I do a fair amount of hiking. Rather than head to the gym, I go for a hike. Year round, even in the darkest days of winter I’ll strap on a head light and head out for a hike a couple times a week. One of my favorite local places to hike is Mt. Greylock. There are over 50 miles of trails on the mountain, and there is a variety of terrain and trail difficulty.
There are some good hikes linked here on the state website. On Sunday I hiked the Hopper Trail on the Williamstown side of the mountain. It’s a beautiful area, the Hopper is a designated national natural landmark, there are old growth trees, and the unique topography makes for great hiking. The Hopper forms a natural bowl on the west facing side of Greylock, the surrounding peaks of Stoney Ledge, and Mt Prospect make excellent hikes in themselves. I wrote a hike review some years ago on an excellent loop hike that starts in the Hopper, and goes to the summit of Greylock via the Money Brook and the Appalachian trails. A hard all day hike, but one of the best in area.
But Sunday I did a shorter hike up the Hopper Trail to the Sperry Road campround and back down. There are alternate routes that can make this a loop hike by walking down Sperry Road to Stoney Ledge, then down the Haley Farm trail. But I was short on time, so did an up and back. It had been raining, and the cloud cover was low, so some beautiful fog through the trees.
Hopper Trail
Hopper Trail
