jjo
Member
Sunday, 9/17 started as a beautiful early fall day. No color yet but a great day to be on the trail. Arrived at Mt Tom state reservation about 930AM and drove to far parking area on Smiths Ferry Rd ( before Chis Clark Rd). Parked here, loaded up and headed backwards to interesect the M&M trail for the climb up to Mt Tom. Beautiful day and great surrounding country. Soon entered a fairly steep section followed by many interesting rock formations. Occassionally, you had to scramble or actually climb over rocky areas. My wobbly knee continued to perform OK. Then the rocky ledges started to appear and MOST of them were open with great views of the countryside. This continued throughout the balance of the hike: MANY open ledges withextended views (my only negative was they were views of inhabited homes, businesses, etc.instead of pure wilderness.. I had to remember we were near Springfield, etc). This was a great hike!! Being Sunday, there were quite a few other hikers on the trail but IMHO, most hikers are good people and interesting to talk to. (they're not @ home sitting on a couch eating chips,etc). Then some private property occurred followed later by the towers on the summit and continued views. This was a great hike for W Mass. Wish I had more time there to explore that total Holyoke range. Has couple other places I wanted to explore including Graylock and Negus, but non refundable air tickets make u stick to your schedule. This hike was rewarding but had lots of ups and downs, considerable rock scrambling and some climbing BUT the country and the views made it well worth it!! An enjoyable day in the wilds!! Thanks to y'all for your tips and guidance!! I'll try to post pics later in this post but have to get to my other PC where they're stored. Thanks for reading!
