Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Day 13/April 13 -- from Cheshire to Dalton on a beautiful day

Miles hiked: 9.0 in 3:33

Starting location: Route 8 Cheshire, MA

Ending location: Route 9 & 8A Dalton, MA

Elevation gain: 1,896'


With much improved weather, today's hike was very pleasant. I headed south from Route 8, the same trailhead that I had used to hike north over Mt. Greylock last week. The trails were considerably drier, too.

There's only one major climb--up to The Cobbles on the ridge that runs south to Dalton. Here's a shot of the first major cliffs that one sees upon approaching the summit:


The AT skirts around that pile of rocks and reaches the summit in another 2/10s of a mile, where I actually spotted the summit marker:


Evidently, the summit is called Cheshire, as can be seen on some of the old USGS maps. And soon one gets a nice view of Cheshire Reservoir while looking west and southwest from the summit:


The rest of the hike was along the ridge line, gradually dropping down to Gulf Road in Dalton, where I hiked another mile on pavement before reaching Route 9--I will resume there tomorrow. All that I have left for is a three-mile section up to Grange Hall Road.

Since Colette was coming to pick me up a bit later and I had some time to kill, I wandered into town, eventually getting to the library where I took a break and read the NY Times.

I thought Dalton does its best to lure the thru hikers though:


Just a tad devilishly deceptive, but it caught my eye. Had I been staying overnight in Dalton, they would have gotten my business. 

Route from my Suunto.

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