I flew to Boston for two reasons. The first was to knock out the state high points of New England that I had not ever done previously despite living there for twenty-plus years, and second to spend time at my favorite place.
I landed at Logan around 8 PM and got my rental car which was a Nissan Rogue; much better than the sedan I had earlier for my other peak bagging trip this summer. I drove to Killingly CT and found a cheap motel. I woke up bright and early, grabbed some Dunkin’ Donuts which is what one does in New England, and drove to Jerimoth Hill, the high point in Rhode Island. Within fifteen minutes I arrived and started to hike into the high point. Boom! I made it to the marker in about two minutes. I took my requisite pictures at the ‘summit’. I looked around to take it in and then left and got back to my car. I had recorded it on my All Trails app and the entire trip was just over eight minutes in total. From an ease perspective, very memorable, but that was about it. Rhode Island checked off.
The craziest part was that I got in my hiking clothes on the side of the road for this one.
I then started to drive northwest toward Mount Greylock which Massachusetts’ high point. This was through familiar territory for me as I was born and raised in Connecticut. By about eleven, I arrived in Adams and made my way to the Bellows South trailhead. This hike was a five mile out and back and 2,244 of elevation. The day was overcast and looked like it might rain. I headed up and the trail was quite nice. Definitely in the woods with very few vistas. This is pretty much the condition in the Northeast. I made it to the top to discover that you can drive to the top. I was greeted in the parking lot by three school buses and a horde of school kids. There is a fair amount of infrastructure at the top culminating in a very impressive granite Veteran’s War Memorial tower. I definitely checked it out but opted not to go up it as there was a fair number of people in there. I went down to a lookout and enjoyed the scenery that is the Berkshire mountains. It was nice, but I then decided to get back down. Within short order, I was back at my car.
The pinnacle of Mount Greylock is quite impressive. I salute the service and the ultimate sacrifice of others.
I grabbed a Subway sandwich in downtown Adams and then headed towards Mount Marcy in New York. I arrived in Lake Placid after a pleasant drive. I spotted the road into the Van Hoevenberg trailhead which I had planned to take and seemed to be the most popular route. However, I wanted to find a place to stay first. I worked my way into Lake Placid and saw the skiing facilities including the impressive ski jump ramps which are remarkably close to the road. There were not any great motel options so I went back closer to the road to the trailhead and found a very funky motel that was going to work. I drove into the trailhead so I would not have to do it for the first time in the dark the following day as I planned for 6 AM start. Everything looked pretty straightforward and so I went back to the motel and watched some crappy TV options and went to bed.
I woke up in the morning and it was pretty gray. The weather forecast was a little iffy but I was going to forge ahead as I could not waste time waiting for good weather. When I arrived at the trailhead at about 6:30 AM, things were pretty busy already. I finalized my gear, signed in and started up the trail. This hike is a 14 mile out and back with about 3,500 feet in elevation gain. The first part of the hike was pretty flat and nice. I arrived at a river with a bridge that was out. There was a slight detour. The trail at this point began to climb as it followed a stream. After a little while, there was a hard right-hand turn that was not particularly obvious, and with the assistance of someone else heading up the wrong way through the woods, I was able to figure out where the trail was. The climb started getting a little more serious and the trail became wetter. The wind also started picking up and there was constant mist growing stronger into rain. I finally got to what a ranger doing some trail work had indicated was close to the top. Two trail runners came down to say it was very windy and wet. Sure enough, they were right. I made it to the top and found a place out of the wind. My fingers were cold and wet enough where I was having a hard time getting my phone to turn on through the fingerprint swipe. I could not find any recognition of the top which I was clearly at because there was nowhere to go farther up Regrettably, I did not investigate what the official marker was for Mount Marcy before the hike, so I did not know what should be looking for. At the time, my conclusion was that maybe this high point did not have an official marker. So the result is the only picture I have at the top is me in the clouds and I could honestly be anywhere.
I could not find an official marker on Mount Marcy. Unfortunately, I looked into where the plaque was after coming down, only to find that I was very close. The plaque was on the windy side of the peak which I was avoiding.
After about fifteen minutes on the top, I had enough. I was the only one at the peak so I could not ask anyone about a marker. I saw two guys coming down as I went up and then as I was coming down off the rocky portion, there were some teenagers working there way up the last portion. The wet rock at the top coming down was a little tricky. Once I was back on the trail portion, I was in a rush to get down because I wanted to get to Mount Mansfield in Vermont and try to get that done today. The Van Hevenberg trail was one of the wettest and muddiest trails I have been on in quite a while. After what seemed like a really long two and a half hours coming down, I made it back to the car a little after 2 PM. I was happy to be done with that hike but pissed that I did not get a more meaningful and conclusive picture at the top.
I motored east toward Vermont. My thought is I would try to knock this last hike out today as I wanted to get to my place in Maine. I found a trail called the Hellbrook that was a little under four miles but very steep. This seemed to be easily the best option for the limited time that I had. After about an hour of driving, I realized that Lake Champlain was going to interfere with my ‘as the crow flies’ hope for getting there early. I drove south and around Lake Champlain as the ferry seemed would be much slower. I drove and I was getting close by six’ish. I had not realized that Mount Mansfield was also Stowe ski resort. This time of year all the leaf peepers were in full force. The area was quite busy. I finally made it to the trailhead and started up, but by now it was 7 PM. I went for about fifteen minutes and the trail was steep as advertised, but lots of roots and slippery rocks. I knew I would be coming down in the dark. This trail in the dark was going to be rough so I headed back which was very disappointing. If only I had gotten there an hour earlier.
My plan was now to find a place to sleep and attack the mountain in the morning. I drove around for about an hour trying about twenty motels and everything was booked solid. I finally gave up and decided I would just drive to Maine tonight. This was very disappointing, but at some point, I will go back and get this one. I might also do Mount Marcy again in hopes of getting a picture that shows the plaque in the rock at the top of the mountain which I had to have been within about fifty feet of, but could not find.
