MA AT shake down hike, day 2

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Start: Mt Wilcox South shelters
End: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles: 15.8 (+0.8 side trails)

I had a relatively decent sleep, though the cold woke me a few times in the night. I was awake by 6:20am and on trail by around 7am.

It was around 30 degrees when I started hiking, with maybe .5-1 inch of new snow on the ground. It was a cold, windy, overcast kind of day, though blue skies and the sun made appearances in the afternoon.

Today's miles included climbing up Cobble Hill (1279') and Baldy Mountain (1921'). I climbed ~2100 feet of elevation over the course of the day. As it turns out, it's really hard to stay hydrated when it's exceptionally cold and all one has is cold water. I'm trying to remedy that now that I've stopped for the day.

I arrived at the side trail for Upper Goose Pond Cabin around 2:30pm. I made the decision to trek down the 0.5 mile side trail to get to the camp sites, privies, closed cabin, and Pond. I'd seen Boy Scouts preparing to hike out earlier and figured they'd be heading to Goose Pond as well; they arrived around 4pm and went up to the cabin area to camp, while I claimed one of the tent pads and a picnic table near the bear box and privy.

As soon as I got here, I filled up all of my water containers. I made the decision that I'd rather chemically treat them since it involved less freezing water on my hands. I made hot cocoa, soup, and flavored rice as a late lunch, while I set up my tent and got settled in.

I'm curled up in my tent enjoying being horizontal and warm. As it has turned out, my right ankle and the brace have done quite well; while it aches at night, it hasn't been overly troubling. My right knee however, is displaying problems most likely associated with my IT band. This will need to be remedied before mid May. The left ankle has managed to roll a few times due to uneven terrain; I may get a lighter brace for it.

Tomorrow should be warm (~60) and sunny, though it'll drop to ~30 tonight just like last night. I'm hoping the tent will be an improvement over the shelter in terms of warmth but we shall see. I have ~21 relatively flat miles to cover tomorrow and I'm looking forward to better weather to accompany it.

MA AT shake down hike, day 1

Friday, April 7, 2017

Start: MA 23
End: Mt Wilcox South Shelters
Miles: 3.3

I left my car in Dalton and trekked to the bus stop, where I took a bus to Pittsfield (where I got a snack while waiting for my connecting bus) and then another bus to Great Barrington. It took me maybe 10 minutes to get a hitch from a passing car to drive me the ~3 miles to the trail.

I correctly picked the northern direction and headed out on the trail at 6:20pm from MA 23 (1050'). I climbed past Benedict Pond (1598') and along the Ledges (1820') until I got to the side trail for the shelters (1819') around 7:35pm as it was starting to get dark.

I decided on the further and newer of the two shelters, built in 2007. Some kind soul left behind some kindling and a fire log, so it's more festive. It's set to get down to ~30 tonight and I'm glad for my warm sleeping bag. So far, there's been a very curious flying squirrel here in the shelter that's been making a lot of noise and dodging out of my light. I suppose it's better company than bears.

Final M-M hike

Friday, September 16, 2016
Start: 200 Harris Mountain Road, Granby, MA
End: 153 Packardville Rd Pelham, MA 01002
Miles: ~6.7

I started at the Harris Mountain trailhead around 8:30am. I hiked through the woods for a bit, crossed Bay Road, and then did some small ups and downs. I emerged onto Orchard Rd and Federal St. There was over a mile of road walking along Federal and then over two miles of road walking along Gulf Rd. At Gulf and North Gulf Roads, the trail reentered the woods for maybe half a mile before arriving at Packardville Rd at 11:15am. I hung out and read my book until my ride came to pick me up at 11:45am.

And just like that, I've hiked from Connecticut's Long Island Sound up to New Hampshire's Mount Monadnock along the Menunkatuck, Metacomet, and Metacomet-Monadnock Trails.

M-M overnight hike, day #1

Friday, September 9, 2016
Start: Cross St/Rt 2 - Farley
End: Fall Brook shelter, MA/NH line
Miles: 25.4 (with ~6,700 ft elevation gain)

I started out at 8am from Cross St. I climbed Rattlesnake Mountain, Hermit Mountain, and Stratton Mountain. I stopped for lunch around 11:30-12 at the Richardson Cabin. It had a beautiful view with Mt Monadnock in the distance. It had two picnic tables and a Porta - potty,  as well as two tent pads, a cabin that sleeps ~6, wash tub for dishes, a laundry line, and a fire ring. Unfortunately, the only water was in a 5 gallon jug locked in the cabin so I couldn't resupply here. I then climbed over Little Mt Grace and Mt Grace, where there was a fire tower at the summit.

I stopped briefly at the Mt Grace Shelter from 3:15-3:30pm, which recently had a new roof installed since the past one was leaking. Initially I thought there was no water source but as I left, I found the small creek and resupplied there before heading out towards the Fall Brook shelter 9 miles away. I passed by Richards Reservoir inside Warwick State Forest on my way to the shelter, and used an old road walk portion of the M-M to cut off 1.3 miles of the new M-M trail so I could arrive at my evening's destination before dark. I arrived at the shelter by 7:15pm. While there is no privy, there is a water source for the shelter, though it is stained orangey brown by the dead pine needles that have fallen into it.

I've had a nice, relaxed dinner of a Rice Side, Cabot chedder, fruit snacks, cool ranch Doritos, and Oreos. And it turns out Rice Sides will cook quite nicely if you dump them into a freezer bag, add the boiling water, and let them sit for maybe 20-30 minutes. It's a super easy, no-mess way to make that kind of dinner. It left me with no pot to clean which made me happy.

I've decided to sleep in the shelter as it might rain tonight (also, there's nowhere to tent not on a sharp downward slant with rocks). It's pretty nice and no one else is here. There's a porch and two bunk beds, each bunk able to hold 2 people (so 8 people), in addition to a loft with another sleep area accessible by wooden ladder.

Tomorrow, I'll hike from here to Mt Monadnock (~18 miles). On the way, I'll hike directly through Troy and I'm hoping to enjoy some Thai food in town for lunch!

M-M overnight hike, day #2

Saturday, September 10, 2016
Start: Falls Brook shelter, MA/NH line
End: Mt Monadnock summit (+ hike down to ranger station)
Mileage: 18.15 (+2.6 miles down the mtn) (with ~5,000 ft elevation gain)

I started out this morning from the shelter around 7:15am. I had a good sleep, with the shelter all to myself. I quickly crossed over into NH. The first few hours were relatively relaxed with few elevation changes. I had a nice chat with a fellow in a pick-up truck on a dirt road in backwoods NH. Like he said, there was one running stream before Troy. After filling up with water, I summitted Little Monadnock Mountain (1883') before descending into Troy.

I stopped in Troy for lunch at Thai Bamboo; they kindly filled my water bottles before I left. From there, it was 6.9 miles to the summit of Mt Monadnock.

I hiked up Gap Mountain (1840') and saw the first people on the trail since I'd started - two adults with two children around 6 years old. From there, I descended to NH 124. After crossing the road, the trail began its uphill climb to the summit. I didn't see other hikers until I crossed the Cart Path, near the Halfway House site and joined with the White Arrow trail.

I made it to the summit by 4:45pm. I managed to time it so that there were only three other people at the summit. I was able to get my picture taken by another hiker but didn't have to contend the with people in the background. It was very windy and there were storm clouds in the distance. 

After summitting, I headed down the mountain using the White Dot/White Cross trails, arriving at the ranger station at 6:15pm. My ride was already there and ready to go!

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.

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.

Appalachian Trail section hike - MA

Hike occurred on September 5th, 6th, 7th, & 8th, 2013

Massachusetts Appalachian Trail section hike

By "Timex"

Thursday, September 5th: 

Greylock Community Club, North Adams, MA to 
Crystal Mountain Campsite
18.6 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Mt Williams (2951 ft), Mt Greylock (3491 ft), Saddleball Mountain (3247 ft), & North Mountain (2182 ft).

Summary: I started Day 1 around 8:15am from the community center. I struggled to make good time as I hiked that morning since it was mostly climbing upward and I hadn't yet learned the many ways to make my pack most comfortable. I reached the Greylock summit around noon. I then headed to Crystal Mountain Campsite, reaching the site around 6:30pm. I set up my hammock, made dinner, greeted a group of 12+ backpacking college students, and got to sleep around 9pm. 

Pictures: 

View from Williams

View from Williams

Sign inside Bascom Lodge

Ceiling of the tower's room

Greylock's observation tower

Adorable Praying Mantis

View from Greylock

Metal casting of the mountain range including Greylock

Friday, September 6th: 

Crystal Mountain Campsite to 
Upper Goose Pond Cabin 
27.3 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Tully Mountain (2070 ft), Warner Hill (2050 ft), Bald Top (2040 ft), Walling Mountain (2200 ft), & Becket Mountain (2178 ft).

Summary: I was woken up multiple times throughout the night by the cold (around 30 degrees) and finally got up for good at 5:40am on the morning of Day 2. I packed up while shaking uncontrollably from the cold and was on the trail by 6:40am. I hiked the 3-4 miles into Dalton, stopping at their Cumberland Farms for skin protectant (which I had stupidly neglected to bring), coffee, and a danish. This helped warm me up and I headed off into the mountains again. I booked it all day and made some serious miles, though my body made me pay in various petty ways. I arrived at Upper Goose Pond Cabin around 6:30pm and almost wept at the sight of the cabin, the wonderfully padded bunks, and real furniture. The week's caretaker, Kevin, kindly heated up some water for my freeze dried Pad Thai (which was delicious) which I enjoyed while chatting with other hikers. I met a married couple from California and Indiana who met in the military and are now thru-hiking from ME to GA (SOBO - or south bound) after seeing a documentary about it on TV. I also met a 20-something year old guy who's doing a 2-3 week SOBO hike, expecting to end around New York or New Jersey. I gratefully ate cookies around a campfire for a while before heading to bed at 9pm. 

Pictures: 

View from Warner Hill

Greylock from Warner Hill

Selfie with me and Mt Greylock

Cabin's privy

Beautiful 5-star hotel Upper Goose Pond Cabin. Pancakes and coffee each morning, courtesy of Kevin, the week's caretaker. 

Access to a boat dock (with boat) and beach!

Second floor with bunks with 3-inch thick mattresses! Just what I needed. 

Saturday, September 7th:

Upper Goose Pond Cabin to 
Tom Leonard Shelter
21.8 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Baldy Mountain (1873 ft) & Cobble Hill (1358 ft).

Summary: I started Day 3 at 6:15am. I woke up, packed up my bag, ate a tall stack of chocolate chip pancakes and coffee (courtesy of Kevin), and hit the trail by 7:15am. The terrain for day 3 was mostly flat(ish) and allowed me to make good miles early in the day. The final push to the shelter was a steep mile of uphill but I made it to the shelter by 5:30pm. Once there, I slung my hammock from the rafters of the shelter's loft, cooked my dinner, and had some great conversations with the tent platform's occupant, Kathy. Turns out, Kathy is a recently retired Hamden High School (CT) media specialist/librarian; we had great times talking about hiking, reading, books, and various social justice issues. I turned in for the night around 9pm.

Pictures: 

Cooper Brook beaver pond

Me and Cooper Brook beaver pond

View from the Ledges including East Mountain and Mt Everett State Forest with Catskills in the background

Look, I made a fire!

Sunday, September 8th: 

Tom Leonard Shelter to 
Conn. 41/Undermountain Trail
24.3 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: East Mountain (1800 ft), June Mountain (1220 ft), Jug End Mountain (1750 ft), Mt Bushnell (1834 ft), Mt Everett (2602 ft), & Race Mountain (2372 ft). 

Summary: I was woken up around 4:45am by a screech owl screaming. Thankfully, it followed up the screaming with hooing so I knew it was an owl, not a murderer. I woke up for Day 4 at 6:15am. I packed up my hammock, got my bag ready to go, and said farewell to Kathy. She gave me her email in the hopes that we can get coffee back in CT sometime later this fall. I started hiking at 7:30am. I hadn't expected day 4's hike to be quite so steep and mountainous. My miles seemed to take forever. I also managed to sprain my right ankle at 8am and proceeded to sprain it at least half a dozen more times throughout the day. I made the summit of Race Mountain around 5:30pm, Sage's Ravine around 6:30pm, Paradise Lane trail around 6:45pm, Undermountain Trail by 7:30pm, and the parking lot by Conn. 41 at 8:15pm. It was a very long day but I was glad to be done! The next day, I sought out all the pizza, Chinese food, and beer I could fit in my stomach.  

Pictures:

Morning view from the tent platform by Tom Leonard Shelter

Deep cleft in glacial boulder with a clear stream running underneath

View from Mt Everett

Zoom from Everett towards Mt Greylock in the far distance. 

Amazing to see how far I traveled. 

View of Everett from Race Mountain

View of the Housatonic Valley from Race Mountain

Me all tuckered out on Race Mountain

Sign in Sage's Ravine announcing entrance into CT

Sage's Ravine

Total miles=92 miles in 4 days