The Berkshires of Massachusetts

Funny in all the years we lived in New Hampshire, we never got to the Berkshire Mountains, so we decided on our way north we would make a stop this year.  We had planned a back road trip here from Kutztown, but with the pouring rain we decided to just run up the interstate and get r done.  Wow, had we forgotten how absolutely terrible the roads were.  Our kidneys and teeth took a beating to say nothing of the motorhome!  Don't ever want to go on 84 again.

So rain all day was the order of business, but we pulled into our campground in between raindrops:-)  The highest point in Mass is nearby, Mount Greylock at 3491', and we understood there was a lot of hiking in the area.  So we searched for a hike that we both wanted to do and found a loop trail of 3 miles that looked good, even reported to have some amazing views, so off we went in the drizzly, foggy morning to find it.  It was way up towards the top, everything was very wet, it was drizzling on and off, but the forecast was for clearing so we decided after driving 40 miles to get there we'd give it a go.  It turned out to be a somewhat strenuous hike, a lot of up and down, very wet, in fact there was water running down the trail in many places and we crossed an uncountable number of small streams cascading down the mountain.  We found the viewpoints, but mother nature had other ideas so they were pretty obscured.

The narrow winding trail

Nice and quiet

Over towards one of the view points

One of the many streams

And our foggy view

And even though we were pretty wet when we got back, we were happy campers, and got in a good workout through a beautiful dripping forest.

One happy camper!

Mother nature did try to clear things up later

We found kind of a tiny town diner and had lunch and worked our way back.  Then yesterday, we decided to go take a bike ride on the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail that runs 11.2 miles from Lanesborough to Adams.  We discovered that if we started the ride in Adams, it went uphill for the first 2.5 miles, and as you know it is ALWAYS better to go uphill first and end downhill on bikes or on foot.  As least that is my personal goal:-)  It was about 40 miles or so to get to Adams, and we easily found the beginning of the trail, and lots of parking.  And even though the forecast was for nice weather the sky looked a little ominous.  The rail trail was nice, wide, smooth, and well maintained, and not crowded.  

It was a nice ride!

We intended to do the whole 11.2 miles each way, but as we were approaching 8 miles out, the rain started to pitter patter, we said no problem it will stop in a second, but it didn't, and we were getting hungry anyway, so we turned around a little over 8 miles out to make a pleasant, albeit moist 16 mile bike ride.

The Cheshire Reservoir

The turtles lined up to see us pass

The Birthday Girl!

When we got back, we asked a girl in the parking lot if she could recommend a good place for lunch, and she told us to go to the Daily Grind, within walking distance, we wouldn't go wrong.  And she was right, it was a small place with a large home cooked menu.  You order at the counter, go sit down, and they bring your food out, then you pay on the way out.  We could not figure out how they keep track of everyone.  We each had a great lunch.

Then we decided to take a little bit of a detour on the way back and hit some dirt back roads.  It was fun and a good workout for the truck, got pretty rough and muddy here and there.  

Rained the rest of the day, almost all night with thunder and lightning, and is forecast to rain all day today, so it will be pretty quiet.  We're going to try to check out a Thai restaurant though in Greenfield, before we leave here tomorrow for our 4th of July rendezvous.