rocksnrolls
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2005
- Messages
- 371
- Reaction score
- 47
Todays cast of character included me, Jade and her pooch Carmen, Lattinhill and his pooch Maya, Truffles amd her friend Sharon.
We met at the unmarked trailhead parking lot for the Broad Brook Tr on the Mass/Vermont border. Good thing I had researched it's location in a few books! From there we carpooled to Pattison Rd, on the north flank of Mt Greylock. As we geared up we talked briefly with a couple people who were heading off to work on a relo of the AT between Pattison and Rt 2. One of them warned us the Broad Brook Tr was sporadically blazed and hard to follow, but we were confident we could figure it out.
Leaving the car, we enjoyed this downhill section of the AT through some nice woods. It was a rare pleasure to start a hike going downhill, especially knowing it wouldn't mean a climb at the end of the day
. The road walk was short, through a nice neighborhood of well-kept houses. We passed a couple of SoBo thruhikers at this time and wished them well.
Heading into the woods up East Mountain we got a good rhythm going, chatting and catching up with what we had all been up to lately. It was a moderate grade up past the spur trail to Sherman Brook campsite and the cool temps and low humidity made for a least sweaty hike in many weeks We passed several hikers heading south, including a group of teens from New York City who were enjoying a break from a backpacking trip. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and were quite polite as we chatted with them briefly.
Shortly before the one steep bit, we passed a young couple heading northbound as they rested up before the climb. After the steep rocky climb, we rested and snacked a little as the couple we had just seen passed us. I always enjoy rocky climbs and wish there had been more of it. Next time I'm here I'll have to explore it some more, maybe check out the bad weather bypass too.
We enjoyed the view of the Taconics from Eph's Lookout and were shortly at the border of Vermont. There we stopped for lunch and some more chatting with that couple we had met earlier. There's some very comfortable rocks in this spot. It's a great place for a lunch break!
The next section of the trail is mostly flat, starting with some downhill and with a few ups-n-downs of minor elevation change. Before we knew it we had covered our last miles of AT for the day and had arrived at the spur to the Seth Warner Shelter. Here we hung out again, chatting with the couple, Bob and Ming, that we had leapfrogged earlier. I handed out my leftover birthday cupcakes to share with everyone. Thanks to Dugan for the delicious treats!
I wandered around the site a bit, over to the privy, around some of the primitive campsites, and down to the water source. I noticed that the trail to the brook continued past it and after consulting my maps and Truffles' map from the Williams College hiking club, realized we could take that trail to get over to the Broad Brook Tr and avoid having to do any backtracking.
Bob and Ming, who we found out were from PA, were planning an out-n-back from Rt 2 to the Seth Warner, but we convinced them to join us on the Broad Brook Tr and offered them a ride back to there car. It wasn't hard to do, it was half the distance to hike, offered new trail to explore and friendly folks to hike with, so they figured, why not?
I had tried to find out info on the Broad Brook Tr, but there wasn't anything on Views, and noone responded to my questions about it. And with the warning from the trailworker, I was wondering what we were in for. Turns out we were in for a real treat! The trail was actually well blazed (only had to search for the blazes a few times) and the tread was light, but not too hard to follow. It was quite a contrast from the 'tame' AT, much more of a wild fealing trail. It wandered through the forest, back and forth across the rocky Broad Brook, up and down the sides of hills, along the edges of cliffy bits and through quite a few picturesque spots that made me kick myself for forgetting my camera . I'll definitly want to return here someday and highly recommend it to anyone looking for the trail less travelled in SW VT. A couple of the brook crossings near the end were a bit on the tricky side and I'm sure it would be quite a challenge during spring runoff! With careful foot placement and the occasional teamwork we managed to make the crossings without incident.
At one point we passed by one of the largest mill foundations I've ever seen! There was a stone-lined canal to one side and a little further down the rusted-out remains of a very old car with wooden spoked wheels. I wondered if it had been used as an engine for helping to pull the lumber along that stretch.
We were soon back at the cars around 4:30. Bob and Ming joined Jade and I while the others piled into Sharon's car. On the way to dropping of our new friends at their car, we exchanged email adresses. We asked them to join us for dinner at our favorite local spot, the pan-Asian restaurant Chopsticks, but they were heading next to Acadia so had a loooong drive ahead and regretted they couldn't join us.
Dinner and post-hike conversation ensued with all enthused at how beautiful the day had been and how lucky we were to have hiked such an awesome lesser-known trail.
We met at the unmarked trailhead parking lot for the Broad Brook Tr on the Mass/Vermont border. Good thing I had researched it's location in a few books! From there we carpooled to Pattison Rd, on the north flank of Mt Greylock. As we geared up we talked briefly with a couple people who were heading off to work on a relo of the AT between Pattison and Rt 2. One of them warned us the Broad Brook Tr was sporadically blazed and hard to follow, but we were confident we could figure it out.
Leaving the car, we enjoyed this downhill section of the AT through some nice woods. It was a rare pleasure to start a hike going downhill, especially knowing it wouldn't mean a climb at the end of the day
. The road walk was short, through a nice neighborhood of well-kept houses. We passed a couple of SoBo thruhikers at this time and wished them well.Heading into the woods up East Mountain we got a good rhythm going, chatting and catching up with what we had all been up to lately. It was a moderate grade up past the spur trail to Sherman Brook campsite and the cool temps and low humidity made for a least sweaty hike in many weeks
We passed several hikers heading south, including a group of teens from New York City who were enjoying a break from a backpacking trip. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and were quite polite as we chatted with them briefly.Shortly before the one steep bit, we passed a young couple heading northbound as they rested up before the climb. After the steep rocky climb, we rested and snacked a little as the couple we had just seen passed us. I always enjoy rocky climbs and wish there had been more of it. Next time I'm here I'll have to explore it some more, maybe check out the bad weather bypass too.
We enjoyed the view of the Taconics from Eph's Lookout and were shortly at the border of Vermont. There we stopped for lunch and some more chatting with that couple we had met earlier. There's some very comfortable rocks in this spot. It's a great place for a lunch break!
The next section of the trail is mostly flat, starting with some downhill and with a few ups-n-downs of minor elevation change. Before we knew it we had covered our last miles of AT for the day and had arrived at the spur to the Seth Warner Shelter. Here we hung out again, chatting with the couple, Bob and Ming, that we had leapfrogged earlier. I handed out my leftover birthday cupcakes to share with everyone. Thanks to Dugan for the delicious treats!
I wandered around the site a bit, over to the privy, around some of the primitive campsites, and down to the water source. I noticed that the trail to the brook continued past it and after consulting my maps and Truffles' map from the Williams College hiking club, realized we could take that trail to get over to the Broad Brook Tr and avoid having to do any backtracking.
Bob and Ming, who we found out were from PA, were planning an out-n-back from Rt 2 to the Seth Warner, but we convinced them to join us on the Broad Brook Tr and offered them a ride back to there car. It wasn't hard to do, it was half the distance to hike, offered new trail to explore and friendly folks to hike with, so they figured, why not?
I had tried to find out info on the Broad Brook Tr, but there wasn't anything on Views, and noone responded to my questions about it. And with the warning from the trailworker, I was wondering what we were in for. Turns out we were in for a real treat! The trail was actually well blazed (only had to search for the blazes a few times) and the tread was light, but not too hard to follow. It was quite a contrast from the 'tame' AT, much more of a wild fealing trail. It wandered through the forest, back and forth across the rocky Broad Brook, up and down the sides of hills, along the edges of cliffy bits and through quite a few picturesque spots that made me kick myself for forgetting my camera
. I'll definitly want to return here someday and highly recommend it to anyone looking for the trail less travelled in SW VT. A couple of the brook crossings near the end were a bit on the tricky side and I'm sure it would be quite a challenge during spring runoff! With careful foot placement and the occasional teamwork we managed to make the crossings without incident.At one point we passed by one of the largest mill foundations I've ever seen! There was a stone-lined canal to one side and a little further down the rusted-out remains of a very old car with wooden spoked wheels. I wondered if it had been used as an engine for helping to pull the lumber along that stretch.
We were soon back at the cars around 4:30. Bob and Ming joined Jade and I while the others piled into Sharon's car. On the way to dropping of our new friends at their car, we exchanged email adresses. We asked them to join us for dinner at our favorite local spot, the pan-Asian restaurant Chopsticks, but they were heading next to Acadia so had a loooong drive ahead and regretted they couldn't join us.
Dinner and post-hike conversation ensued with all enthused at how beautiful the day had been and how lucky we were to have hiked such an awesome lesser-known trail.
