Ritzhikes

Where: Mt. Greylock When: 10/20/96 With: Bill, Mary, Kevin, Andy Back in the Spring, I suggested the idea of a father/son hike up Mt. Greylock to Bill. We made one attempt in May, but got rained out and the idea lay dormant all summer. A run of nice weather in October revived it, and I sent Bill & Kevin an e-mail suggesting a second attempt. "Sounds great!" was the reply, and the trip was on. In the intervening week, Mary got invited too, so Sunday morning I piled Andy and our gear in my car, picked up Mary, and we headed west. Andy almost didn't make the journey...he'd spiked a high temp the night before. But Sunday morning, his temp was way down (though still slightly elevated) and he was cleared for the trip. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed the views as we drove west on route 2. We'd arranged to meet Bill & Kevin at 10 at the summit and we arrived just 15 minutes late. They'd been there since 9:30. Our plan was to leave one car at the t...

Where: Westfield River (Mr. Beaver's Paradise) When: 9/21/96-9/22/96 With: Bill I was sorely in need of some woods time, so when the opportunity presented itself for a weekend trip I took it. Though I'd been yearning for a solo hike, I decided to give Bill a call to see if he and/or Tom would be interested and available for a trip. I was only giving them a few days notice and I didn't really expect much, but I felt I owed it to them. The last time I talked with Bill, he'd seemed really in need of a camping trip. Good thing I called, because it turned out that he was free for the weekend. Debby & Kevin were off to Maine! There was a small matter of finding someone to take care of the cats, but that was resolved quickly and we made plans to meet in Chesterfield. Tom was iffy, because of some recent toe surgery. Saturday morning I was on the road by 7. After several days of heavy rain and cool temps, the forecast was for sun and warmth. I made the mistake of taki...

Where: Knightville Dam WMA on East Branch Westfield River When: 9/17/94-9/18/94 With: Bill Bill was itching for a hike, so we decided to hook up and meet halfway for some camping and fishing. We both left at 7AM and arrived within minutes of each other at the Chesterfield Post Office at 9AM. Bill said he'd enjoyed the scenic ride out. We had a brief debate about the need to purchase a fishing license for him, decided not to, and headed down to the water. We parked once again at the parking area just before the gate to the Indian Hollow campground - the only cars there. A man on a mountain bike pedaled out past us just before we went in and headed up the road we'd come in on. After packing up, we pulled on our waders and headed in. A beautiful, warm, partly cloudy day. The river was very low and I was a bit worried as we crossed it. Not the impressive rushing trout stream I'd promised Bill. Once across, we headed up the road, north toward the mini-gorge, and had a ni...

Where: Long Trail When: August, 1985 With: Bill The start of a week's vacation...my first at MEDITECH, and I decided to kick it off with a hike with brother Bill. We elected to try out the bottom end of the Long Trail, so we drove over to Williamstown and went in from there. Found a place to park, then followed the AT markers along a couple of roads to the trailhead. If memory serves, the trail followed a stream at first. We didn't go too far that first day due to a late start and settled in at a primitive campsite (the Sherman Brook Campsite). Some interesting site-mates. Two thru-hikers were the most efficient campers I'd ever seen. Came in, one set up while the other cooked dinner, they ate, talked a bit and then went to sleep. One had some bad blisters and was using a cane. They said they'd had to get off the trail a couple of times to find a hospital. The other folks were a group of kids who came up to our fire at one point. They seemed interested in partyi...