Williamstown, MA to Mount Greylock
(And back the next day)
October 21 and 22, 2007
I wake and check out of the motel. First I go across the street to the Price Chopper. It’s my first time stepping into a supermarket in nearly a month. I leave with some fresh cut roast beef and a loaf of wheat bread.
I stroll west into Williamstown to inquire about the bus schedule to get me home.
It’s a beautiful Autumn Sunday at Williams College.
I walk through the center of town to its far end at The Williams Inn, and inquire about the bus line. It departs for New York City twice daily, at 10am and 4pm. There’s an information booth nearby for visitors and tourists, with free flyers and an outdoor park bench. I have a seat and eat a large quantity of roast beef sandwiches in the sun, feeling better.
I had wanted to finish this hike of The Long Trail on Mount Greylock, Massachusetts. It’s a favorite place of mine on the Appalachian Trail that I’ve wanted to revisit, with the added bonus of providing a mountaintop climax to the trip.
I wander into a small bookstore and look over the literature section, hoping for something to catch my eye to read on the trip home. I walk out with Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman in hand.
I return east toward North Adams, and the Appalachian Trail that leads up Greylock. I get a large coffee at Dunkin Donuts, and stop at Price Chopper again for more bread and meat for the overnight hike.
White blazes mark The Appalachian Trail too.
I walk this comely road to a dead end – the trailhead for Mount Greylock.
The way south from North Adams is steeper than I recall, and I meet a number of day hikers on their way down the mountain. The first viewpoint is pictured above.
There’s an auto road that goes to the top, currently closed for construction. I’m racing the sunset and take to the road as a shortcut.
With a huge burst of energy and enthusiasm I’m literally jogging up the mountain in short spurts.
I meet a man and a woman leisurely walking to the summit, where the man hopes to fly a kite.
A lone cyclist coasts by, and offers a head nod in greeting.
The summit of Greylock is crowned with The Veterans War Memorial Tower – actually a stone lighthouse on top of the mountain – seen here from the road.
At 3,941 feet, Mount Greylock is the highest point in Massachusetts. The lighthouse and observation tower on top – The Veterans War Memorial Tower – was originally meant to be a lighthouse in Boston. The beacon was once the brightest in all of Massachusetts. When lit it can be seen from Goddard Shelter on The Long Trail.
This is Bascom Lodge, featuring rustic overnight accommodations on Greylock. The road to the summit is closed for construction for two years, so the lodge and tower are closed as well. There isn’t even a spigot for drinking water.
It also means that there’s no people.
I have the mountain to myself.
City lights shine under the night sky.
I stay the night inside the Thunderbolt Ski Shelter. It’s a fully enclosed structure intended to be used as emergency shelter only, but nobody may ever know I was here.
For some reason I can’t help but think of ghosts and little green men in this setting.
I fall asleep to the sound of the wind in the trees.
The Next Day, The Last Day
October 22, 2007
This quote along The Appalachian Trail is one of my favorite features of Greylock. The summit area features several rocks like this, engraved with quotes related to the mountain.
Greylock served as inspiration for the likes of Thoreau, William Cullen Bryant , Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Herman Melville.
When writing Moby Dick at his home in Pittsfield, Melville gazed out of his window at the profile of Greylock covered in snow… and envisioned a great white whale.
There’s nothing left to do but turn around and go back down the mountain.
From there I’ll catch a bus home to Pennsylvania, and resume working for dollars and cents in this crazy world that we all call home.
But first I can lie in the sun on Williamstown’s college green, and read Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.
THE END
Jamie,
Huge thanks for sharing your experience hiking the Long Trail. I found this during the COVID shutdown in April ’20 and it helped to inspire me to explore more of the mountains of Vermont, where I live. My wife and I now hike every weekend — occasionally on stretches of the LT — and I think of your observations and inner dialogue often. I hope life is good all these years later and that these memories come back to you when you need a little lift.
Thank you for the comment James! I still get to do plenty of hiking, but now it’s mostly in the desert southwest 🙂
Thanks for sharing this journey. I enjoyed the images and narrative throughout. There is not a whole lot of good information, comprehensive anyway, on the LT, so I was happy to have stumbled on your site while searching.
One of the best hiking journals I’ve read, and the pictures are art.
I am glad to have a hiking story told of the LT in the fall going SOBO. This is what I would like to do, even with all the rain you had.
Tom
Great writeup and excellent pictures! The winter weather has got me plotting an LT trip this September. Looked like a great time to go.
Fantastic! Thank you so much for taking the time to put together such a fantastic write up. I loved the gorgeous photos and you included just the right amount of narration to make me feel like I was along for the hike. As a life-long Vermonter, I recognized so many of the places you talked about and really enjoyed the N-to-S perspective. Hiking the LT has long been a dream of mine…gotta make it happen.
Stay safe out there and hope the future holds more adventures.
That was outstanding, I enjoyed that very much. I’m 56 years old from Mass. and have hiked portions of the AT mostly Mass and Hew Hampshire. I hike mostly day trips along the M&M trail. I’m hoping to do the LT within the next 2 years as soon as I can get some time off work. Thanks for sharing that hike with me.
Kenny (no trail name yet)
A life well lived young man!!