Miles hiked: 9.50
Starting location: Jerusalem Road, Tyringham, MA
Ending location: Lake Buel Road, Great Barrington, MA
Elevation gain: 2,221'
A cold start to the hike, 25°F, but it was above freezing by the end of the day. Plenty of sunshine and the crystals in the snow were sparkling--it was beautiful in the woods.
I'm not much of a naturalist, so I can't identify which animal made these tracks. Can anyone help? One thing was for sure, they seemed to enjoy traveling down the trail, often two or three abreast! Whatever it is, it seems to have a long tail.
For most of the day, I would not see anyone, so I amused myself with what I could see.
Beartown State Forest is a rugged place with lots of wildlife, especially beavers, who have a masterpiece here:
This is a massive pond, damned at the southern end by the usual small logs, branches, leaves, etc., but it also has a fallen tree perfectly placed on top of the damn. The only way for that to have gotten there was for the beavers to drop it precisely there. They are truly amazing engineers.
The view from South Mt. Wilcox includes the Catskills in the distance.
The only other hiker I met today was Iceberg, heading north as I was heading south. He started last September and only needs to get to New Hampshire to complete his thru hike. Alas, stupid me failed to take his photo, duh.
By the end of the hike, I was pretty bushed. I think two days of hiking in the snow, plus the cumulative miles are taking their toll. Perhaps it is time to cut back a bit on the daily mileage to let the body recover.
Route from my Suunto.
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