracks. There are a couple easy warm-up V-Fun walls NW of that rd on either side of the Blue-Dot trail too, that can be made harder by not using the large horizontal cracks.
I haven't yet had time to get hands on these, but found them while mountain biking so someone should check them out. Jun 12, 2019