dr_wu002
Well-known member
Having a mountain in your backyard is nice. These days, I don't care so much about the rising gas prices because my '98 Saturn (yes, the one with dog vomit in the back seat that I never cleaned up, and piss in the front seat) still gets > 40 mpg, but it's the other factors that make a short drive to the mountains nice. Exhausting work schedule, long hours driving to and fro (in traffic), negligible sleep on the weekdays don't make me want to get up at 3am on a Saturday to go drive 3 or 4 hours to trudge up some freakin' peak no matter how gorgeous it is. I just don't have the energy. But, how ******* nice is it to wake up at a leisure pace on a Saturday, have a pancake breakfast, a few beers, a few more beers, maybe a few stabs of heroin and chill out on the balcony and read and birdwatch and relax before finally throwing my crap together for a little trip up Rt. 141 in Easthampton.
I've been living here for almost 2 years now and, if you've ever followed my trip reports, you'll know that I hike Mt. Tom a lot: in fact I'm shooting for every week until I move out of the area or die. But I haven't done East Mountain which is on the other side of Rt. 141... and plus, this was another section of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail for me to check off.
I got like a High Noon start or something like that and walked the whole section and then back again -- something like 11 or 12 miles. And it was a pretty nice bit of hiking. Starting elevation on the side of Mt. Tom is about 500' and you never top out over 800' but that's kind of besides the point. The woods were pretty, open, dry and interesting. The area was sick with wood thrush, first of all... I've always heard these buggers with their beautiful flute-like song but I had never seen many on the trail and not in these numbers. I know their territorial (and I saw a few of them quarrel) and I saw a lot but unfortunately didn't get a picture.
The trail goes up and down a series of hills really. I have no idea if they have names or in general are considered part of "East Mountain" but the trail is actually lightly blazed and difficult to follow if you're not paying close attention -- it's easy to wander off on a number of woods roads or just muck around on a ledge looking for where the trail continues on. Actually, the only real people that I saw were some people on their quad and they were using this thing to bushwhack basically, all off trail, going up ledges and stuff -- I wasn't sure whether to get mad (and kill them) or be impressed. After a while I actually lost them although I wasn't sure if they actually stayed on the trail or not.
I mentioned ledges and they were pretty sweet: you are lying kind of low, 700' or just a hair above, but these are the same kind of ledges you see on Mt. Tom -- facing West but these are low enough that they really give you the sense that you're in the Pioneer Valley. You really do look out to the hill country surrounding you. This, and not to mention that the Spring colors are really incredibly beautiful right now. The leaves are all out and have been for a while but they're still that young, lighter mixed green colors as opposed to the uniform lush summer dark green. So, looking out to the countryside is quite pretty and at times can be nearly as nice as fall foliage -- in a Spring sort of way. These views along the way, while perhaps not breathtaking by any means were tranquil and idyllic and for the most part provided both a sense of solitude (for me being alone in the woods) a part of something (Pioneer Valley, which I've grown to love).
After a lot of ups and downs, a few cols here and a few cols there, some little streams, a lot of ledges and a bunch of cliffs and even your typical talus slopes for this area, I reached noisy Rt. 202. No car spot, better walk back. The walk back was just a nice and just as lonely -- back over the ledges and through the scrub and then the lower-lying hardwoods, taking care not to wander off trail on to some woods road or ATV trail. I made it back with plenty of time to do the requisite food shopping and then go home and drink more beer, eat more quesadillas, shoot more heroin, read more books and finally go to bed only to press repeat on Sunday (except I did Mt. Tom on Sunday but the rest, including gorgeous weather was just about the same).
Now, I'm no idiot, I don't go walking through Mt. Tom or East Mountain or whatever and think that wow, I'm in the White Mountains or The Adirondacks even! But there's something quite special about having a mountain chain so close to your house and even then, to go there and actually have a sense of remoteness and also being alone. I don't hike with people much these days -- I've actually gotten quite into doing things that I had never done before like bird watching, plant and tree identification, snake finding and so on. I enjoy quietly walking through the woods and exploring mundane things and hanging around waiting for things like deer and chipmunks to show up. I don't really give a crap anymore and I get out simply to enjoy myself and not to hurry up and go anywhere. I guess that's why I like Mt. Tom and the surrounding areas like East Mountain so much, because I don't have to pretend like I'm going anywhere and no one really gives a f-ck if I am or if I'm not. East Mountain is worth the trip if you're so inclined. It's a nice little underused spot in the woods with an overriding sense of both nothingness and purpose. I'll try to go back a few more times this year.
-Dr. Wu
I've been living here for almost 2 years now and, if you've ever followed my trip reports, you'll know that I hike Mt. Tom a lot: in fact I'm shooting for every week until I move out of the area or die. But I haven't done East Mountain which is on the other side of Rt. 141... and plus, this was another section of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail for me to check off.
I got like a High Noon start or something like that and walked the whole section and then back again -- something like 11 or 12 miles. And it was a pretty nice bit of hiking. Starting elevation on the side of Mt. Tom is about 500' and you never top out over 800' but that's kind of besides the point. The woods were pretty, open, dry and interesting. The area was sick with wood thrush, first of all... I've always heard these buggers with their beautiful flute-like song but I had never seen many on the trail and not in these numbers. I know their territorial (and I saw a few of them quarrel) and I saw a lot but unfortunately didn't get a picture.
The trail goes up and down a series of hills really. I have no idea if they have names or in general are considered part of "East Mountain" but the trail is actually lightly blazed and difficult to follow if you're not paying close attention -- it's easy to wander off on a number of woods roads or just muck around on a ledge looking for where the trail continues on. Actually, the only real people that I saw were some people on their quad and they were using this thing to bushwhack basically, all off trail, going up ledges and stuff -- I wasn't sure whether to get mad (and kill them) or be impressed. After a while I actually lost them although I wasn't sure if they actually stayed on the trail or not.
I mentioned ledges and they were pretty sweet: you are lying kind of low, 700' or just a hair above, but these are the same kind of ledges you see on Mt. Tom -- facing West but these are low enough that they really give you the sense that you're in the Pioneer Valley. You really do look out to the hill country surrounding you. This, and not to mention that the Spring colors are really incredibly beautiful right now. The leaves are all out and have been for a while but they're still that young, lighter mixed green colors as opposed to the uniform lush summer dark green. So, looking out to the countryside is quite pretty and at times can be nearly as nice as fall foliage -- in a Spring sort of way. These views along the way, while perhaps not breathtaking by any means were tranquil and idyllic and for the most part provided both a sense of solitude (for me being alone in the woods) a part of something (Pioneer Valley, which I've grown to love).
After a lot of ups and downs, a few cols here and a few cols there, some little streams, a lot of ledges and a bunch of cliffs and even your typical talus slopes for this area, I reached noisy Rt. 202. No car spot, better walk back. The walk back was just a nice and just as lonely -- back over the ledges and through the scrub and then the lower-lying hardwoods, taking care not to wander off trail on to some woods road or ATV trail. I made it back with plenty of time to do the requisite food shopping and then go home and drink more beer, eat more quesadillas, shoot more heroin, read more books and finally go to bed only to press repeat on Sunday (except I did Mt. Tom on Sunday but the rest, including gorgeous weather was just about the same).
Now, I'm no idiot, I don't go walking through Mt. Tom or East Mountain or whatever and think that wow, I'm in the White Mountains or The Adirondacks even! But there's something quite special about having a mountain chain so close to your house and even then, to go there and actually have a sense of remoteness and also being alone. I don't hike with people much these days -- I've actually gotten quite into doing things that I had never done before like bird watching, plant and tree identification, snake finding and so on. I enjoy quietly walking through the woods and exploring mundane things and hanging around waiting for things like deer and chipmunks to show up. I don't really give a crap anymore and I get out simply to enjoy myself and not to hurry up and go anywhere. I guess that's why I like Mt. Tom and the surrounding areas like East Mountain so much, because I don't have to pretend like I'm going anywhere and no one really gives a f-ck if I am or if I'm not. East Mountain is worth the trip if you're so inclined. It's a nice little underused spot in the woods with an overriding sense of both nothingness and purpose. I'll try to go back a few more times this year.
-Dr. Wu
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