Day 4/April 4 -- hiking in 4-9" of snow is fun, but tiring

Miles hiked: 12.1

Starting location: Lake Buel Road, Great Barrington, MA

Ending location: Jug End Road, Egremont, MA

Elevation gain: 1,480'

Back home in Lee, I'm now able to continue hiking on the AT by doing a series of day hikes. I will still carry my pack, but obviously I won't need all my gear, so the pack will be considerably lighter.

Today I decided to hike near Great Barrington because that's where Colette works, and she agreed to pick me up when I was done.

The terrain today was fairly benign, no big killer hills to deal with, but with snow accumulation of anywhere from 4" up to 9" in some areas, the footing was very uneven, making it a bit more work. The best thing I did today was to bring along some hiking poles, which I usually try to avoid at all costs. Today, though, they were the ticket--especially useful on the downhills where I would probe first to see if my intended landing zone was good or not. By doing so I avoided what certainly would have been some crash landings.

A very welcome set of steps on the descent off of East Mountain.

A real test of your vision--can you spot why I took this photo? Maybe another one, taken a bit closer with a different angle will help?

Hopefully, you should have figured it out by now. If not, here's a hint: the white dot!

A losing battle, but they really had no choice but to fight the system, imo. This monument can be seen on the Sheffield-Egremont Road in South Egremont. 

Route from my Suunto. Unfortunately, I forgot to lock the buttons and the recording was paused for some time. Total time from Lake Buel Road to Jug End Road was six hours and ten minutes.