Agile Trekker: MA Appalachian Trail - Section 2 - Mass 2 to Mount Prospect Trail

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
9/17/2017	5.4 miles

Map:
Parking: Pattison Road
Directions: Cross street from parking area and hike southbound on AT to Mount Prospect Trail intersection. Return to parking area. Hike northbound on AT to Mass 2. Return to parking area.

We are so close to finishing the MA section of the AT! We both agree that once we reach the Vermont border, we are done with northbound daytrips on the AT. I'm hoping to do the rest of Vermont as backpacking trips.

We got a late start today, which isn't unusual. We didn't get on the trail until 1 pm. Again, the weather was too warm and humid. We started hiking southbound and had a 1,500 foot climb to the Mount Prospect trail intersection. I was dripping sweat within 5 minutes. The climb was pretty tough, but there were switchbacks and the footing was pretty good (not too slippery). We crossed a couple of streams at the very beginning, but after that it was dry. We made sure to stop and offer Trek water on our way up.

The hike up was pretty unexciting. It was fine, just nothing remarkable. We did stop and take a break at the intersection with the Mount Prospect trail. This is where we ended our hike yesterday. We weren't able to practice our navigation skills yesterday (due to a loose dog), but today we had the viewpoint all to ourselves. I sat down and oriented the map. Williamstown is on the right hand side of the view. Our map didn't show the mountains that were way off in the distance, so we could only practice by trying to identify landmarks in the foreground. I can't say we did very well matching up what we saw with the map. Our map showed Mount Hope Farm, and we saw a farm, but it didn't match up. I went online and did some research, and it looks like Mount Hope Farm is no longer a farm - it was a historical place which has since been split up. That would explain our confusion with our map reading. The farm we saw was not the farm we saw on our map.

After our map research, we headed back down to our car. I dropped off my trekking poles in the car, because I knew I wanted to keep Trek on leash for the next section. We decided to go another 1 mile northbound to MA 2. That's basically the last parking area we can park in MA to finish up our MA section hike. We did some road walking in a suburban neighborhood to the highway. We also scoped out potential parking areas for our next trip. There is a school there - and we figure it would be okay to park there on a weekend for a day hike. MA 2 is not as big a road as I was thinking it would be (it has sidewalks), so we could also park down that road at a community center (with permission) or a grocery store if necessary. We crossed over MA 2 and went partway over a pedestrian bridge and then turned around. On our way back, we saw a thru hiker sitting in the schoolyard. We waved, and he called us over to talk. He was looking for lodging for the night. We spent a few minutes talking to him (he's a southbounder), and continued back to our car.