Mass. AT side trails?

[yam]

I'm stumped. I'm trying to figure out mileage for side trails leading up to Mt. Greylock and also the side trails leading up to Bear Mtn. I picked up an official map to the AT but it doesn't specify miles. Any suggestions where I may find this info??
Thanks!

 

[JeffAndrews]

The AMC Massachusetts Trail Guide covers Greylock pretty well.

Which trails are you interested in?

 

[Panama Jack]

greylock reservation

ummm I'm not sure this worked

 

[BrentD22]

AMC Guide - Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Chapter of the AMC Guides covers all of the side trails very well. I'm sure the www... would be a good place to search for info as well. You can find anything on Google if you search correctly!

Click and See - Googled....

 

[yam]

The AMC Massachusetts Trail Guide covers Greylock pretty well.

Which trails are you interested in?

I'm trying to compare Greylock vs Bear Mtn for a weekender trip (start out early Saturday morning and head off the trail Sunday). Someone had told me the AT from Salisbury (CT) to Egremont (MA) had a fantastic view.
I wanted to see what my loop options might be instead of a straight hike up the AT.
Any suggestions?



I'm gonna check out PJ's and Brent's links--thanks guys!

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Best views are on Race Mountain

The Mount Greylock State Reservation webpage has a PDF link for Hiking Trail Mileages of all trails in the reservation.

The book Exploring the Appalachian Trail, Southern New England, by David Emblidge does a good job of covering the side trail mileages for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Near Bear Mt. the Undermountain Trail is 1.9 miles long, Paradise Lane is 2.1 miles long and joins the Undermountain Trail 1.1 miles from CT Route 41, 0.8 miles from the AT. A loop over Bear Mt. using these trails and the AT is 6.7 miles and 1600' elevation gain. A short walk into Sages Ravine is a short, easy, and worthwhile addition.

Other nearby AT side trails are:
Lion's Head trail to Bunker Hill Road 0.4 miles.
The unmarked Northwest Road from East Street to the AT at Sages Ravine 0.8 miles.
Race Brook Falls trail to MA Route 41 1.5 miles

IMHO the best views on the AT between Salisbury and Egremont are the cliff views on the section over Race Mountain. If you could spot a car you could combine Bear and Race Mts using the Undermountain and Race Brook Falls trails. The 50 Hikes in Massachusetts book has a 7.7 mile Race and Everett Mts hike from the west (by using the unmarked Northwest Road mentioned above and spotting a car at Mt Everett Reservation). Earlier editions of that book had suggested a shorter loop using the unmarked Plantain Pond road. However, the Plantain Pond road is on a YMCA camp and access is no longer allowed.

 

[yam]

Mark S--thank you so much for the links and the info! i definately have to pick up that book (my maps are getting trashed) and the webpage has been "favorite-ted."

wish i could give out rep points, but i don't have enough posts to do that yet.

 

[JeffAndrews]

I'm a big fan of Greylock, but I have to say that when I hiked the AT going north from Bear I was blown away by the beauty of the area.

Sage ravine is lovely, and then you get up onto a ridge on the way to Race mountain with some pretty nice views.

If you are looking for a loop for a weekend, you could hike up to Bear, jump on the AT to Mount Everett and then jump on the road to Alexander Mt. trail to the Ashley Hill trail to the Mt. Frissell trail which would bring you (with a short hike on the un-named unblazed AMC hut trail back to the AT just north of Bear.

I'm pretty sure there is still a camp site at the top of the Race Hill trail.
If not there is on a little further south.

The South Taconic Trails map (isbn 1880775166) published by the NY/NJ trail conference covers this area.

 

[diehard]

trail length

I’m not sure which trails you are interested, but for a few bucks, you can buy a mapping program. The one I use, has 9 CD’s, which have every 1/24.000 USGS topo map of New England. One of the many features, of this particular program, is that you can plot your hike, in detail, and it will give you the distance in miles, down to feet. Should you be interested, you can also get a profile of the hike. For those of you, whose maps are deteriorating, you can print out a new map, as needed.

DieHard

 

[jfb]

The Williams College Outing Club sells a guide to Greylock (and the surrounding areas) that includes mileages of most side trails. You could get one at the Mountain Goat or EMS at the Berkshire Mall.

 

[arm]

i hiked up Race Brook Trail fryday afternoon ... nice trail with good variety of waterfalls, ledges, and a mossy brook

from the AT junction, i hiked north to Mt Everett, then back south to Mt Race

spotted a long milk snake on the AT ... tent platforms near the AT were in good shape

nice area ! i'd love to snowshoe out and check out the Alander Mountain cabin some Winter

 

[yam]

arm, how was water along the trails...it looks like race brook ends before the AT, so no water until guilder pond then?

beautiful pic of the falls!

 

[Mike P.]

Best ledge walk on race is south of the summit, my favorite in the area.

Also at north end of plateau, closer to Ergmont is great view known as Jug End. I like Greylock but South Taconic area IMO is nicer & blueberries are coming in.