Goodbye, Vermont! Hello, Massachusetts!

Last night it felt like I was sleeping on a boat on rough seas rather than in a hammock. We stayed warm and dry, though. It felt good to have put in a 14-mile day.

This morning, I was glad to see that the weather improved because it had been slippery walking on the wet leaves all day yesterday. We passed into Massachusetts, where the Trail winds through the Berkshires for 90 miles. For the first miles, we continued walking through the green tunnel, up and down along ridgelines. When we reached East Mountain, we walked along ledges and had a great view of the countryside to the west and a town to the east. We took a quick break and then continued along the ridge through Clarksburg State Forest and began to descend down to the town of Greylock.

When we reached Greylock, the Trail went along Massachusetts Avenue for a short time, and then turned and took us across a bridge over the Hoosic River and then a pedestrian bridge over MA Route 2, Mohawk Trail. Towns are always tempting, and this one offered a grocery store and a diner, but at this point in my hike I have one focus: home.

Almost immediately after we left the town of Greylock, the Trail started to climb toward Mount Williams, the first peak in Mount Greylock State Reservation in the Berkshire Mountains. The ascent was gradual for about a mile, and then it climbed steeply 1,500 feet up a ridge for a little over a mile to an unnamed peak. At that point, the Trail turned eastward past Wilbur Clearing Lean-to and took a steep descent down to Greylock Mountain Road, after which it climbed steeply again to the top of Mount Williams (elevation 2,956). We weren't done yet. Another steep descent down into a saddle, followed by a steep climb almost to the top of Mount Fitch (elevation 3,110 feet). One more shallow climb down and another steep climb up, and we had finally reached the peak of Mount Greylock (elevation 3,491 feet), the highest mountain in Massachusetts.

We stopped for lunch at the top of Mount Greylock. It's a strange combination of commercial (there's a lodge and a ski trail) and commemorative (there's a 93-foot-high Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower in memory of World War I Veterans) and historic (Herman Melville supposedly said the shape of the mountain was his inspiration for writing Moby Dick). The spiral staircase leading up inside the Veterans Memorial was definitely more than I wanted to tackle after hiking here, let alone Forest. Instead, I sat behind the memorial, ate lunch and enjoyed the view, while Forest (guess what?)...napped.

Photo Credit: Geoffrey Coelho Photography

After lunch, we hit the Trail, which dropped down to two trailhead/parking areas and then climbed and followed the ridge over four peaks comprising Saddle Ball Mountain. I liked this area better because it was quieter; Mount Greylock still attracts tourists at this time of year. I noticed that there was greater variety in types of trees here, which was refreshing. As we descended down from the last peak we came to Mark Noepel Shelter (Mile Marker 607.2). I collected water, fed Forest, made my dinner and set up camp. Another 14-mile day was completed, and I was ready to sleep.