Portraits of Place » hiking

A walk on the Appalachian Trail

shaunoboyle — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:04:16 +0000

Tree facing North

snail trail

Fern Grove

Adiantum pedatum

Selective Cut

shaunoboyle — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:51:51 +0000

Hiking Mt. Greylock

shaunoboyle — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:45:33 +0000

A Sunday afternoon hike up Mt. Greylock mountain in Williamstown, MA. This hike is up the Hopper Trail, down Sperry Road to the lookout over the Hopper, then down Haley Farm trail. Its a great hike, gains about 1450 feet in elevation, and takes about 2 1/2 hours.

iphone distractions

shaunoboyle — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:20:48 +0000

So what have I been doing for the past month? Futzing with my new iphone. These devices are distracting. I end up playing a session of angry birds rather than work on my latest book design – which is a reworking of the asylum photographs into a larger 13″x11″ book design.

But the newness of the iphone is wearing off finally (it’s my first smart phone), and I’m getting back to work on important projects. And occasionally playing with the phone. It has a decent 5 megapixel camera, and there are some good photo apps available. My current favorite is the ShakeItPhoto app, which does a good job of capturing the look of a polaroid.

I’ve also been enjoying summer, spending time swimming and hiking, canoeing.
I took a few days for a hiking trip to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. It is one of my favorite places to go. I love hiking and the beauty of the mountains, and the adks are a great place to get both in large doses.

Hiking – Mt. Greylock Hopper Trail

shaunoboyle — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:19:18 +0000

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