rocksnrolls
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The original plan was a 14 mile traverse with a start at the Visitor Center, heading north up Jones Nose, the three summits of Saddle Ball Mtn, over Greylock and then down via the Bellows Pipe Tr to the Notch Rd TH. Saturday's blizzard conditions caused one of our group to cancel, but Lattinhill and I braved the storm to head to Jade's cozy shack in the hills for the night. After deciding the heavy snow cover would make the planned hike a bit much for us, we hashed out the options and settled on a Plan 'B' - a loop from the Notch Rd lot up Bellows Pipe to the summit with a return via Bernard Farm Tr. This would be about half the distance of the original plan and we could make a nice leisurely day of it.
When we got to the BP TH, luckily I knew there was parking up the unplowed road to our right, which looked more like a driveway than a road at that time. Jade and Lattinhill's vehicles had 4WD, so it was a snap to get up there.
We quickly decided snowshoes were in order (about a half foot deep at the TH) and as we geared up we unleashed the hiker mutts - Jade's Carmen, and Lattinhill's Maya, who seemed to have bonded quite nicely after meeting the previous night. I was curious to see which dog would be taking the lead more often. After hiking with them both on seperate occasions before, I knew they both had the tendency to scout out ahead a little ways when on the trail.
Bellows Pipe Tr was a treat. The first mile and a half was a gentle, steady climb with maybe a half dozen or so small streams that posed no trouble to cross. The dogs were doing a decent job of breaking trail for us, and having a ball doing it! We humans were having a great time enjoying the beautiful scenary and each other's company. I was glad to have hiking companions who shared my enjoyment of leisurley-paced hiking
As the trail started to climb a little more steeply the snow started getting deeper, with areas of 2 to 3 foot drifts to slog through. The dogs were starting to let us break trail at this point, instead of trying to tunnel through it themselves. Bad jokes abounded as we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves pushing higher and higher.
When we reached the Ragged Mtn Tr spur, we had some serious thinking to do. Carmen had been having a little trouble with the snow. It seems her wide paws and wirey fur tend to collect snow in the crevasses of her toes which had to be frequently cleared out. Jade wisely decided she should turn back at this point and wait for us back at the cars. She assured us that we could continue on as planned and she wouldn't mind waiting for us in her warm car
Lattinhill and I discussed the situation for a bit and decided to go with Plan 'C' - take the spur path up to the summit of Ragged Mtn and then call it a day. So we said our goodbyes and started downhill onto the spur. Thankfully it turned out the downhill was very brief and we soon started are way upward. It's strange - the sign for the RMT looked almost new, but we soon found that the blazes had been removed. Some were covered with brown paint (they had been yellow) and others had been scraped off. It was a little tricky finding our way. It was generally not too hard to spot the cleared trail and finding the blaze remnants as we neared them helped to assure us that we were heading the right way. When we would hit a particularly baffling spot we were able to depend on Maya's keen olfactory senses to determine the correct route.
The trail got quite steep and Lattinhill opted to change to crampons. I had borrowed some 6 ptrs from Jade but decided to trust in my MSR's to provide the traction I needed to continue. We fought our way up, grabbing trees for support and marvelling at the ice formations along the exposed cliff faces near the top. The trail wound around the cliffs (we had feared it went straight over it) and started to level off shortly afterward. At this point the blazes had completely vanished but we spotted numerous small trees and branches that had obviously been cut with tools, so we confidently continued. As we came up to what we hope was the summit, we saw a tree with the number 5021 and an arrow painted on it, and about 5 feet away, another tree with just the number on it. Not sure what that number signified, but it certainly seemed like we were at the summit - so we decided that was good enough for us.
As we started back, Lattinhill spotted a short side trail to an awesome outlook where we were able to view most of Greylock and the mountains to the south and west. There was an amazing icy slide leading down from the summit and at first we thought that might be the Thunderbolt Tr, but after consulting the map we realized it was a good deal south of the Thunderbolt and might not be scalable without technical equipment. We think we might have spied where the Thunderbolt and/or the Bellows Pipe Trails hit the col between Greylock and Fitch.
Heading down off Ragged I tried to put on Jade's 6 ptrs, but couldn't quite figure out how to get the strap to stay in place, so I put my MSRs back on and carefully made my way downslope. By taking my time and being very cautious I managed to get down without any problems.
The trek back down the BPT was a joy. Lattinhill and I had that euphoric feeling of having successfully tackled a tough bit of trail on a gorgeous day. Maya was still having fun and seemed to have tons of energy left (I think she could play fetch all day!) - her mix of german shepherd and chocolate lab seems to be ideal for wintery conditions. We spotted a large smiley face that Jade had left for us which only added to our own smiley faces
After getting back together with Jade we found out about her encounter with the alligator egg packin' Kevin (who's friends with Lettinhill) and headed down to the other trailhead to see if he wanted to join us for lunch. He declined and we lucked onto finding a wonderful little japanese place in Williamstown called Chopsticks - highest recommendations if you're in the area!
Sated and well-satisfied with our day of winter wonderland travel, Lattinhill (and Maya) headed south, and Jade (and Carmen) and I headed back to her place where I got into my car for the long drive back to Eastern Mass. My thanks go to Darren and VFTT for helping me to find such nice people to hike with!
When we got to the BP TH, luckily I knew there was parking up the unplowed road to our right, which looked more like a driveway than a road at that time. Jade and Lattinhill's vehicles had 4WD, so it was a snap to get up there.
We quickly decided snowshoes were in order (about a half foot deep at the TH) and as we geared up we unleashed the hiker mutts - Jade's Carmen, and Lattinhill's Maya, who seemed to have bonded quite nicely after meeting the previous night. I was curious to see which dog would be taking the lead more often. After hiking with them both on seperate occasions before, I knew they both had the tendency to scout out ahead a little ways when on the trail.
Bellows Pipe Tr was a treat. The first mile and a half was a gentle, steady climb with maybe a half dozen or so small streams that posed no trouble to cross. The dogs were doing a decent job of breaking trail for us, and having a ball doing it! We humans were having a great time enjoying the beautiful scenary and each other's company. I was glad to have hiking companions who shared my enjoyment of leisurley-paced hiking
As the trail started to climb a little more steeply the snow started getting deeper, with areas of 2 to 3 foot drifts to slog through. The dogs were starting to let us break trail at this point, instead of trying to tunnel through it themselves. Bad jokes abounded as we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves pushing higher and higher.
When we reached the Ragged Mtn Tr spur, we had some serious thinking to do. Carmen had been having a little trouble with the snow. It seems her wide paws and wirey fur tend to collect snow in the crevasses of her toes which had to be frequently cleared out. Jade wisely decided she should turn back at this point and wait for us back at the cars. She assured us that we could continue on as planned and she wouldn't mind waiting for us in her warm car
Lattinhill and I discussed the situation for a bit and decided to go with Plan 'C' - take the spur path up to the summit of Ragged Mtn and then call it a day. So we said our goodbyes and started downhill onto the spur. Thankfully it turned out the downhill was very brief and we soon started are way upward. It's strange - the sign for the RMT looked almost new, but we soon found that the blazes had been removed. Some were covered with brown paint (they had been yellow) and others had been scraped off. It was a little tricky finding our way. It was generally not too hard to spot the cleared trail and finding the blaze remnants as we neared them helped to assure us that we were heading the right way. When we would hit a particularly baffling spot we were able to depend on Maya's keen olfactory senses to determine the correct route.
The trail got quite steep and Lattinhill opted to change to crampons. I had borrowed some 6 ptrs from Jade but decided to trust in my MSR's to provide the traction I needed to continue. We fought our way up, grabbing trees for support and marvelling at the ice formations along the exposed cliff faces near the top. The trail wound around the cliffs (we had feared it went straight over it) and started to level off shortly afterward. At this point the blazes had completely vanished but we spotted numerous small trees and branches that had obviously been cut with tools, so we confidently continued. As we came up to what we hope was the summit, we saw a tree with the number 5021 and an arrow painted on it, and about 5 feet away, another tree with just the number on it. Not sure what that number signified, but it certainly seemed like we were at the summit - so we decided that was good enough for us.
As we started back, Lattinhill spotted a short side trail to an awesome outlook where we were able to view most of Greylock and the mountains to the south and west. There was an amazing icy slide leading down from the summit and at first we thought that might be the Thunderbolt Tr, but after consulting the map we realized it was a good deal south of the Thunderbolt and might not be scalable without technical equipment. We think we might have spied where the Thunderbolt and/or the Bellows Pipe Trails hit the col between Greylock and Fitch.
Heading down off Ragged I tried to put on Jade's 6 ptrs, but couldn't quite figure out how to get the strap to stay in place, so I put my MSRs back on and carefully made my way downslope. By taking my time and being very cautious I managed to get down without any problems.
The trek back down the BPT was a joy. Lattinhill and I had that euphoric feeling of having successfully tackled a tough bit of trail on a gorgeous day. Maya was still having fun and seemed to have tons of energy left (I think she could play fetch all day!) - her mix of german shepherd and chocolate lab seems to be ideal for wintery conditions. We spotted a large smiley face that Jade had left for us which only added to our own smiley faces
After getting back together with Jade we found out about her encounter with the alligator egg packin' Kevin (who's friends with Lettinhill) and headed down to the other trailhead to see if he wanted to join us for lunch. He declined and we lucked onto finding a wonderful little japanese place in Williamstown called Chopsticks - highest recommendations if you're in the area!
Sated and well-satisfied with our day of winter wonderland travel, Lattinhill (and Maya) headed south, and Jade (and Carmen) and I headed back to her place where I got into my car for the long drive back to Eastern Mass. My thanks go to Darren and VFTT for helping me to find such nice people to hike with!
