Mt. Holyoke Sat 7/21

Eric Barbarossa and I met at the M-M trailhead at 6am on Saturday. I wasn't late. Then again, it's a 20 minute ride for me from Easthampton, MA. We had a map and some water bottles and a cell phone in case we got lost or stuck or couldn't find a trail and needed rescuing. We planned to chuck the water bottles and map and compass into the woods once the rescuers came so that they wouldn't think we came prepared and they'd empathize with us and hug us to dry our tears.

So, it didn't take all that long to get to the summit house area. I'd been here before but I don't think Mr. Eric has. And for those of you who don't know, there's a few decent ledges along the way... nice views out to Pioneer Valley, Mt. Tom and some hills beyond. We kept walking past the summit house, down to Taylor Notch and walked across all the 7 Sisters. Past Taylor Notch is where things get really interesting. The trail gets a lot less use, the woods have a more wild feel and there's a lot of interesting ups and downs (like, 100 of them!) If you're the type of person who hates going up and down like that in 200' spurts I wouldn't go on this trail. But I like them, and I hope Eric did, and it was a freakin' beautiful day and all.

Past the "Low Area" and up Mt. Hitchcock and finally Bare Mountain (nice views!) we figured that we'd take this "Robert Frost Trail" down the mountain. The Robert Frost Trail, as it turns out, is more like a bushwhack that someone blazed. Every now and then you see a foot bed, and once I saw steps, but for the most part you follow a orange blazed path through open woods. We were searching for this "Lithia Springs" trail as it's called which would take us to the Dry Brook Trail and back to our cars. At first we weren't sure where the hell we were. The trail opened up to a jeep road but the blazing went away. We were looking for yellow blazes for the Lithia Springs trail but eventually we ended up bushwhacking for a while, heading in some direction, Eric got his off-trail fix, and we found another jeep road and this took us to the Lithia Spring Trail.

Then it was kinda like, WTF? At least the Lithia Spring Trail was blazed yellow (the previous "trails" that we were on had a lot of "left or right" decisions to make) but eventually it turns into a maze of unmarked trails, jeep roads and whatnot. Plus, it was pretty swampy down low and we got swarmed by 'skeeters. That kept us moving. Mind you though that I had 2 maps -- both showed different trails in this area so we just kept walkin' figgerin' that we'd get somewhere. After a while we ended up on something called "Lithia Spring Cutoff" -- not on the map but we saw a ranger driving his dune-buggy on it. Once back on the trail we got into a drier, slightly more breezy area which kept the 'skeeters away and we got to slow down and admire the beautiful woods that we were walking through. After that the Dry Brook Trail (wicked nice) and the car.

The views are ok, and sometimes you get car sounds, but when you stop hearing the cars you're usually in a nice area of the trails. The M-M trail past the Holyoke Summit house is gorgeous and some of those trails down low were just as lovely. Not much in terms of wild life today but I think we had a nice 7 hour hike with something like, 3000' elevation gain. Not bad. I really like hiking in this area.

-Dr. Wu

I had a pleasant drive through farm country on my way. It's been a couple decades since I saw tobacco under cultivation.

It was hard not to get distracted away from the trail. There were plenty of enticing ledges, with or without views.

Dr Wu appropriately re-named the string of paint blazes the "Robert Downey Jr. Trail." It started out sunny and pleasant, but ended up wandering aimlessly in a swamp. We had previously been enjoying a conversation about the merits of paying protection to squirrels, but the mosquitoes kept us walking at top speed for about an hour. The speed march and the exhaust fumes of the ranger's patrol vehicle eventually took their toll. We stopped so I could take a much needed breather.

I recovered enough to enjoy the rightly famous Dry Brook Trail, despite the presence of several hikers shamelessly decked out in cotton.

With many hikes, it feels good to return to the car. The wafting scent of a dairy barn was a real morale booster.

It has been a few years but I have hike in that area mostly along the M&M Trail. There are some nice hikes and decent views around there. People like to think that M&M is for Metacomet and Monadnock, but sometimes it is for Mud and Mosquitos!

Barbarossa said:

Dr Wu appropriately re-named the string of paint blazes the "Robert Downey Jr. Trail." It started out sunny and pleasant, but ended up wandering aimlessly in a swamp. We had previously been enjoying a conversation about the merits of paying protection to squirrels, but the mosquitoes kept us walking at top speed for about an hour. The speed march and the exhaust fumes of the ranger's patrol vehicle eventually took their toll. We stopped so I could take a much needed breather.

I recovered enough to enjoy the rightly famous Dry Brook Trail, despite the presence of several hikers shamelessly decked out in cotton.

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I too was a bit shocked and dismayed by the reckless behavior of a number of hikers, dressed in blue jeans, cotton tops and even sandals! Had that ranger on his dune-buggy stopped I would have provided him with full descriptions of these careless offenders -- especially the guy with sandals! No foot protection = death and disease on the trail! And although I didn't look, I suspect the guy with sandals had cotton undie-roos on! Eric?

I thought about but don't remember the comment about Robert Downey Jr. because it sounded like Robert Frost somehow. Had the trail been blazed with cocaine the description would have been right on the money. I should say that we neither saw Robert Frost or Robert Downey Jr. on this trail. In fact, I didn't see much evidence of anyone traveling this particular trail during this millennium, cocaine or no cocaine. Apparently this Robert Frost Trail is supposed to link up with other sections of the Robert Frost Trail for quite a ways -- I hear that I've even been on a section near Puffers Pond which is in Amherst, I think.

Anyway, today I have >100 mosquito bites all over. I've never had this many and I have to say that it's quite uncomfortable -- I've been sucking on a tube of Benadryl Cream all day long and I still itch pretty durn bad. I've never used Deet or any of that stuff -- not because I'm afraid of cancer or any of that stuff, but just because I don't bother, what's a few skeeter bites? Well, I actually asked Eric if he had any spray to put on but I think he drank it all. Not really a big deal though as the bites will dry up in a few days and I'll be human again.

-Dr. Wu

Good work, adventurers. Glad to see you are getting out and hiking, Wu.

I seem to recall hiking along the M&M in that area but since I've moved out west I tried to purge all memories of Massachussetts.

hee-hee - you got caught by the RF! There's a guidebook for it, and it even describes the route, but the fine print shows it hasn't actually yet been developed in that area. That, along with the number of jeep roads, can makes the area a bit confusing.

Some call the ridgeline the 7 sisters and their 10 cousins too. Dugan 3.8-legs much enjoys the scent of the cesspit of the nearby cow farm <shudder>

Glad you made it out alive.

Dugan said:

hee-hee - you got caught by the RF! There's a guidebook for it, and it even describes the route, but the fine print shows it hasn't actually yet been developed in that area. That, along with the number of jeep roads, can makes the area a bit confusing.

Some call the ridgeline the 7 sisters and their 10 cousins too. Dugan 3.8-legs much enjoys the scent of the cesspit of the nearby cow farm <shudder>

Glad you made it out alive.

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Yeah, it's not developed in that area. There was no definable path at all and if there weren't blazing it would be a regular bushwhack. The funny thing is that at one point the path took us through and area that had some log steps. I didn't necessarily mind the fact that it was more like a bushwhack, in fact I'm surprised Eric was able to stay on a trail as long as he did!! But once we hit the jeep road there was no more blazing and we ended up wandering off of it. I believe we picked it up again after about 20-30 minutes of 'whackin but I sure as hell can't be sure: one unmarked jeep road looks just the same as another unmarked jeep road.

I know that it's called 7 Sisters but the 10 cousins is funny. The map that I have shows about 20 peaks along that ridge. I mean, it's not like Devil's Path or anything -- those are short, <200' ups and downs for the most part. The cols are generally very pretty areas and the trail itself is a lot of fun. Actually, M-M didn't stand for Mud and Mosquitoes it was the Lithia Spring Trail that had all the skeeters. My bites are pretty much gone (sucking on a whole tube of Benadryl works but the stuff tastes gross) so I don't feel so bad.

Overall, for me since I live 20 minutes away it is an awesome hike. You get in to the woods which are pretty, and sometimes you even get away from the car sounds.

-Dr. Wu

Seven sisters, nieces and nephews and maybe cousins!

I have done the Seven Sisters hike several times, and have always knew that there were some extra bumps along the way. The first time that I ever hiked it was on a snowy Veteran's Day! Have led hikes there, and everyone always enjoys it. It is a good early May hike, and also very pretty in the fall!

It's a great local resource. There's a group of us intermittently putting together a section hike of the RF. With SilentCal's local knowledge, we prescouted the section off the ridge, luckily he knew the mess of jeep roads well.

The log steps are on the developed section. If memory serves, it is blazed well descending from the ridge (the eastern end - is that Bare or Hitchcock?), follows a shoulder to the lowlands to hit a jeep road, then the blazes disappear until you hit another jeep road.

The section that is described but not developed is the descent to Lithia from the western end of the ridge. Since we had a group, the concensus was to follow trailed routes (sorry, don't remember what we followed) rather than trying to 'whack the route outlined in the guide. We found some markers in that area while prescouting. None appeared to flag the expected route.

Have you explored Mt Tom yet?

Dugan said:

Have you explored Mt Tom yet?

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Yeah, Mt. Tom is 5 minutes from my house so I have explored it somewhat. I've mostly contained myself to the M-M Trail on Mt. Tom because it's such a no-brainer but I should start on the other trails and whatnot.

Anyone know where the plane crash site is on Mt. Holyoke? How about this underground military bunker supposedly located somewhere on the mountainside?

-Dr. Wu

This comes up every so often. I remember driving by the old SAC bunker all the time as a kid. It was never a secret. It's now a book depository and archive for Amherst College.

Oh, it's on "Military Road" off Rte 116 in the Notch.


Get some Atkins cider doughnuts while you're nearby.

dr_wu002 said:

Yeah, Mt. Tom is 5 minutes from my house so I have explored it somewhat. I've mostly contained myself to the M-M Trail on Mt. Tom because it's such a no-brainer but I should start on the other trails and whatnot.

Anyone know where the plane crash site is on Mt. Holyoke? How about this underground military bunker supposedly located somewhere on the mountainside?

-Dr. Wu

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Nope about the crash on Holyoke. In case you don't know, there's a memorial for a crash on Mt Tom. The easiest way to find that one is to take the road down from the summit. It isn't far. Once you're there, there's two trails. If you're in the road with the memorial to your left, the path that continues beyond the memorial rejoins the M-M trail on the ridge. Try as I might, I can never spot that one if I'm up on the ridge. The other way will rejoin the M-M closer to the parking area on 141. The memorial is sad - servicemen coming home from WWII only to die on home soil.

dr_wu002 said:

At first we weren't sure where the hell we were. The trail opened up to a jeep road but the blazing went away.

Then it was kinda like, WTF? At least the Lithia Spring Trail was blazed yellow (the previous "trails" that we were on had a lot of "left or right" decisions to make) but eventually it turns into a maze of unmarked trails, jeep roads and whatnot.
-Dr. Wu

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I ran into this same problem a few month ago. The "new" maps were not yet printed. The ranger told me that they have a lot of lost and confused hikers in this area because of all the NEMBA unmarked trails.
They did a really nice job placing numbers at all the hiking trail junctions and they encourage people to call if they can't quite get their bearings. They will then ask you what your trail number is and advise you on how to get out of there.
Can you imagine. Blazes AND numbers
I was impressed with how friendly the staff and rangers were that I spoke to.
It's a fun place to hike.

Maddy said:

Can you imagine. Blazes AND numbers
I was impressed with how friendly the staff and rangers were that I spoke to.
It's a fun place to hike.

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There are numbers at the junctions to the trails in the Western part of the Blue Hills where there is a maze of about 50,000 trails. When I'd ride my bike there I'd run into this phenomenon where I'd see all the other cyclists parked at junctions (along with me) staring at the map trying to figure out where the hell we were!

The junctions on Mt. Holyoke were well marked with these numbers but since neither of the maps that I had utilized these numbers they turned out to be pretty useless. I'll find a map that has the numbers on it. But regardless, we made it out with little difficulty, numbers or not. Worst comes to worst you just find the powerline cut and walk back to you car that way.

-Dr. Wu

dr_wu002 said:

Worst comes to worst you just find the powerline cut and walk back to you car that way.

-Dr. Wu

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that's pretty much what I ended up doing the first time I tried following the Lithia Springs Tr back to my car after traversing the ridge.

btw, I highly recommend the Black Rock Tr

rocksnrolls said:

that's pretty much what I ended up doing the first time I tried following the Lithia Springs Tr back to my car after traversing the ridge.

btw, I highly recommend the Black Rock Tr

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It wasn't too bad at this point. Fresh yellow blazes and stuff on the Lithia Spring Trail. Except for the bypass which we just followed because we really didn't care one way or another, it was easy to follow. It was the Robert Frost Trail that was a little weird.

One thing I Have to say is that I'm glad (and so is Eric, I think) that I wasn't nekkid on this trip. The M-M trail beyond the Holyoke Summit House is kinda wilderness-like in some parts, small corridor, lots of brush on the trail. I like it. Then the Robert Frost Trail was a blazed bushwhack. Then all them skeeters on the Lithia Spring Trail. I'd be dead!

-Dr. Wu

The Lithia Springs trail is in far better condition now than it was a few years ago. The blazes that Dugan, RocksnRolls and I saw are fairly new and there are now actually signs at the trail junctions. It gets a lot of heavy ATV use but thankfully they stay off the ridgeline. The Black Rock Trail is indeed a hidden gem as well as the Mt. Hitchcock Trail.

The last time I was in the area with Rocksnrolls, he mentioned a fairly flat-topped knob that rose just to the west of Lithia Springs. That's the next area I'm going to explore when I get a chance.


On Mt. Tom, the side trail to the plane crash site is just below the main summit. Where a cleft in the rock appears to the cliffside in a narrow col, look directly opposite it for small orange half dollar sized blazes on the trees. That herd path will take you to an old pumping station and then the plane crash memorial.

Saw the new park maps on Sunday. The numbered signs are now shown on the maps.