rocksnrolls
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Looking to do some long miles this weekend without much driving (well, except for me 
) the plan was to do a couple AT sections, south from Dalton to Rt 20 in Lee. Along for the fun was Jade and Carmen, Lattinhill and Maya, myself, and SilentCal for the first half (he had a commitment for later in the day). And it would have been alot more fun without the blackflies - isn't it early in the year for them to be so bad??
Jade and I carspotted in Lee and met up with SC and Lattinhill who carspotted the midpoint on Blotz Rd. Skies were blue and the temps were just a tad on the chilly side. Seemed like perfection! I hadn't had much sleep the night before and my lower back was kinda sore, but I figured I'd be ok after I got going.
We started with a road walk through a nice residential neighborhood. Passed a house with a big AT sign and a pointer to their hose for water. Bet they'll be getting lots of visitors soon! Then through a lumber yard and across the tracks just before a long freight train pulled through. Then it was up Day Mtn through a nice open woods.
To tell the truth, my lack of sleep made alot of the day sort of blend together in my mind. Following the well-blazed AT takes so little thought that I was generally on auto-pilot. In general the trail was not at all muddy. We say many small flowers, including a large variety of Trillium. Stream crossings were all easily managed (and gratefully wallowed in by our canine companions). None of the ascents were particularly hard, though that last climb up from Finerty Pond near the end of the day was a bit tough mentally. The blackflies were pretty much constant companions for the day, though they seemed less interested in biting us than in buzzing around our faces and getting into eyes, ears and mouths .
We didn't encounter hardly anyone before Blotz Rd except some ATVers on cross paths. After Blotz we met many hikers - a pair of couples heading to October Mtn Lean-To (which already had at least one occupant when we passed by it), a couple solo hikers, a couple with dogs (might've been police dogs-in-training) and I think a few others.
Stopping to rest was problematic - too many bugs flitting about to get comfortable, and not enough breezy open summits to cool off on . I believe it was Warner Mtn where we got the best views. Finerty Pond was quite beautiful and we had a snack break there to prep for the climb up Walling and then to Becket. At that point my zen attitude toward the bugs was working pretty well. I was so exhausted I wasn't really noticing them too much at this point.
One thing worth pointing out is that just before the AT crosses Rt 20 there's a blue-blazed trail to the west that heads to the parking area. Jade was off ahead of Lattinhill and I at the end and missed the trail, so she ended up having a bit of a road walk at the end. Lattinhill and I were quite amused to arrive at her car with her nowhere in sight (reminding us of our post-blizzard hike on Greylock/Ragged earlier this year).
I can't really remember any other highlights of the hike. Hopefully the others will chime in with anything I might have spaced on. Did I mention there were alot of annoying bugs? At least there weren't too many skeeters yet!
) the plan was to do a couple AT sections, south from Dalton to Rt 20 in Lee. Along for the fun was Jade and Carmen, Lattinhill and Maya, myself, and SilentCal for the first half (he had a commitment for later in the day). And it would have been alot more fun without the blackflies - isn't it early in the year for them to be so bad??Jade and I carspotted in Lee and met up with SC and Lattinhill who carspotted the midpoint on Blotz Rd. Skies were blue and the temps were just a tad on the chilly side. Seemed like perfection! I hadn't had much sleep the night before and my lower back was kinda sore, but I figured I'd be ok after I got going.
We started with a road walk through a nice residential neighborhood. Passed a house with a big AT sign and a pointer to their hose for water. Bet they'll be getting lots of visitors soon! Then through a lumber yard and across the tracks just before a long freight train pulled through. Then it was up Day Mtn through a nice open woods.
To tell the truth, my lack of sleep made alot of the day sort of blend together in my mind. Following the well-blazed AT takes so little thought that I was generally on auto-pilot. In general the trail was not at all muddy. We say many small flowers, including a large variety of Trillium. Stream crossings were all easily managed (and gratefully wallowed in by our canine companions). None of the ascents were particularly hard, though that last climb up from Finerty Pond near the end of the day was a bit tough mentally. The blackflies were pretty much constant companions for the day, though they seemed less interested in biting us than in buzzing around our faces and getting into eyes, ears and mouths
.We didn't encounter hardly anyone before Blotz Rd except some ATVers on cross paths. After Blotz we met many hikers - a pair of couples heading to October Mtn Lean-To (which already had at least one occupant when we passed by it), a couple solo hikers, a couple with dogs (might've been police dogs-in-training) and I think a few others.
Stopping to rest was problematic - too many bugs flitting about to get comfortable, and not enough breezy open summits to cool off on
. I believe it was Warner Mtn where we got the best views. Finerty Pond was quite beautiful and we had a snack break there to prep for the climb up Walling and then to Becket. At that point my zen attitude toward the bugs was working pretty well. I was so exhausted I wasn't really noticing them too much at this point.One thing worth pointing out is that just before the AT crosses Rt 20 there's a blue-blazed trail to the west that heads to the parking area. Jade was off ahead of Lattinhill and I at the end and missed the trail, so she ended up having a bit of a road walk at the end. Lattinhill and I were quite amused to arrive at her car with her nowhere in sight (reminding us of our post-blizzard hike on Greylock/Ragged earlier this year).
I can't really remember any other highlights of the hike. Hopefully the others will chime in with anything I might have spaced on. Did I mention there were alot of annoying bugs? At least there weren't too many skeeters yet!
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