Backpacking Trip - 2005

The 2005 Backpacking trip was held on May 14-15.  This again took place on the Appalachian Trail in western Massachusetts.  It was another "wilderness campout", where everything needed to be carried in and out.  This year, our goal was to achieve pure distance, with no side trips.  Thus, we packed light and and had planned carefully (or at least tried to.   More on that later.)

We met at the UCC parking lot, early Saturday morning and drove to the Rte 41 trailhead in Mt Riga State Park, in northwestern Connecticut.  We unloaded and shuttled two of our cars to the intended endpoint of our adventure; a spot off Rte 7, outside Great Barrington.  We began our hike on the Undermountain Trail.  The weather was perfect for hiking;  mostly cloudy, with a slight breeze.

This trail runs approximately 2 miles, crosses the border into MA, until it joins the Appalachian Trail near a location called Sages Ravine.  Here, we ate our prepared lunches and refilled our water bottles from the stream, using the water purifier we had brought.  This was our first available water stop, and thanks to the cooler weather, no one had run out yet.

After lunch, we continued through  through Sages Ravine, a beautiful area where the trail followed the stream for quite a while.  There were many beautiful waterfalls along this section.

We made our way out of Sages Ravine and trekked up Race Mountain, a height of 2400ft.  Along the way we met an AMC Ridgerunner, one of the volunteers who helps maintain this portion of the Appalachian Trail.  Nearing the top of Race Mt, we observed many hawks soaring on the thermals.  (See 4th picture below.)  We also were passed by a hiker who was almost literally running the trail.  He had two walking sticks, and  hair/beard well-beyond Johnny Damon's wildest dreams.  Man, was he moving!

We climbed down Race Mountain and reached the Race Brook Trail campsite.  We had hiked a total of 7 miles at this point.  We began to set up camp, but quickly discovered that, we had left our two complete 4-man-tents back in the cars, and taken incomplete 2-man tents instead.  However, Scout ingenuity prevailed, and with the help of duct tape (supplied by a humble ASM) the tent poles were connected together.  We prepared a supper of crackers, pepperoni slices and cheese, and Ramen noodles, the latter of which someone spilt a healthy portion of on their pants.  (Evidence of this can be seen at the far right of the 3rd picture below.)  Mr Pericles had planned to sleep in a hammock, but when the rain began about 1:00am, he ducked into a nearby tent.  The heavy rain continued until 4:30am.

We awoke to a heavy morning fog early Sunday morning.  Breakfast was oatmeal and Spam.  (Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam)  We then broke camp, packed our wet gear and moved onward. 

We were greeted with an immediate uphill climb of Mt Everett, (about 800 ft in less than 1/2 a mile, according to Mr Fellman.)  Grueling.  As we neared the top (2700 ft), the mist was really rolling in.  Everett was as steep going down as up, and by the time we reached the bottom, the mist had become a light rain, and many put on their ponchos.   After this, the trail basically leveled out and we did a lot of "ridge walking" through the Mt Bushnell area, until we reached Jug End Summit. 

Jug End was a tough, steep, rocky downhill trail, with switchbacks and much (unintentional) slipping and sliding on the wet surfaces.  Before we reached the bottom, the rain became heavier.  The going became very slippery at this point, and our progress was slowed significantly.  When we finally reached the bottom, the rain had let up, and the terrain took on a complete change.  We now found ourselves traveling through pastures (yes, with cows!) several pine forests, and (thanks, Mr Fellman) an extensive wetlands area.  Whereas blackflies had been the pests up on the mountains, the hungry mosquitoes came out to greet us here.  We saw evidence of beavers, in several gnawed and felled trees.

We had hiked an additional 8 miles on Sunday, and although we were about 2 miles shy of where we had left the cars, we decided to stop at a trailhead parking lot.  Mr Fellman, Chris and Reis went ahead (pack-less) on the road, to retrieve one of the cars.

With some additional shuttling around of the adults, the remaining cars were retrieved, we loaded up and left for Medfield.  We arrived back at the UCC around 6pm.  Next year, the plan is to continue on from where we left off, with our goal being a photo-op at the Trail footbridge that crosses over the Mass Pike.