M-M day hike

Friday, August 26, 2016
Start: 153 Packardville Rd Pelham, MA 01002
End: Spear Library, Cooleyville Rd, Shutesbury, MA
Miles: ~10.75 miles

I started from Packardville Rd around 8:30am. It was foggy and overcast when I started, though it was sunny and blue skies by the time I finished. I followed the trail along past some radio towers and walked until I hit Amherst Rd. Then I road walked up Amherst Rd and onto North Valley Rd and then entered the woods again. After ~1.5 miles of woods walk, I road walked a good portion on Shutesbury Rd before entering the woods before Rt 202. Then I had a long woods walk paralleling Rt 202 which utilized old logging roads. After a number of miles, the trail emerged onto Town Farm Rd. At that point, I called the taxi that was going to pick me up and let them know that I'd be an hour earlier than anticipated, if they could pick me up early. I then followed that out to Prescott Rd which turns into Cooleyville Rd and walked up the road to the Shutesbury library. I arrived at 12:30pm. My taxi arrived by 12:35pm to return me to my car at Packardville Rd.

Overall, the hike was enjoyable. The blazes were much more consistent than in past sections and the terrain was relatively easy. I brought along a lot of extra water, rather than risk dry creek beds or trying to filter from stagnant ponds. I also mapped the route beforehand and sent it to my phone so I could follow along using GPS.

New England Trail: Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, Part 2

Friday, August 5, 2016

Start: Rising Corner Rd, Agawam, MA

End: Westfield St, West Springfield, MA

Miles: 5.91 miles (7.29 miles according to GPS, including some backtracking)

I dropped my car at the CT/MA line around 9am and started hiking. I hiked along some woods roads, including through the Agawam Bowmen Club's property. The mosquitoes were overly enthusiastic for the first half of my hike. I sorely wished I'd brought my headnet.

After crossing over Southwick St/Rt 57, I started hearing distance gunshots. As I hiked, it got progressively louder, until it was loud enough I was concerned for my safety and proximity to live ammunition. I checked on my phone after I started feeling scared and saw that it was the Agawam Revolver Club, not some random people shooting off guns in the woods. Despite that assurance, I still felt unsafe hiking while it sounded like guns were being fired a hundred yards away. I would highly suggest signs be posted at the beginning and end of this portion, noting the proximity of the firing range. Additionally, perhaps adding some reminders signs along the trail nearest to the firing range.

The trail was relatively easy to follow until I got to the Springfield Underground Reservoir. The blazes there were scarce and I walked back and forth along a section of trail until I determined that I should, indeed, walk past the big sign on the gate arm saying "No trespassing," despite no blazes being visible beyond the gate. I then wandered through the fields, trying to follow the trail based on where grass/plants were more beaten back or walked on. I eventually found my way to where the trail reentered the woods.

Not too long after that, the trail heads down towards the Westfield River, where it parallels it for a time. I missed the trail split here, as the blazes indicated a right hand turn of the trail and the wide, packed dirt trail turned to the right. I followed it for a few tenths of a mile before using my GPS and realizing this trail couldn't be the M-M because it should be turning to cross over the river and it wasn't. I went back to the trail split and tried unsuccessfully to find the trail. So I began following the river bank, figuring I'd see blazes eventually. After a few dozen yards, I saw white blazes close to the bank and rejoined the trail. However, this section of the trail was severely overgrown with prickers and large leafy plants between waist and head height so the going was very slow. Thankfully, this portion of the trail was small; I came to the place where the trail crosses the river and waded across. The water was fairly high (knee deep) compared with the last time I saw it (ankle deep) since there'd been rain recently. I arrived at Westfield St by 12pm and met my shuttle there for a ride back to my car. 

NH AT day hike

Saturday, August 6, 2016
Start: 19 Mile Brook Trail Head
End: Rt. 2/Gorham
Miles: 15.4 (+3.6 miles on 19 Mile Brook trail, +0.6 miles for water) (19.6 miles total)

I ascended more than 5,000 feet in the course of the day and still managed to average over 2 MPH. The weather was nice overall. There were some passing clouds and perhaps 5 minutes of rain but overall, there was more blue sky than not. It was relatively humid at lower elevations but nearer the peaks, the breeze was cool and crisp.

I started my day's hike at 19 Miles Brook Trail Head, heading out by 10am after leaving home at 6am to drive there. I did the 19 Mile Brook Trail in record time, climbing 1900' of elevation over 3.6 miles in 1.25 hours. I swung by the Carter Notch hut (3388') for water and a break, then climbed up to Carter Dome (4832') and Mt Hight (4675'), then down to Zeta Pass (3890'), up South Carter Mountain (4430'), Middle Carter Mountain (4610'), Mt Lethe (4500'), North Carter Mountain (4530'), down to Imp Shelter and campsite (3120'), up to Mt Moriah (4000'), by Rattle River Shelter (1260'), and then down to Rt 2 (760'). I practically flew from the shelter to the road, doing the 1.9 miles in under 30 minutes.

On my way up Carter Dome, I met Sharine; she's a newbie section hiker from DC. She'd never done backpacking before and was trying to hike from Pinkham Notch, NH to Caratunk, ME. I'd met her on her first day out. I gave her a breakdown of Southern Maine and tried to pass along some tips I had for AT hiking in general. We hiked together for maybe 15-20 minutes, chatting all the while. It was really nice to slow down and connect with a fellow section hiker on my day hike.

When I stopped at Imp Shelter and campsite for water, I found a group of 5 guys in their late teens by the water source. They were eating nuts and fruit and throwing the shells and peels all over the ground, within 10 feet of the water supply. One of them had just finished eating a can of stew and started asking if he could just throw the can into the woods; one of his friends noncommittally said that was probably not a great idea. On my way back up the side trail, I stopped in to discuss this issue with the caretaker. She looked angry and said she'd take care of it; she started down the trail to talk to them as I hiked back to the AT.

When I arrived at the Rt 2 parking lot at 7:30pm, I realized that my plan to hitchhike back to my car probably wouldn't work; people were leaving Gorham, not driving towards it, and the sun was going to set within half an hour. I tried to hitch for maybe 10 minutes and only saw one car pass by. I decided to go by the White Mountains Lodge & Hostel and see if they were available for a shuttle. As it turns out, they were and I was able to be back to my car by 8pm, no muss or fuss.

This section connects my north and south section hiking pieces; I've now hiked from Monson, ME down to Pearisburg, VA. My next hike on the AT will be in September/October, down in VA, TN, and NC. Until then, I'll content myself with local day and overnight hikes along the M-M trail, and maybe another visit to the Whites!

M-M Trail Overnight Hike

Thursday, August 11, 2016
Start: 420 Farley Rd, Wendell, MA
End: Wendell State Forest Shelter
Mileage: ~5 miles (+0.5 miles in the wrong direction on the M-M)

I arrived at the trail head by 6:30pm. I quickly assembled my backpack and headed out by 6:45pm; unfortunately, there was no way to tell (and I hadn't thought to figure out beforehand) which way was north or south on the trail. I ended up going the wrong way until I was going to reenter the woods and saw a sign saying it was the M-M north. I turned around, hiked past my car around 7pm, and hoofed it up the road walk. The sun went down a bit before 8pm. It got dark fairly quickly, reaching the point where I needed a headlamp by 8:15pm. As it turns out, I hadn't checked the batteries on my headlamp and I hadn't used that particular one in a while. So my headlamp went out within a few minutes. For a while, I struggled on in the dark. Then I used my phone's flashlight function to see. There's nothing quite like necessity to encourage invention - I figured out that if I flip my ball cap backward, I could slide my phone through the adjustable strap and use it almost like a headlamp, though it didn't help cool me down to have a phone strapped to my forehead. I arrived at the shelter around 8:30pm, to find another person was sharing the shelter with me. I got water, set up my bedroll, made dinner, chatted with her, and then settled into bed around 10pm, having finally stopped dripping sweat everywhere. The mosquitoes were extremely active, even after sundown. The temperature got down to maybe 78 degrees; I slept fitfully on top of my sleeping bag.

Friday, August 12, 2016
Start: Wendell State Forest Shelter
End: M.N. Spear library, Shutesbury, MA
Mileage: ~14.2 miles (+1-2 miles of double backing and searching for the trail)

I woke up very early, at 5:30am, as I'd slept poorly and was eager to start hiking. After packing up, I went down the trail a few minutes to get to Ruggle's Pond. The park's signage said they had a comfort station, which amounted to four pit potties and no running water. I used their toilets and filtered water from the pond near the swimming area. I didn't see non-stagnant water by the trail until ~10 miles later and I ran out of water by the time I finished my hike. I headed out from the park at 6:30am. I hiked until 12 noon, when I arrived at the library 30 seconds before the taxi I'd arranged arrived to shuttle me back to my car. The day's hike didn't have any good views; it was full of forest road and trail walking and me swearing as the trail blazing left a LOT to be desired.  

I had numerous issues with poor blazing. I had issues nearby Lake Wyola State Park, right before the Lakeview Road walk portion. A local summer camp, Pine Brook, uses white blazes on their trails as well. And at a portion of the trail where there were no more M-M white blazes in view, there were camp white blazes, directing me into the woods. I followed and double backed and tromped around for around half an hour, becoming increasingly frantic as I could not find where the trail continued. Eventually, I went back to the main path were I'd turned originally. There were no blazes to direct me forward. At the recommendation of a local out for a walk, I headed down the path towards the road, with the hope that I'd encounter the trail somewhere on the road. I walked down the path and through a field towards the road; at the road, on the state park's sign, were white blazes. There were no blazes between the sign and a while down the path, with many side trails in between including those with white blazes from the local camp.

Also, once I hit N Macedonia Rd (an old woods road), there were very intermittent white blazes, enough that I began to worry I'd missed the trail turning. At that point, I happened to have cell service for the first time in a long while and managed to pull up the NET website's trail map, confirming that I stayed on the woods road for a long while.

I became the most frustrated towards the end of my hike, on Cooleyville Rd, near the intersection with New Boston Rd. The last white blaze that I found was on a tree at an angle that was mainly visible from the woods. There was what appeared to be a trail, though it was close to someone's property. There were markings indicating a state forest or park boundary. I tried going down the trail until it ended in the woods, clearly with no trail to follow. After walking back and forth for at 15 minutes, I finally decided that I was tired, hot, and didn't care anymore and walked up the road towards my final destination, content to say "forget it" to this portion of the M-M. And of course, a bit after I passed by the intersection with New Boston Rd, I found another white blaze. After this incident, I ignored all white blazes and simply continued up the road. The last two miles of this hike (all road walking) nearly did me in; it was extremely steep, all uphill, and often in the direct sun. I could barely lift my feet to keep walking.

This hike drove home to me that the M-M trail is not meant to be traveled by following the blazes, and in that light, is not really something that inexperienced or casual day hikers are meant to hike. I'm used to the AT, where you are almost always able to follow from one blaze to the next, and if you can't, it's a good bet that you should just follow the trail with the most foot traffic. In general, the opposite is true of the M-M; if it's well traveled, it's probably not the M-M trail that you're on. If you're not bushwhacking, it's probably not the M-M. It is immensely stressful and frustrating to try to hike a trail where it's a chore to stay on the trail in the first place; I just wanted to go for a relaxing walk in the woods. And given that the M-M isn't intended as a backpacking trail but as a day hiking trail, it should be even easier to follow than the AT.

There were heat advisories out for both Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I sweat enough to make my shoes swampy and squelchy. When I took my shirt and shorts off at the shelter and hung them up, they dripped sweat for at least half an hour. My shoes still haven't fully dried out and it's been a few, albeit humid, days. The mosquitoes were enthusiastic from the beginning to the very end of my hike. This wasn't a great trail experience in pretty much every way possible.

New England Trail: Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, Part 1

New England Trail: Metacomet-Monadnock Trail

Part 1

I finished hiking the Connecticut Metacomet trail in 2014 and the Mattabesett trail in 2013. Since my move to western Massachusetts, I've been casually hiking portions of the M-M trail. Over the past year, I've hiked the M-M over Mt Tom and Mt Holyoke. This summer, I decided to become more active in my M-M trail hiking.

Over the past two months, I've done section hikes to fully connect between Harris Mountain Road in Granby and Rt 20 in Agawam for a total of 26.72 miles covered per the NET website. 

June 25, 2016

Start: Rt 141/Easthampton Rd, Holyoke, MA
End: Rt 20/Westfield St, Agawam, MA
Mileage: 12.28 miles per GPS; 11.23 miles per map (sections 3,4, & 5).

This portion was a bit hilly but overall, fairly easy. The mosquitoes were enthusiastic and there was no water sources for the entire hike. There were a few decent views but overall, it was a pretty nondescript hike.

July 22, 2016
Start: Harris Mountain Rd, Granby, MA
End: Rt 116/The Notch Visitor Center, Amherst, MA
Mileage: 5.02 miles per GPS; 4.4 miles per map.

This portion had some decent ups and downs but overall, wasn't too rough. The trail maintenance definitely left something to be desired, but I'm spoiled. There were some blazes missing close to the Notch, by the power lines but I figured it out. I'd originally planned to hike further to Taylor Notch but my ride cancelled on me last minute so I stopped at the Notch and managed to wrangle a ride back to my car from a fellow outdoor enthusiast.

July 29, 2016
Out-and-back to Taylor Notch to connect previous Mt Holyoke hike
Rt 116/The Notch Visitor Center, Amherst, MA
Mileage: 6.61 miles per GPS

This portion was a bit brutal; there were endless ups and downs. It wasn't too hot (high 70s) but it was extremely humid, having just stopped raining. The air was thick and hard to breathe. I was dripping sweat in no time; my clothes looked like I'd gone swimming. I had initially estimated this hike to be no more than 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back. Sadly, I was very mistaken. Therefore, I neglected to bring enough water with me and ran out part way through. A friendly day hiker shared some of his water and that helped me get back to my car.