Walking Around the Greylock Summit & Jones Nose
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Mt Greylock State Reservation summer map (PDF)
After driving to both - much easier (though not quite as satisfying) than my two treks there back in June...
I'd wanted to take Ann to Greylock for several years now , but we'd never managed to get there (and for the past two years the road to the summit was closed, and it wasn't likely she'd be willing to hike to the top.) So one of my primary goals for this afternoon was to make it to both the Greylock Summit and the Jones Nose meadow.
I've never driven the roads up Greylock before - most of the time I've gotten to the top on foot, with one trip there on my bike (or rather, pushing my bike) as part of the 2005 Greylock Half Century Ride. We ended up driving up Notch Road from North Adams (giving me a preview of the course for the 2009 WMAC Greylock 8 mile road race on Labor Day... I'm still debating over whether or not I want to tackle that one...) I remember riding down Notch Rd in 2005 and wondering if I'd make it to the bottom alive - at that point not only was it an 8 mile descent, but the road was in pretty lousy shape to boot! Along the way we stopped at the pulloffs for several scenic viewpoints and eventually found ourselves at the summit.
It felt a bit strange to be at the top of Greylock and not pushing to move on, either on foot or on bicycle... we wandered around a bit taking in the view off to the east, then went up to the observation deck of the Veterans War Memorial Tower - a tight climb first up a narrow stone stairwell and then up a winding metal spiral staircase. Tight quarters all around. Ann didn't like the climb up (climbing bothers her knees) and between my knee and my dislike of heights, I was very happy to be back on the ground again. But the views out the windows of the Tower were great... I can only imagine what it must be like on a clear, sunny day.
From there we drove down Rockwell Rd to the parking lot for Jones Nose and Old Adams Rd and walked a ways up into the Jones Nose meadow. Not as scenic as when I was there a few weeks ago, but still one heck of a beautiful area. Off to the northwest we could see a ski area - I suspect the Mount Greylock Ski Club trails.
We briefly contemplated going to the Glen and walking some of the trails there or even heading over to Savoy to try and see Tannery Falls (I'm not sure what condition the roads through Savoy Mountain State Forest are in...) but in the end simply said our farewells to the mountain and headed down toward Pittsfield to do a little riding before the storms hit.
JMH
