masshysteria
Member
A cool start to a morning hike up Greylock from the Gould Trail. The Gould Trail had some water in it after Saturday's rains, but not too bad. This trail gets some pretty good maintainance of it's water bars. The first scheduled attraction was a trip over to the Peck's Brook leanto, to check out the falls. The falls were fairly impressive, after the weekends rain, but it is a little dicey getting down the ledge to get a good look.
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After reaching the end of the Gould Trail, I opted to walk up the road, instead of continuing up the AT to the summit. Great views were to be had from the Adams Overlook, but I had a different agenda for going this way. Back in 1993, I had climbed the power line route that supplies the summit, from Mrs. Gould's farm. I wanted to get to the top of the recent Indian Head slide on the mountains east face, very prominent from the valley below. Upon reaching the power lines, I continued up the road about 120 yards, and then headed down the very steep hill, looking for the top of the slide. It's not too far from the road, just steep. A word of caution, it is very dicey right here, so pay attention to your footing. A fall here would be fatal!
[URL=http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2526587150102049035Htovab]
In '93, I had intending to climb down the slide from here, but the drop off was at least 60 feet straight down from here, and the rest of the slide was too steep and gravelly. So in '93, I bushwacked down in the woods on the left side, and made occasional forays out onto the slide where possible. Even then there was the occasional rock careening down the mountain. It really wasn't very safe! This time, I wanted to see what Mother Nature is doing with this scar. There are some small birches growing up in spots, but other than that, a lot of bare rock and open gravel spots.
Returning back up steeply to the road, I continued to follow it up. Rounding the north side of the mountain, the cold winds hits you hard, making it critical to keep moving, so I turned onto the AT, and made the summit. There were about 5 people on the summit, all having driven up. One young mother and her child were quite surprised that I chose to hike up the mountain instead of driving!
Bascom Lodge is closed, the tower is closed, and it was very cold up there, so I started back down on the AT south. As I passed under the WTEN tv tower, I could hear a smacking noise around me. When I looked up, it was ice melting off the tower and falling onto the road. While taking pictures of this, I kept a eye open for any chunks heading my way.
After an uneventful hike back down the Gould Trail, I decided to take a crossover trail that connects with the Cheshire Harbor Trail. This pretty trail took me down into the Peck's Brook ravine, where the damage from last December's ice storm was obvious.
I continued down the CHT, and made a crossover back to the Gould Trail and the parking lot.
Pics; http://community.webshots.com/album/575560569oMkMoK
[/URLAfter reaching the end of the Gould Trail, I opted to walk up the road, instead of continuing up the AT to the summit. Great views were to be had from the Adams Overlook, but I had a different agenda for going this way. Back in 1993, I had climbed the power line route that supplies the summit, from Mrs. Gould's farm. I wanted to get to the top of the recent Indian Head slide on the mountains east face, very prominent from the valley below. Upon reaching the power lines, I continued up the road about 120 yards, and then headed down the very steep hill, looking for the top of the slide. It's not too far from the road, just steep. A word of caution, it is very dicey right here, so pay attention to your footing. A fall here would be fatal!
[URL=http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2526587150102049035Htovab]
In '93, I had intending to climb down the slide from here, but the drop off was at least 60 feet straight down from here, and the rest of the slide was too steep and gravelly. So in '93, I bushwacked down in the woods on the left side, and made occasional forays out onto the slide where possible. Even then there was the occasional rock careening down the mountain. It really wasn't very safe! This time, I wanted to see what Mother Nature is doing with this scar. There are some small birches growing up in spots, but other than that, a lot of bare rock and open gravel spots.
Returning back up steeply to the road, I continued to follow it up. Rounding the north side of the mountain, the cold winds hits you hard, making it critical to keep moving, so I turned onto the AT, and made the summit. There were about 5 people on the summit, all having driven up. One young mother and her child were quite surprised that I chose to hike up the mountain instead of driving!
Bascom Lodge is closed, the tower is closed, and it was very cold up there, so I started back down on the AT south. As I passed under the WTEN tv tower, I could hear a smacking noise around me. When I looked up, it was ice melting off the tower and falling onto the road. While taking pictures of this, I kept a eye open for any chunks heading my way.
After an uneventful hike back down the Gould Trail, I decided to take a crossover trail that connects with the Cheshire Harbor Trail. This pretty trail took me down into the Peck's Brook ravine, where the damage from last December's ice storm was obvious.
I continued down the CHT, and made a crossover back to the Gould Trail and the parking lot.
Pics; http://community.webshots.com/album/575560569oMkMoK
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