Mt. Greylock, MA

Objective:  
Hike to the highest point in Massachusetts, Mt. Greylock, from the boundary of the state reservation, using the closed access road as a trail. Total distance: 12 miles.
 
Date:  
May 11, 2002
Photogallery:  
Party:  
Sarah Goodwin, Matt Service, Melinda Gottesman, and Mouser Williams
Summary:  
A much longer hike than we were expecting, but an easy "trail." Nice summit view into 4 adjacent states. War memorial was closed, but looked nice from the outside.
Noteworthy:  
My third state highpoint and my 28th county highpoint.
Lessons Learned:  
The Greylock State Reservation maps suck. They lack "you are here" markers and most trails are not shown.

Don't eat the roast beef sandwich with mayo that has been sitting in the hot car for six hours when you get back from the hike.
Mt. Greylock is supposed to be one of the easiest highpoints in the state to do because there is a publically accessible road going straight to the top. However, this road doesn't open until May 17th and we were there on the 12th. So we decided to hike it.

The map at the gate to the reservation in which the mountain lies had approximately zero helpful pieces of information on it. For starters, it did not indicate where we were, and so much detail [such as contours, trails, etc.] was left off that it was difficult to infer this on our own.

We left Matt's minivan at the locked gate and started working up the paved road. There are known to be some shortcut trails to the summit, but Sarah was hiking with a bad knee in a brace so we decided to stick to the easy pavement all the way up.

Because the summit road wasn't open yet, the route was not the tourist nightmare it usually is. We ran into several small groups walking on the road towards the beginning, but after the first couple miles we only saw one other group on the road. One group we passed on their way down indicated that the summit was six miles away. We were thinking it was much less than this. But we continued on anyway.

Turns out the road winds its way around two separate mountains before ascending Greylock. The twelve miles walking on pavement were hard on our feet. Hiking boots don't do so well on pavement.

It took us almost exactly three hours to get to the top. Sarah's knee required that we walk relatively slowly. This was fine, though, as it meant that there was never any great exertion to have to worry about. It was just a really long pleasent walk. Sarah is an ornithologist and pointed out a lot of bird species we saw on the way up. One in particular, the Yellow-Bellied Sap Sucker, was quite humorous to me.

The summit was nice. There were some kids there that disappeared as soon as we showed up, and a large group that looked like they came in on the Appalachian Trail passed through without stopping. Otherwise it was empty.

The view is great in all directions. We could see Berlin Mountain in New York, which Nina and I climbed last month. We could see Wachusett Mountain, MA, which is a highpoint in MA I have yet to ascend. We could also see peaks in southern Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as some low hills in Connecticut.

The large WWI memorial tower on the summit is interesting, though it also doesn't open until May 17th. Personally, I think coming here off-season is better because crowds would have ruined it. We finished off all of our water, apples, and power bars and headed back down after a total stay of about 20 minutes at the summit.

The walk down was much quicker and easier. Sarah was even able to take off her knee brace. We got back to the cars after about six hours of total hiking. We were the last ones off the mountain [at that trailhead, anyway]. And we were ravenous. The animal crackers disappeared and so did the remainder of Mel's roast beef sandwich. Ooops... The 6-hour old mayo, left in the hot car, would ruin the rest of her evening and the following day.

We retreated to Matt and Sarah's place to meet up with other friends and cook massive amounts of spaghetti.
Written by Mouser Williams on 2002.05.12