MA Appalachian Trail - Section 2 - Mount Prospect Trail to Mount Greylock

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
9/16/2017	7.9 miles	3 hours 51 minutes

Map:
Parking: Notch Road (Wilbur Clearing), north of Mount Greylock

Directions: Short road walk to AT. Hike south on AT to Mount Greylock summit. Hike north on AT. We added variation by taking some blue blazed trails back to the parking lot. Hike north 1/2 mile to Mount Prospect Trail & overlook. Hike south on AT and again took some blue blazed trail back to the parking lot.


One of our 2017 goals is to complete the Massachusetts section of the Appalachian Trail. We are getting close. This is the furthest north we can realistically hike on the AT from our home, without taking a vacation. It was a long drive up, but we entertained ourselves by listening to episodes of a podcast - Cascade Hiker. The podcast makes me want to move to Washington state (despite Glen hating hiking in rain).

We could have started today's hike from the summit of Mount Greylock, but we prefer to do our harder hiking in the beginning of the hike. So we parked further down the mountain and hiked up it. It was a warm humid day, so we were dripping sweat in no time. I didn't get to use my hiking poles today. The Mount Greylock area is busy, so its best to keep Trek on leash. The hike up wasn't too bad, except for the lack of poles & the humidity. Just a note - there was very little water on this hike. Trek drank the whole liter that he carried. When we got to Mount Greylock, the war memorial was open, so we got to go up it for the first time. The previous two times we've been here, it's been closed. We took turns climbing up the tower. You can see mountains in all directions - mountains in NY, MA, VT, and NH. Wow!

Hiking downhill was slow of course - even more so due to my lack of poles. The rocks were wet, so I slipped a few times. Partway down, we decided to take a side trail down in order to form a loop. The side trail was less well maintained. We also had to stop and study the map a few times. The side trail split multiple times - and all of the trails were blazed blue. It was a little confusing, but we did end up going the right way. After getting to the parking lot, we decided to hike north for 1/2 mile to the Prospect Trail, where there is a lookout. There were 2 people with loose dogs at the lookout, so we didn't stay long. They were hammocking, and I'm not sure if they had leashes for their dogs. We sat for a minute, and then decided to move on (Trek hates other dogs running up to him). We turned around and returned to our car.

We stopped by the food coop in Great Barrington, and got home quite late. It's hard to get many miles in with such a long drive, but we should still be able to finish the MA section in 2-3 more hikes.

Faded sign for Mount Williams summit

View from Mount Williams summit

We got confused at the summit. We weren't sure where the trail went. We tried one way and ended up in a stealth campsite. When we found the sharp U-turn on the trail, we didn't remember which way we came. Luckily others must have had this same issue - and we found and "S" on the blaze to indicate south.

Trek wants a new backpack for Christmas. His backpack has holes in it. We tried patching it, but the patch came off recently.

Approaching the newly renovated war memorial.

Inside the top of the memorial. Signs show which mountain ranges you can see from each direction.

View from inside the tower

View from inside the tower

Handsome dog waiting while Glen and I take turns climbing up the tower.

We took this side trail.

The side trail split at an old fireplace. Which way to go? Both trails were blue.

Going this way. 

Sign near the parking area.

We decided to hike north from the parking area to the Mt. Prospect view.

Short break at Mount Prospect view before heading back to our car.