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.

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. 

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.