the Way of the Turtle

A GORGEOUS JANUARY DAY!
3.6 Mile Snowshoe Hike & 2 Mile Snowshoe Run at Pittsfield State Forest
Sunday, January 25, 2009

Pittsfield State Forest winter trail map (PDF)

I was originally torn over what do do after the race today. Ordinarily I would go for a hike, run, or ride in another part of the park or at another park altogether, both to extend my time playing outdoors and to get the maximum benefit of the time I spent travelling. But yesterday was a tough one - between a challenging race, almost an hour of struggling on and off with katas, and roughly 6 hours of driving, the thought of just coming home and relaxing for the rest of the day was very attractive, especially since Curly's involves a lot of elevation gain and loss. In the end I decided to keep my options open and brought along a bunch of extra gear - fortunately, as it happened, since today turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, and it would have been a real shame to miss out on the bulk of it.

Once I had gotten my breath back from my sprint to the finish and checked out the food options, I changed into dry clothes and headed back out into the woods. A few weeks ago Ann and I walked a short ways along the Lulu Brook trail, so I decided to follow that all the way to its end at the Taconic Skyline trail, just below the top of the mountain. Of course a major difference today was the need for snowshoes! Fortunately the trail had already been stomped down, so other than the fact that it was mostly uphill it was pretty easy going, and very scenic, with the Lulu Brook running its way through the gully between snow-covered Berry Pond Rd and the trail. At times the trail ran right next to the brook, and at other times it was up on the hillside. My legs were definitely a bit tired from two days of races, but plenty of rest stops to take pictures helped that.

As I went further up the mountain, I saw more and more damage from the mid-December ice storm. In a few places I had to scoot over or under fallen trees, and in a couple of spots detours were needed. Eventually the Lulu trail became too tough to follow (or maybe it just ran out - either the track I was following went off trail or it was very poorly blazed) and I hopped uphill a short distance to take the Honwee Circuit trail much of the rest of the way. Most of the time I had a pretty good view of the road across the gully... while I was hiking several snowmobiles went up the road, a hiker went down the road (he'd passed me earlier as he hiked the Honwee trail up) and one fellow lugging a sled headed up the road.

Eventually I reached the Taconic Skyline snowmobile trail and took it over to the road, which I followed the rest of the way to the top. I'd only been up there once before, after Curly's Trail Half Marathon last September, so I was a bit surprised at how far I still had to go even after I reached the "top." But in the end I came out at a fantastic view off to the west, looking out into New York... wonderful!

Since I'd hiked all the way up there, I decided to follow the road downhill a short ways to Berry Pond, the highest altitude natural body of water in Massachusetts. Unfortunately the snowmobilers had buzzed around the frozen pond... didn't ruin the view, but it did detract from it a bit. While I was there several folks went by. I have mixed feelings about snowmobiles... on the one hand the local club did a lot of work to clear trails after the ice storm, but on the other hand I wish they'd find a quieter and maybe more environmentally-friendly way to enjoy themselves. At least they don't demolish the trails like the @&**$%!! ATVs do.

I briefly contemplated following the loop road down the other side of the mountain but in the end didn't feel like having a mile or so hike back to the car from the bottom of the hill, so I hiked back up past the viewpoint and ran down the road back to the parking lot. That went a lot quicker than the trip up! I definitely felt the effects of the last two days on my legs, though... the next day or two will have to be rest days.

Finally ended up back at the car, where I changed into dry clothes for the 2nd time today and then packed my gear and headed out of the woods and back on the road home... a quiet way to end a pretty darn good weekend.

JMH