21-27
October 2012
 |
| War Memorial on summit of Mt Greylock |
After the
fall USHPA board of directors meeting in Newburgh C.J. and I planned to spend a week in
a timeshare condo near Hancock, MA. Our plan was to do some sightseeing and
some hiking. We didn’t bring our paragliders with us because we didn’t expect
that the weather would be very good for flying. The condo week was an “extra”
thrown in by RCI when we bought a cruise package last December. Originally we
were going to use the other possible extra, a three-day hotel stay in Boston,
but that was no longer available when we tried to book it. Little did we know
that our week at the resort would be the last good weather in the Northeast
before the arrival of Superstorm Sandy the next week.
21 Oct, Sun – You know: same
breakfast at the Ramada again. About 0930 I took the shuttle to the airport,
the only passenger, while C.J. finished packing up and moving out. After
fending off a bunch of upselling from Budget, I checked out a Ford Fiesta with
Florida plates. [It might have been fun to upgrade to a RAV4 but not for $10
more per day. Besides, the Fiesta got better than 35 mpg.] Around 1000 C.J. and
I got started for Washingtonville in quest of the cemetery where her dad is
buried. After getting mixed up by the St. Mary’s cemetery entrance and the
relocated entrance to the Washingtonville Cemetery, we found our way in and,
with a little searching, found the correct Tuthill plot (located behind the big
funeral home on Toleman Rd.) After some photos C.J. suggested that we try to
find my family’s graves in Walden since we were going to drive through there
anyway. Wallkill Valley Cemetery is much larger and my memory was hazy – it’s
been 38 years – about the location. We found the cemetery but had no luck
finding the graves even after calling Wayne for his help. Naturally, the cem.
office was closed on Sunday. Heading
 |
| 6 Overlook Terrace |
on through Walden I managed to find the
street leading to Overlook Terrace and we drove up to look at my folks’ Walden
home where I lived for only a short time. It hardly looked changed although
there was a new street running parallel to Overlook behind the house. Along the
way to Ellenville we stopped for an ice cream lunch in Pinebush and did not
find the turnoff to Paul Voight’s house and business. Near the crest of the
ridge we took a scenic detour through Cragsmoor which came back out on Rte 52 (right
at the entrance to the road to the E-ville takeoff). The GPS helped us find
Cohen’s Bakery again on this trip and we waited for a just-baked loaf of raisin
pumpernickel bread (well, ¼ loaf, about two lbs, $8 worth). We also picked
up a
grab bag for $2.50 which was labeled “choc” and turned out to contain two
éclairs, two cream puffs, and four chocolate and almond paste rollups – great
deal. The E-ville LZ was pretty empty except for Bryon Estes and another
instructor who were working with a couple of students on the conical training
hill at the east end of the LZ. Bryon said it was windy up at launch level so
there hadn’t been anyone flying. Shortly afterward we saw a hang glider launch
and it looked like he or she was staying up. We didn’t stick around but waded
back out of the soggy field and returned to the road. The trip over the Gunks
on Rte 44-55 was colorful with autumn foliage and there were plenty of other
people out admiring the view, so many that Minnewaska State Park had run out of
parking space and was turning away cars. We couldn’t see any climbers on the
cliffs from the road, but all those parking lots were full, too. After a stop
at Jenkins-Lueken’s orchard stand to get some fresh cider, we ran into a
traffic jam trying to get through the narrow main street of New Paltz. We tried
to avoid the worst of it by turning north toward Rosendale before crossing the
Wallkill River. Nothing looked familiar along the route although I knew that I
had spent time out in the Rosendale vicinity doing field geology. [I did spot
one of the mines that followed a layer of limestone (used for cement) along the dip of the
formation.] We stopped at Walmart in Kingston to stock up on groceries since
the resort we were heading for was in a small town without a large food store.
We crossed the Hudson to Rhinebeck, went north on Rte 9G, then followed 9, 66
and 22 to where we turned off on Brodie Mtn Rd to Hancock, MA, and
Vacation Village in the Berkshires, an
RCI gold crown resort across the road from Jiminy Peak Ski Area (arriving about
1715). Checking in was easy and we were glad to settle into our small,
one-bedroom unit with a tiny kitchen containing a microwave, two-burner hot
plate, and a full-size refrigerator. Most of our travel day had been sunny but
it got overcast later in the day. We were hoping for a clear day Monday to
visit nearby Mt. Greylock.
 |
| Greylock War Memorial |
 |
| C.J. on Greylock launch |
22 Oct, Mon – We were up at 0700 and saw clouds streaking
across the sky. But there were a few blue holes so we decided to go to Greylock
and hope for the best. We got to the visitor center just before it was due to
open and found it closed for renovation, the first of the clues that the season
was about over. We picked up a trail map at the kiosk and headed up Rockwell
Road toward the 3491ft summit. At the second hairpin turn we found the
trailhead parking lot we were looking for at about 3000ft. We followed the
Appalachian Trail up to the summit crossing the road twice and passing by a
small pond in the late autumn hardwoods. Trails were generally rocky with some
wet places, not enough to get our footwear wet. [I was wearing my trail shoes,
not my usual boots.] On the top,
 |
| Appalachian Trail to Greylock Summit |
the highest point in MA, we walked around the
90ft-tall War Memorial built ca. 1931 in the shape of a lighthouse. On the east
side, overlooking the city of Adams, we found an obvious HG/PG launch right
down to the orange flagging on a tree branch. No one was flying of course – it
was both blown out and over the back. The stone Bascom Lodge built by the CCC
was closed for the season (as of 10/22) so we couldn’t go inside to look at our
map out of the winds, much less get a bowl of soup. To continue our hike as a
loop we took the Overlook Trail N from the summit, then E along the face of
Greylock (but in the forest, so views were rare), then
 |
| March Cataract |
S and down to the road
at the bottom of the hairpin turn. Since it was only 1140, we drove down to the
pullout at Sperry Road (gated) and walked in to the campground where we took a
trail to the March Cataract.The trail climbed a bit and then descended steeply
to a good view of a narrow cascading stream where we ate lunch. After we
climbed back out of the gorge to the campground, we walked another mile along
Sperry Road to Stony Ledge for a view E to Mt. Greylock and The Hopper, a
conservation area. Retracing our route we returned along the gravel road down
to the campground and up to where we had left the car on Rockwell Road. Enough
hiking for the day! To make our driving route a loop also, we drove over the
summit and then took Notch Road down to the base of Greylock near North Adams.
I refilled the gas tank at a Sunoco just outside of Williamstown (385.9 –
cheaper than gas in NY). We returned to the condo via Rte 43 in brilliant
afternoon sunshine which highlighted the few trees retaining their fall colors
(mostly yellow and bronze by now). We were ‘home” by 1700.
23 Oct, Tue – We were up around 0800 and after breakfast we
went over to the front desk and talked to the concierge. She gave us some info
on local sightseeing and a printout on Brace Mtn. We spent a little time in the
computer room, the only place with a free internet connection and only on their
computers. Back at our unit we decided to give Brace a try and packed our
hiking gear into the car along with C.J.’s computer and iPad. C.J. called
Benoit Bruneau at Let’s Go Paragliding (Brace Mtn) and left a message. As we were
heading through Hancock it started raining lightly so we changed the plan to do
something locally starting at AAA in Pittsfield. We drove by Hancock Shaker
Village and then through Pittsfield to the east side and picked up a Tour Book
and some info pamphlets at AAA. McDonalds provided us some free wi-fi time from
the parking lot so C.J. could download her scrapbooking stuff, and I picked up
email on my phone. Then we went into the city center to the Athenaeum/library
which had an
 |
| "Barking Dog" |
interesting room devoted to Herman Melville, author of
Moby Dick which he wrote while living
nearby. [Supposedly the view of Mt Greylock from his house reminded him of a
whale.] Later we walked over to the Berkshire Museum, Theater and Tourist
Information Center, unmanned on this off season. The museum accepted our
Pacific Science Center membership for admission so we spent an hour and a half
or more viewing an amazing assortment of exhibits including dinosaurs, animals,
dioramas, innovation, a gallery of paintings from the Hudson
 |
| Contemporary beadwork |
River School, and
a room of full-size plaster casts of famous statues: Venus de Milo, Winged
Victory, the Discus Thrower. In addition there was a featured exhibit titled
“Rethinking American Indian Art” (photos, left and right). We left Pittsfield around 1600 heading up Rte
7. There wasn’t much to see in Lanesboro so we continued to Brodie Mtn Rd and
the condo. C.J. made another chicken stir fry and we had another éclair for
dessert. Except for the heavy overcast and occasional showers it was a good
day.
24 Oct, Wed – Expecting another gloomy day we slept in a bit
later and didn’t get on the road for our tour
of the Mohawk Trail until 1000 or
later. Our first stop was in the beautiful, old town of Williamstown. Almost
all the buildings, especially those of Williams College looked to be of 19
th
century construction. We walked the main shopping street stopping at “Where Did
You Get That?”, a gift, toy and game shop then completed a loop by taking Rte
43 and back past the old observatory building and art museum (photo, left). Our next stop was
a bust as the Westgate Heritage Center in North Adams was closed most of the
week during the off season. However, leaving the urban area of North Adams
behind we found
Natural Bridge State Park and walked the gated road to the
boardwalks that led to various views of the marble quarry on one side and the
natural bridge (photo, right) above a potholed gorge. There was a dam and a pond with an
abandoned penstock above the gorge that had once been used to power the quarry
operation. We returned to the Mohawk Trail and climbed past the hairpin turn
to the Western Summit. At the Whitcomb Summit we stopped again near the
decrepit wooden lookout tower (which went perfectly with the mostly abandoned
cabins and motel since replaced by a modern inn). We took some photos of the
Elk Memorial and then descended the steep Whitcomb Road to the Deerfield River.
Following the river upstream we came to the eastern portal of the Hoosac RR
Tunnel built in 1877 with a loss of 195 workers even though the new use of
tri-nitroglycerin, electric blasting caps and
 |
| Sugarbush with tubes |
air-powered drills had replaced black powder and hand drills). We continued up the road toward the town of Monroe
Bridge stopping to see if the visitor center was open at the Bear Swamp Hydro
Project (it wasn’t, no surprise). The GPS said we could continue in a loop and
come out on the MT near Charlemont. On the way we stopped for pictures of a
maple sugar operation with all the plastic tubes and pipes leading to a sugar
house. Back on the MT, we backtracked a short
 |
| "Hail to the Sunrise" |
distance to see the famous “Hail
to the Sunrise” statue, a memorial to the Mohawk Indians sponsored by The
Improved Oder of the Redmen. We skipped the covered bridge near Charlemont and
went right to Shelburne Falls where we parked near the potholes below Salmon
Falls and walked across the highway bridge for a view of The Bridge of Flowers,
a repurposed trolley bridge covered with a layer of soil and planted with
flowers and other vegetation (photo, left). We also found the Fudge Factor and got ice cream
cones. After a final stop at the local VC, we headed out of town and mostly
downhill through Greenfield, then south (leaving the MT behind) through
Deerfield to the 90,000 sq ft Yankee Candle Village. It was full of candles in
jars, plus lots of Christmas ornaments, other seasonal stuff, food, and tons of
nifty-gifties. Escaping without leaving any money behind we drove the short
distance to the trailhead for
 |
| Connecticut River from Mt Sugarloaf |
Mt Sugarloaf State Res. Although it was after
1700 and the gate was closed, folks who had just returned from the summit said
it was very worthwhile, so we decided to do the short hike. It was a scramble,
up a steep, slippery-with-leaves trail to the 650 ft summit crowned with a
stone, 3-story lookout tower. We climbed up the open spiral stairs to the
observation platform where we could look out over the broad Connecticut River
valley. Avoiding the good chance of a slip on the dry leaves, we took the paved
road back to the trailhead and reached the car in about an hour total elapsed
time. From South Deerfield we set the GPS to take us “home” trusting that it
would take the best route. It did, without even taking us on any interstates or
the Mass Pike. We were back around 1900 and C.J. whipped up some homemade soup
from the bones of that rotisserie chicken we bought back on Sunday. The sky had
been overcast all day with just a bit of sunshine late in the day around
Deerfield.
25 Oct, Thu – For some reason we had a wi-fi connection
provided by the resort in the morning. [Hope we
didn’t somehow agree to the $10
per day charge.] Since the weather is forecast to be better on Friday, we
decided to do another hike closer to home on Mt. Greylock again. We got to the
Sperry Rd parking lot about 1130 and headed off along the CCC Dynamite Trail.
Despite its name, the trail was an almost level walk in the woods. Once we hit
the Jones
Nose Trail we started climbing (photo, right). A rocky opening just off the trail
was signed “View of Catskills” and we stopped there for lunch (photo, below left). There was a bit
more climbing after lunch and we joined the AT. We were glad to see the
overcast begin to break up and there was some sunshine. We followed the ridge
crest in forest for a ways and then began to descend. We had been expecting the
second viewpoint to be up on the ridge crest but we only caught glimpses of the
Greylock summit through the trees until we were almost to the parking lot at
the
upper hairpin turn. Great view of the War Memorial tower from there! We
stopped for a break at the parking lot, then headed down the road the short
distance to the lower hairpin. There we ducked back into the woods on the
Hopper Trail and followed it to Sperry Road and back to the car. It seemed like
a perfect flying day for Greylock with the sun out and a SE wind so we drove to
the top. No paragliders or hang gliders were there and more preparations for
the winter were in evidence: the iron ranger for the parking fee had been
wrapped up and the large bronze map-model of the mountain had been surrounded
by a snow fence and protected with several 2x4s. The city of Adams was still on
our list of places to visit so we drove down the Notch Road again, but this
time cutting off on Reservoir Rd to N Adams. Then we turned south on Rte 8S
toward Adams. We made a short stop at a Goodwill to buy a Tupperware container
for our cream cheese and butter. Disappointingly, but not unexpected, the VC
had closed at 1500, so we were on our own for a walking tour. [Too bad, because
the view into the museum associated with the VC showed part of an exhibit about
the 10
th Mountain Division.] We walked a loop past restored
Victorian houses and large,
old churches some of which had been repurposed as
Masonic or Elk lodges or, in the case of the RC church of Pope John Paul the
Great, the parish center. Clearly the town had had a much larger population in
the past when the textile mills were operating, and a sizable ethnic population
as well if the large RC church of St. Stanislaus Kostka (photo, right) was any evidence. On
the drive into town we had seen many old, brick row houses/tenements that
appeared to be still in use. Sadly the only ice cream shop we passed was
closed, probably for the season. In fact, a good number of the storefronts on
Commercial Street were vacant or had closed signs. After completing our walk,
we drove south out of town making only one more stop at a big farm stand before
heading through Cheshire and Lanesborough back to the resort. C.J. came up with
another good meal based on some of the remaining chicken meat.
26 Oct, Fri – Our last day in the Berkshires (or Taconics,
or wherever…) and the weather did not look to be the stellar day that was
forecast. Nevertheless, we got going by 0930 heading for a hike up Brace Mtn.
As we approached Copake Falls on Rte 22 we saw that the tops of the mountains
were all in the clouds. So instead of turning off and finding our way to the
eastern trailhead, we continued on to Boston Corners, turned left on BC Road
and found the Brace Paragliding Club (or Let’s Go Paragliding HQ). We were in
luck – Benoit Bruneau was there with three new students and one more
experienced student. The three were just learning to inflate their wings with
forward runs into the light wind. We hung around and helped fluff wings for a
while. Later Benoit (ben WAH) brought out a small Flying Planet wing with an
equally small harness for C.J. to kite. At noon the class broke for lunch and
we decided to give Brace a try even though the overcast had not broken. Since
the trail(s) on the east side started at a higher elevation (1900’, rather than
950’ on the west) we returned
to Copake Falls and drove up the winding, scenic
road past some old ironworks and Bash Bish Falls State Park into MA, then S on
East Street/Mt. Washington Rd to the CT border and a parking lot for the route
to Brace over Round Mtn and Mt Frissel. We continued on another mile to a gated road
and a bit farther to a larger place to park. We followed the straight and wide
old roadbed up a bit and then down to cross a stream. The footing was difficult
with lots of round rocks, some hidden by drifts of leaves – very tough on
C.J.’s neuroma on the sole of her foot. Beyond the stream the narrowing trail
climbed steeply for a short distance before arriving at an intersection with
the South Taconic Trail (It had taken about an hour). We were really “winging
it” and weren’t sure where we were in relation to
the summit of Brace so we
turned right (north) and shortly found trail signs indicating Brace was to the
south. We could see down to the wide valley below, and probably the Catskills would
have been visible if the day had been less cloudy. We could see that Benoit had
begun doing short, ground-skimming tows with his students using his powered
winch. The Brace launch was right on the summit of the 2400’ mountain just
below a large cairn with a big windsock (photo, left). We didn’t have to feel disappointed
that we didn’t have our wings because the wind was crossing sharply from the
south. It was already pretty late so we didn’t spend much more time on Brace. We
had decided to do a loop to return even though that would require a
mile walk
along East Street to reach the car. Taking a right off the S. Taconic,
we
headed for Mt. Frissel, descending 300 ft to the
tripoint of NY, MA, and CT (photo, right) and then climbing steeply on rocks to
the highest point in CT (on the shoulder of Mt. Frissel). We continued to the
2450’ nondescript summit of Frissel and descended steeply into the saddle
between Frissel and Round. The climb up to the rocky summit of Round was also
steep and the descent likewise. Then it was a straightforward hike out to the
road and a long mile to the car. We got started on the way home around 1740 and
took the scenic route through Great Barrington and Stockbridge (both look worth
exploring even without the Halloween gatherings that evening in each) to Pittsfield
and the usual route home (arriving about 1900). C.J. reprised her menu of the
previous night while I went to the computer room to check in for our flight and
print out boarding passes. After dinner we packed up for our planned 0830
departure for our 1255 flight, and planned our route for the next day.
27 Oct, Sat – We were checked out by 0845 and on the way
south to intersect with the Taconic State Parkway just south of the Berkshire
section of the NY Thruway. The Taconic wasn’t as interesting as driving through
all the little towns but it was conveniently speedy. The GPS kept insisting
that we cross the Hudson and take the Thruway – maybe it gets a cut of the
tolls. Instead we continued south to I-84 and crossed the river at Newburgh.
Since we were early we stopped for a break at Walmart and finished up the last
of the cider that we had carried in our thermos. Then we filled the tank up
with gas, more expensive in NY at $3.859 (although ten cents cheaper than a week ago!) and drove the last mile to Stewart.
Turning in the rental went smoothly once I got it parked in the right lot. We
dropped off our checked bag and waited for our flight to Detroit. Once more we
had to gate check our carry-on suitcases at the jetway but that was not a
problem since we had all of our inflight food and amusements in our backpacks.
The route was mostly in the clouds and we arrived a little early which was good
since we had another long walk to the far end of the terminal. We arrived just
as our zone was finishing boarding and walked right on. The plane was full up and
it was a long flight but we had plenty of electronic devices and books/puzzles
to keep us occupied. It was cloudy over most of the country and it was raining
in Seattle when we arrived. There was a pretty long wait for our shuttle to the
parking lot, but the low price made up for the small inconvenience ($3.99/day
plus taxes At Americas Best Value Inn/Parking arranged through
airportparking.com). We were home by 1900 to a cold house, but a quick fire in
the woodstove warmed the place right up.
the only passenger, while C.J. finished packing up and moving out. After
fending off a bunch of upselling from Budget, I checked out a Ford Fiesta with
Florida plates. [It might have been fun to upgrade to a RAV4 but not for $10
more per day. Besides, the Fiesta got better than 35 mpg.] Around 1000 C.J. and
I got started for Washingtonville in quest of the cemetery where her dad is
buried. After getting mixed up by the St. Mary’s cemetery entrance and the
relocated entrance to the Washingtonville Cemetery, we found our way in and,
with a little searching, found the correct Tuthill plot (located behind the big
funeral home on Toleman Rd.) After some photos C.J. suggested that we try to
find my family’s graves in Walden since we were going to drive through there
anyway. Wallkill Valley Cemetery is much larger and my memory was hazy – it’s
been 38 years – about the location. We found the cemetery but had no luck
finding the graves even after calling Wayne for his help. Naturally, the cem.
office was closed on Sunday. Heading
up a
grab bag for $2.50 which was labeled “choc” and turned out to contain two
éclairs, two cream puffs, and four chocolate and almond paste rollups – great
deal. The E-ville LZ was pretty empty except for Bryon Estes and another
instructor who were working with a couple of students on the conical training
hill at the east end of the LZ. Bryon said it was windy up at launch level so
there hadn’t been anyone flying. Shortly afterward we saw a hang glider launch
and it looked like he or she was staying up. We didn’t stick around but waded
back out of the soggy field and returned to the road. The trip over the Gunks
on Rte 44-55 was colorful with autumn foliage and there were plenty of other
people out admiring the view, so many that Minnewaska State Park had run out of
parking space and was turning away cars. We couldn’t see any climbers on the
cliffs from the road, but all those parking lots were full, too. After a stop
at Jenkins-Lueken’s orchard stand to get some fresh cider, we ran into a
traffic jam trying to get through the narrow main street of New Paltz. We tried
to avoid the worst of it by turning north toward Rosendale before crossing the
Wallkill River. Nothing looked familiar along the route although I knew that I
had spent time out in the Rosendale vicinity doing field geology. [I did spot
one of the mines that followed a layer of limestone (used for cement) along the dip of the
formation.] We stopped at Walmart in Kingston to stock up on groceries since
the resort we were heading for was in a small town without a large food store.
We crossed the Hudson to Rhinebeck, went north on Rte 9G, then followed 9, 66
and 22 to where we turned off on Brodie Mtn Rd to Hancock, MA, and Vacation Village in the Berkshires, an
RCI gold crown resort across the road from Jiminy Peak Ski Area (arriving about
1715). Checking in was easy and we were glad to settle into our small,
one-bedroom unit with a tiny kitchen containing a microwave, two-burner hot
plate, and a full-size refrigerator. Most of our travel day had been sunny but
it got overcast later in the day. We were hoping for a clear day Monday to
visit nearby Mt. Greylock.
of the Mohawk Trail until 1000 or
later. Our first stop was in the beautiful, old town of Williamstown. Almost
all the buildings, especially those of Williams College looked to be of 19th
century construction. We walked the main shopping street stopping at “Where Did
You Get That?”, a gift, toy and game shop then completed a loop by taking Rte
43 and back past the old observatory building and art museum (photo, left). Our next stop was
a bust as the Westgate Heritage Center in North Adams was closed most of the
week during the off season. However, leaving the urban area of North Adams
behind we found 
Natural Bridge State Park and walked the gated road to the
boardwalks that led to various views of the marble quarry on one side and the
natural bridge (photo, right) above a potholed gorge. There was a dam and a pond with an
abandoned penstock above the gorge that had once been used to power the quarry
operation. We returned to the Mohawk Trail and climbed past the hairpin turn
to the Western Summit. At the Whitcomb Summit we stopped again near the
decrepit wooden lookout tower (which went perfectly with the mostly abandoned
cabins and motel since replaced by a modern inn). We took some photos of the
Elk Memorial and then descended the steep Whitcomb Road to the Deerfield River.
Following the river upstream we came to the eastern portal of the Hoosac RR
Tunnel built in 1877 with a loss of 195 workers even though the new use of
tri-nitroglycerin, electric blasting caps and 
a repurposed trolley bridge covered with a layer of soil and planted with
flowers and other vegetation (photo, left). We also found the Fudge Factor and got ice cream
cones. After a final stop at the local VC, we headed out of town and mostly
downhill through Greenfield, then south (leaving the MT behind) through
Deerfield to the 90,000 sq ft Yankee Candle Village. It was full of candles in
jars, plus lots of Christmas ornaments, other seasonal stuff, food, and tons of
nifty-gifties. Escaping without leaving any money behind we drove the short
distance to the trailhead for
didn’t somehow agree to the $10
per day charge.] Since the weather is forecast to be better on Friday, we
decided to do another hike closer to home on Mt. Greylock again. We got to the
Sperry Rd parking lot about 1130 and headed off along the CCC Dynamite Trail.
Despite its name, the trail was an almost level walk in the woods. Once we hit
the Jones
Nose Trail we started climbing (photo, right). A rocky opening just off the trail
was signed “View of Catskills” and we stopped there for lunch (photo, below left). There was a bit
more climbing after lunch and we joined the AT. We were glad to see the
overcast begin to break up and there was some sunshine. We followed the ridge
crest in forest for a ways and then began to descend. We had been expecting the
second viewpoint to be up on the ridge crest but we only caught glimpses of the
Greylock summit through the trees until we were almost to the parking lot at
the 
upper hairpin turn. Great view of the War Memorial tower from there! We
stopped for a break at the parking lot, then headed down the road the short
distance to the lower hairpin. There we ducked back into the woods on the
Hopper Trail and followed it to Sperry Road and back to the car. It seemed like
a perfect flying day for Greylock with the sun out and a SE wind so we drove to
the top. No paragliders or hang gliders were there and more preparations for
the winter were in evidence: the iron ranger for the parking fee had been
wrapped up and the large bronze map-model of the mountain had been surrounded
by a snow fence and protected with several 2x4s. The city of Adams was still on
our list of places to visit so we drove down the Notch Road again, but this
time cutting off on Reservoir Rd to N Adams. Then we turned south on Rte 8S
toward Adams. We made a short stop at a Goodwill to buy a Tupperware container
for our cream cheese and butter. Disappointingly, but not unexpected, the VC
had closed at 1500, so we were on our own for a walking tour. [Too bad, because
the view into the museum associated with the VC showed part of an exhibit about
the 10th Mountain Division.] We walked a loop past restored
Victorian houses and large, 
old churches some of which had been repurposed as
Masonic or Elk lodges or, in the case of the RC church of Pope John Paul the
Great, the parish center. Clearly the town had had a much larger population in
the past when the textile mills were operating, and a sizable ethnic population
as well if the large RC church of St. Stanislaus Kostka (photo, right) was any evidence. On
the drive into town we had seen many old, brick row houses/tenements that
appeared to be still in use. Sadly the only ice cream shop we passed was
closed, probably for the season. In fact, a good number of the storefronts on
Commercial Street were vacant or had closed signs. After completing our walk,
we drove south out of town making only one more stop at a big farm stand before
heading through Cheshire and Lanesborough back to the resort. C.J. came up with
another good meal based on some of the remaining chicken meat.
As we approached Copake Falls on Rte 22 we saw that the tops of the mountains
were all in the clouds. So instead of turning off and finding our way to the
eastern trailhead, we continued on to Boston Corners, turned left on BC Road
and found the Brace Paragliding Club (or Let’s Go Paragliding HQ). We were in
luck – Benoit Bruneau was there with three new students and one more
experienced student. The three were just learning to inflate their wings with
forward runs into the light wind. We hung around and helped fluff wings for a
while. Later Benoit (ben WAH) brought out a small Flying Planet wing with an
equally small harness for C.J. to kite. At noon the class broke for lunch and
we decided to give Brace a try even though the overcast had not broken. Since
the trail(s) on the east side started at a higher elevation (1900’, rather than
950’ on the west) we returned
to Copake Falls and drove up the winding, scenic
road past some old ironworks and Bash Bish Falls State Park into MA, then S on
East Street/Mt. Washington Rd to the CT border and a parking lot for the route
to Brace over Round Mtn and Mt Frissel. We continued on another mile to a gated road
and a bit farther to a larger place to park. We followed the straight and wide
old roadbed up a bit and then down to cross a stream. The footing was difficult
with lots of round rocks, some hidden by drifts of leaves – very tough on
C.J.’s neuroma on the sole of her foot. Beyond the stream the narrowing trail
climbed steeply for a short distance before arriving at an intersection with
the South Taconic Trail (It had taken about an hour). We were really “winging
it” and weren’t sure where we were in relation to 
the summit of Brace so we
turned right (north) and shortly found trail signs indicating Brace was to the
south. We could see down to the wide valley below, and probably the Catskills would
have been visible if the day had been less cloudy. We could see that Benoit had
begun doing short, ground-skimming tows with his students using his powered
winch. The Brace launch was right on the summit of the 2400’ mountain just
below a large cairn with a big windsock (photo, left). We didn’t have to feel disappointed
that we didn’t have our wings because the wind was crossing sharply from the
south. It was already pretty late so we didn’t spend much more time on Brace. We
had decided to do a loop to return even though that would require a mile walk
along East Street to reach the car. Taking a right off the S. Taconic,
we
headed for Mt. Frissel, descending 300 ft to the tripoint of NY, MA, and CT (photo, right) and then climbing steeply on rocks to
the highest point in CT (on the shoulder of Mt. Frissel). We continued to the
2450’ nondescript summit of Frissel and descended steeply into the saddle
between Frissel and Round. The climb up to the rocky summit of Round was also
steep and the descent likewise. Then it was a straightforward hike out to the
road and a long mile to the car. We got started on the way home around 1740 and
took the scenic route through Great Barrington and Stockbridge (both look worth
exploring even without the Halloween gatherings that evening in each) to Pittsfield
and the usual route home (arriving about 1900). C.J. reprised her menu of the
previous night while I went to the computer room to check in for our flight and
print out boarding passes. After dinner we packed up for our planned 0830
departure for our 1255 flight, and planned our route for the next day.
