the Way of the Turtle

A Brief Bit o' Hiking in Pittsfield State Forest
Sunday, December 28, 2008

Pittsfield State Forest official site
Pittsfield State Forest winter trail map (PDF)

For a variety of reasons we were somewhat limited in our choices of where to go after Bennington... in the end, we headed over to Pittsfield State Forest to do a little walking. I had initially hoped to go to Balance Rock in the northern part of the forest, but the road up to the parking area looked a lot like the lot at Woodford ie. sheer ice. I drove about ten feet up the road, then decided it was stupid to risk an accident just to see a big graphitti-covered rock in the woods headed for the main entrance of the park.

After seeing Brad Herder's video of Pittsfield State Forest after the ice storm, I wasn't sure what we'd find along the trails and roads... there was lots of evidence of trees having come down, but the road to the Lulu Brook picnic area was clear. The parking lot was a sheet of ice, so much so that the car actually slid a bit when I parked it. Not a huge problem, though I was a bit concerned when I watched other folks trying to drive through the lot... sometimes truck and SUV owners don't seem to get the idea that their big 4wd vehicles will skid out just as easily as a little car if they're on ice. Don't know if the road to the summit was clear or not... between the ice on the road and the distance, we decided not to walk up there, though no doubt the view would have been great. Instead we followed the trail along the Lulu cascade for about half a mile. Other than some mushy footing it was pretty easy going, with no major damage. And along the way we were treated to the sight of some very nice waterfalls I'd never seen before.

Since Ann was such a good sport about my dragging her all over SW Vermont and NW Massachusetts (we probably spent more time driving today than we did walking!) I treated her to a nice dinner at a restaurant south of Pittsfield that I'd never been to before, the Dakota Steak House (the kids at the school I used to work at in Great Barrington always raved about going there when their parents came to visit.) Good food (and lots of it) and a quiet ambience... a very pleasant way to end a day of travelling (well... except for the hour drive to get home...)

JMH