The drive up I-91 through Massachusetts takes less than an hour, covering only 55 miles.  Back in day, I had made this journey many times while traveling from Hartford Airport to a project site in Brattleboro, Vermont.  On foot, it took me six days to cover the 90-mile route taken by the Appalachian Trail.

Across the meadow

Massachusetts was a mixtue of mountains, swamps, and charming small towns.  Considering that Massachusetts ranks third in population density, I was surprised to find the terrain so wild and green.

Shallow gorge

The Massachusetts high country is dotted with numerous ponds and swamps.  Nearly all of the ponds are the work of the beavers who have transformed marshland into open water.  It is hard to image how different the landscape would be without the beavers.

Foggy morning on Gore Pond

Marshland on the mountain

Plank bridge for negotiating the marsh

After seeing many beaver lodges and dams, I finally spotted my first beaver.  This fellow was aware of my presence, but didn’t appear to find me threatening.

Taking a swim

Munching on shore

Showing me some tail

The beavers are clever dam builders.  I have observed several places where they had created multilevel dams. They will construct, say, a 3-foot dam to create a lower pond, then another 3-foot dam between the lower pond and an upper pond.  This ultimately raises the water level by six feet without having to build and maintain a 6-foot dam.

Beaver dam

Beaver lodge

In Massachusetts, the trail passes right through the towns of Dalton, Cheshire, and North Adams.  All these towns are friendly to hikers.   Cheshire even has medallions in their sidewalks to mark the path of the trail.

Trail markers in Cheshire

Trail passing right through people’s dooryards

Accompanied by one other hiker, I caught an Uber into Pittsfield to visit an urgent care clinic.  The other guy was getting tested for Lyme Disease since he had recently been feeling down and out.  I was getting checked out for an infection (no clue to the cause) in the cuticle area of my index finger.  You never notice how much you use your index finger until it gets sore.  When the Uber driver pulled up and saw our packs, he jumped out of his car like a jackrabbit and opened his trunk.  I assumed he was going to help us stow our packs, but low and behold, he pulled out a plastic sheet and proceeded to line the back seat, mumbling something like, “The last time I gave a ride to hikers, it took a week to get rid of the smell.”  Really, I didn’t think I smelled THAT bad!  I now know what it feels like to be the victim of discrimination.

Finger troubles

The doctor at the urgent care was really good.  She drained my finger, prescribed an antibiotic, and ordered a lab culture to make sure I didn’t have some rare flesh-eating bacteria.  Thanks to the miracle of antibiotics, my finger is fine now, although the following day, I did have practice some trail medicine and drain it a second time.

As in many of the other states, the AT crosses the highest peak in the state.  Mount Greylock, at 3489 feet, is the highest elevation I have seen since Virginia and is a sign that the mountains are getting taller again.  The mountaintop is the home of the Veterans War Memorial Tower.

Veterans War Memorial Tower

Ninety spiral steps to the top – No sweat

Also on top of the mountain is the historic Bascom Lodge, built in 1932.  I had hoped to stay in the lodge’s bunkhouse and get to see the sunrise from the mountaintop, but my trip to the doctor messed up my timing.  I did reach the lodge in time to enjoy a hearty breakfast, so all was not lost.

Bascom Lodge

On the trail, I am constantly impressed with the diversity of the plant life.   Charles Darwin observed that diverse collections of organisms living within niches are naturally more successful than any single species alone.  One reason for this is that a single dominant species tends to exhaust the resources upon which it depends.  The other reason is that those scrappy little organisms living in niches are better able to adapt to change.  All I can say is that biodiversity makes for a much more interesting world.

Plants on top of plants

Along the trail, one can see places where invasive species have caused nature’s balance to go awry.  One example is the Japanese Barberry shrub which grows in places along the trail, forming dense thickets  and crowding out ferns and other native plants.  Another example is the Hemlock woolly adelgid, a type  of aphid from East Asia, which threatens the hemlock population.  In the southern states, it was common to see the telltale white egg sacs from this pest on the hemlock needles.  Other than waiting a few million years for nature to restore a new balance, I doubt there is a good remedy for these invasions.

Grove of Japanese Barberry taking over the understory

I am a great admirer of Charles Darwin and am currently reading the Voyage of the Beagle while on the trail.  Some of my favorite Charles Darwin quotes:

• “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
• “The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”
• “An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, with would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.”

This is a Savannah Sparrow.  It looks a lot like an ordinary Song Sparrow but can be distinguished by the yellow in the eyebrow stripe.

Savannah Sparrow

This is a picture of an adult Red-spotted Newt, taken in shallow water.  The adults are olive green but still have the characteristic red spots.  Relying on lungs to breath, they periodically come to the surface for a gulp of air.

Adult Red-spotted Newt

Other flora and fauna…

Eupatorium

Blue-bead Lily

Meadow Fritillary

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The Appalachian Trail passes within about 40 miles of my home town of Germantown, New York.  This provided a great opportunity to visit with family while getting a few days of rest.  After 20 consecutive nights of tent camping, I was ready for a break.

My brother Rich drove over and fetched me at the trailhead near Great Barrington, Massachusetts.  We swung north to pick up Nancy at the Albany Airport, and then headed back to Germantown where we would spend four nights at Rich and Deb’s house.  In thru hiker lingo, I would be taking a “triple zero”.

Rich and Deb have a great view of the Catskill Mountains.  These were the mountains that I hiked in my younger days.

View west towards the Catskills

Back lawn (mowed by Deb) and horse pasture beyond

Rich and Deb were great hosts and kept us well-fed and watered during our stay.  I arrived weighing 153 pounds and left at 157, which attests to the good cooking.  Rich is in the middle of a home addition project, so my apologies to Deb for slowing up progress.  I count myself lucky that I didn’t get to help lift the eight foot sliding glass door unit into the opening while I was there.

A visit to New York would not be complete without a chicken barbecue.

Randy and his brother Phil busy cooking the chicken

The Coons brothers

Usually when I visit Germantown, we go for a day hike, but I had had my fill of hiking.  Rich gave me the tour of his projects including the cecropia moth caterpillars he is raising.  (I am not the only lepidopterist in the family.)  When the caterpillars first hatched from their eggs, they were less than 1/4 inch long and black in color.  Now they are nearly fully grown, with some having already formed cocoons.  He is feeding them on elderberry bushes that grow on some family property near the Methodist cemetery.

Rich checking on his caterpillars

Cecropia caterpillar

Cecropia cocoon

We paid a short visit to the cemetery.  My ancestors settled Germantown in 1710, and some of the more recent ones rest there.  I thought it was neat that in one place I could find the gravestones of my four preceding generations.

Parents Robert & Olive Coons

Grandparents James Coons & Jessie MacDonald

Great Grandparents Josiah Coons & Malvina Snyder

Great Great Grandparents Philip Coon & Jannett Snyder

Many of the thru hikers that I have been hiking with recently started in Georgia two to four weeks earlier than I did.  Ironically, most of them expect to summit Mount Katahdin by the end of August, while I anticipate that I will be on the trail until mid-September.  Either I am slowing down, they are speeding up, or one of us is bad at math.

I remember one time watching an interview of a young American cyclist who had just completed his first Tour de France.  He said, “I am just a shell of the man who three weeks ago started this race.”  I don’t want to be that guy, dragging myself up Katahdin underweight and beaten down.  My plan is to moderate my mileage and take additional rest days, if needed, to complete my hike in good shape.  New Hampshire and Maine are supposed to be especially beautiful, so I want to take the time to get the full experience.

I am hitting the trail with new shoes and gators.  Not quite sure what I was thinking when I picked out the black and white camo.  Maybe they will look better with mud on them.  This is my third pair of Altra Lone Peak trail runners which I hope will last me to the end.

New equipment

A number of times I have see wild turkeys on the trail.  They are very skittish, tending to disappear into the undergrowth as soon as I spot them.  These turkeys were several hundred yards away and paid me no notice.

Wild turkeys

Other flora and fauna …

Black-eyed Susan

Watch out for cars, little deer!

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The 50-mile path of the AT through Connecticut was a mix of terrain, passing through low mountains, river basins, and towns.

Nice view during breakfast at the campsite

Even though they mountain sections in Connecticut were at low elevation, the trail had a lot of ups and downs.  On one particularly challenging day, with the temperature topping 90 degrees and my energy level low, it took me over ten hours to cover 15 miles.  (On most days, I cover 10 to 12 miles before lunch).  A good part of the day was spent zigging and zagging up and down the flanks of nameless mountains (to me) with no views to speak of.  I found myself grumbling, “Why have they made the this trail so unnecessarily hard?”  It occurred to me that trail is 80 years old and that back in 1937, most of the trees blocking my views weren’t even born yet.  In any case, my navigation app said I had climbed 3600 and descended 3400 feet that day, even though the elevation never topped 1400 feet.

The trail crosses Bear Mountain, the highest peak in the state at 2323 feet of elevation.  On top of the mountain is a monument originally constructed in 1885.  The monument, built from stacked stones, is 20 feet square at the base, 22 feet high, and is shaped like a set of bleachers.  Hikers pick their boulder on which to sit, then relax and enjoy the view.

Monument on Bear Mountain

Randy on top of the monument

View of Mount Race and Mount Everett from Bear Mountain

The trail runs roughly parallel to the Housatonic River.  The river walk sections of the trail provided for nice views and pleasant walking.

Housatonic River

Peaceful walking along the Housatonic

While in Connecticut, I visited the towns of Kent and Salisbury, both of which are accessible via short walks from the trails.  Each of these towns seemed like a nice place to live or to pay a visit.

Kent, Connecticut

The day I visited Salisbury turned out to be the day the conservation people trapped the town bear.  I had been seeing warnings in the trail journals about not leaving your pack laying around as there was a bear on the loose.  In town, the locals told me that the bear had been marauding about town for months and getting into people’s trash cans.  Apparently, the bear was fearless and would walk past people at close range and not give them the slightest notice.  The town folk seemed disappointed with the news of the bear’s capture, as the bear had become somewhat of a town mascot.

For those wondering how hikers handle “mother nature’s call” on the trail, here are the options.  Obviously, the first choice is to use a flush toilet In town or at a park.   The next best, and most common choice is the privy which can be found at most shelters and campsites.  The fallback option, and something I have mostly avoided, is to dig a “cat hole”.

I have found that thru hikers view themselves as privy connoisseurs.  Any discussion about a campsite always leads to a rating of its privy.  Here are a couple examples.

There are a multitude of privy variations with no two seeming to be exactly alike.  Nearly all “moldering privies”, which are designed based on a principle of continuous and cold composting.  Contrary to what you might expect, the majority of privies don’t smell bad and are better than most portalets.

Some privies, like this one at Chestnut Knob Shelter in North Carolina, don’t have a door.  The open design lets you enjoy the view and maybe even get in a little birding while you sit.

Room with a view

There is a big disparity in the privies in Connecticut.  The shelters have very deluxe privies.  This seems fitting since all the trail signs are tastefully color-coordinated  and carefully lettered.

Privy at a Connecticut shelter

The privies at the Connecticut campsites are a different matter.  No walls!  To use this privy, one would need to find a partner to act as a lookout.

Privy at a Connecticut campsite

A while back, I became aware that the female Red-winged Blackbird is not black, but is brown.  This is another example of where the male bird has the striking coloration while the female is more muted.  I have been on a mission to photograph a female.  The females are much more shy than the males, so this turned out to be harder than I anticipated.  Finally, in a Connecticut swamp, I found one to pose for a picture.

Red-winged Blackbird (female)

I always take care to avoid stepping on them Red-spotted Newts which I are still common on the path.  The ones I am seeing are juveniles, called “efts”, which breath air and live on land.  The adults, which can live to be 15 years old, are green in color and live in the water, although they still breath air.

Red-spotted Newt

Other flora and fauna…

Bumble Bee on Pink Bee Balm

American Copper Butterfly

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