Rob and I arrived in Williamstown at about 830am, drove Luce Rd/Pattison Road to find the AT trailhead, the area was
blanketed in snow, about 4-6inches. We drove Pattison till it merged with Notch Road up to the Bellows Pipe
trailhead looking for the parking area where we knew some fellow VFTT'ers would have left some cars. Since this
was our first time to the area, we did not know that the parking area was actually up the hill to the right, so
we went back down to where the AT crosses Pattison Rd just west of the large reservoir. There is a small
parking area there that was filled with snow, it looks like it has room for about 3-4 cars, but hard to tell
with the snow. I would say at this point the temps were in the teens, and occasionally you could grab a glimpse
at the sun, otherwise the sky was pretty grey and over cast. The wind would whip around, but it was not too
bad down low, but the higher you went we found out, it was very cold.
After gearing up, we hit the trail about 9am with Yaktrax on and made our way through some nasty blow downs
and the snow to arrive at the bottom of a very steep portion of the trail. It was about this time that I found
out that my 'winter' hose on hydration bladder does have it's preferred range of operation, and this was not it.
Rob helped me and I had the hose fed under my armpit, through the pit zip and kept inside my coat the rest of the
day; this made all the difference, something to remember to do from now on.
The trail was covered in a fair amount of snow and in some spots, ice that made for slow going; for me at least.
My hiking partner to stay warm really hustled up the trail and made it easier for me, not just because he broke trail,
but that way I did not have to look for the blazes. Many blazes were hidden under the fresh snow on the trees,
and in a few spots we had to do some searching, but nothing were we got horribly lost or anything. It was not
unusual to be knocking the snow off the trees and trying to figure out if 'that' was a blaze 20 or 30 feet away or
more snow in a rectangle shape.
It took about two hours for me to reach the vista that over looks Willamstown and beyond, Rob probably would have
been there much much sooner had he not waited for me along the way. The combination of snow and cold made me
go pretty slow. I was constantly adjusting my Yaktrax on my boots and I could never seem to focus on just
hiking and not adjusting them every few steps. I was getting very cold even though we kept hiking up hill more and
more; since I sweat like a faucet, I wear only a few layers when I hike, and everything was soaked, and the temps
with windchills made for some uncomfortable hiking. I was not completely frozen, but stayed chill for most of the hike.
It made a big difference about half way through swapping out for a dry hat and mittens!
We hit the junction of the Appalachian Trail and Notch Road about 1130am, and I had to bail; there was no way I was
going to be able to summit at my pace, and I would have just held Rob back since he is much stronger hiker. So I
gave him my map, bid him on his way, and I used Notch Road as a bail out instead of heading back up and down
the steep section of the trail we just came up from.
I stopped for a few minutes, swapped out mittens and hat, took a few long swigs off the hydration bladder, snacked on
some jerky and headed down. By being out in the open I was now exposed to more wind then being in the forest proper,
and I was completely zipped up but still had lots of frost and ice on my face, head and glasses. It was very easy heading
as I was on the road, just a stroll, even so it took me about an hour or so to get to the parking area down by Bellows
Pipe trailhead. Along the way the only other tracks I found outside of wildlife, was one set of snow shoe tracks that lead up
from the Bernard Farm trail as it crossed Notch Road. This turned out to the tracks from the solo hiker that Rob joined up
with nearer the summit.
When I arrived at the Bellows Pipe trailhead parking, I noticed another VFTT'ers car and there were two other cars, so
I found out where the parking actually was.
I knew I had a few hours to kill before Rob got back, I took my time strolling down Notch Road enjoying some 'warmer'
weather and the fresh falling snow. A little down the road, a vehicle pulled up and the driver asked if I had just gotten
the pack I was carrying, an REI UL45. I said yes, and asked, 'Alligator Eggs?' The driver looked at me a second, and
started to laugh, it was Jade from VFTT's! She saw me hiking out, saw the bag and thought she would stop and ask. She
had joined Rocksnrolls planned trip that we had hoped to try to meet up with, but she mentioned her pup was not feeling
so good so she was keeping her warm while the others were hiking a modified hike. We chatted for a few, and she offered
me a ride back to our car that was parked at the AT trailhead, and of course I accepted, a warm, truck on a cold afternoon!
She dropped me off, I told her to wish the others my best, and I made quick work of getting out of my wet clothes and into
some toasty warm heavy fleece clothes, pulled out the down coat and the sleeping bag and curled up with some more snacks
and made myself comfy for a few hours of kicking back in the car. A few minutes later Jade and crew came back and we
chatted for a little while before they were going to head out for day and grab some eats. I was tempted to accept their offer
of joining them since Rob was still going to be a while, but since I had the car keys and it would have been a looooong ride home
if I pulled a move like that, I declined and went back to the sleeping bag.
It was not too long though before I got a voicemail from Rob, he had summited by 130pm, and he and the other hiker were on
their way down. By calculating how long it took for us to go up, and the difference from when we split to him topping out, I had
expected to not see him till about 430/5pm... Surprisingly thought by 330pm I had another voicemail from him saying that they
were just at the trailhead and the other hiker was going to drive him back to our spot. I had thought about busting on him for the
ride, but since I had one as well, I let it slide... LOL He told me when he got back about how deep the snow was and that if I had
kept going, I probably would be still up top as it was a struggle for him even. By the way, if you find a Yaktrax Pro somewhere
on the AT north of the summit, let me know, Rob lost his when he was post-holing the deep snow.
We were on the road not that long before 4pm and were on our way to go grab some eats on the ride home. We thought about pizza,
but ended up going for burritos at La Choza Burritos in Great Barrington. If you have not been there, you should stop by if you are
in the area, they only have burritos,and they are real tasty!
Overall this was a great hike, I had other plans, but things fell apart, and since Rob had wanted to go to Greylock for a while, things ended working out for the best in the end. I do look forward to heading back and attempting to summit, maybe this winter, if not, definitely this summer. We both commented about how fun the hike was and that snow shoes would have been the way to go for many sections of the trail. I would have loved them on Notch Road, and I may have tried to summit if I had them. We had talked about taking them, but it was not until you almost in Williamstown. On the ride home it seemed that there was more snow by the afternoon though, we passed through a few snow squalls and saw many more on the ridges around the valley. We did see the tower from Rte 7 on our way home which was pretty cool since I did not get anywhere near it.
blanketed in snow, about 4-6inches. We drove Pattison till it merged with Notch Road up to the Bellows Pipe
trailhead looking for the parking area where we knew some fellow VFTT'ers would have left some cars. Since this
was our first time to the area, we did not know that the parking area was actually up the hill to the right, so
we went back down to where the AT crosses Pattison Rd just west of the large reservoir. There is a small
parking area there that was filled with snow, it looks like it has room for about 3-4 cars, but hard to tell
with the snow. I would say at this point the temps were in the teens, and occasionally you could grab a glimpse
at the sun, otherwise the sky was pretty grey and over cast. The wind would whip around, but it was not too
bad down low, but the higher you went we found out, it was very cold.
After gearing up, we hit the trail about 9am with Yaktrax on and made our way through some nasty blow downs
and the snow to arrive at the bottom of a very steep portion of the trail. It was about this time that I found
out that my 'winter' hose on hydration bladder does have it's preferred range of operation, and this was not it.
Rob helped me and I had the hose fed under my armpit, through the pit zip and kept inside my coat the rest of the
day; this made all the difference, something to remember to do from now on.
The trail was covered in a fair amount of snow and in some spots, ice that made for slow going; for me at least.
My hiking partner to stay warm really hustled up the trail and made it easier for me, not just because he broke trail,
but that way I did not have to look for the blazes. Many blazes were hidden under the fresh snow on the trees,
and in a few spots we had to do some searching, but nothing were we got horribly lost or anything. It was not
unusual to be knocking the snow off the trees and trying to figure out if 'that' was a blaze 20 or 30 feet away or
more snow in a rectangle shape.
It took about two hours for me to reach the vista that over looks Willamstown and beyond, Rob probably would have
been there much much sooner had he not waited for me along the way. The combination of snow and cold made me
go pretty slow. I was constantly adjusting my Yaktrax on my boots and I could never seem to focus on just
hiking and not adjusting them every few steps. I was getting very cold even though we kept hiking up hill more and
more; since I sweat like a faucet, I wear only a few layers when I hike, and everything was soaked, and the temps
with windchills made for some uncomfortable hiking. I was not completely frozen, but stayed chill for most of the hike.
It made a big difference about half way through swapping out for a dry hat and mittens!
We hit the junction of the Appalachian Trail and Notch Road about 1130am, and I had to bail; there was no way I was
going to be able to summit at my pace, and I would have just held Rob back since he is much stronger hiker. So I
gave him my map, bid him on his way, and I used Notch Road as a bail out instead of heading back up and down
the steep section of the trail we just came up from.
I stopped for a few minutes, swapped out mittens and hat, took a few long swigs off the hydration bladder, snacked on
some jerky and headed down. By being out in the open I was now exposed to more wind then being in the forest proper,
and I was completely zipped up but still had lots of frost and ice on my face, head and glasses. It was very easy heading
as I was on the road, just a stroll, even so it took me about an hour or so to get to the parking area down by Bellows
Pipe trailhead. Along the way the only other tracks I found outside of wildlife, was one set of snow shoe tracks that lead up
from the Bernard Farm trail as it crossed Notch Road. This turned out to the tracks from the solo hiker that Rob joined up
with nearer the summit.
When I arrived at the Bellows Pipe trailhead parking, I noticed another VFTT'ers car and there were two other cars, so
I found out where the parking actually was.
I knew I had a few hours to kill before Rob got back, I took my time strolling down Notch Road enjoying some 'warmer'
weather and the fresh falling snow. A little down the road, a vehicle pulled up and the driver asked if I had just gotten
the pack I was carrying, an REI UL45. I said yes, and asked, 'Alligator Eggs?' The driver looked at me a second, and
started to laugh, it was Jade from VFTT's! She saw me hiking out, saw the bag and thought she would stop and ask. She
had joined Rocksnrolls planned trip that we had hoped to try to meet up with, but she mentioned her pup was not feeling
so good so she was keeping her warm while the others were hiking a modified hike. We chatted for a few, and she offered
me a ride back to our car that was parked at the AT trailhead, and of course I accepted, a warm, truck on a cold afternoon!
She dropped me off, I told her to wish the others my best, and I made quick work of getting out of my wet clothes and into
some toasty warm heavy fleece clothes, pulled out the down coat and the sleeping bag and curled up with some more snacks
and made myself comfy for a few hours of kicking back in the car. A few minutes later Jade and crew came back and we
chatted for a little while before they were going to head out for day and grab some eats. I was tempted to accept their offer
of joining them since Rob was still going to be a while, but since I had the car keys and it would have been a looooong ride home
if I pulled a move like that, I declined and went back to the sleeping bag.
It was not too long though before I got a voicemail from Rob, he had summited by 130pm, and he and the other hiker were on
their way down. By calculating how long it took for us to go up, and the difference from when we split to him topping out, I had
expected to not see him till about 430/5pm... Surprisingly thought by 330pm I had another voicemail from him saying that they
were just at the trailhead and the other hiker was going to drive him back to our spot. I had thought about busting on him for the
ride, but since I had one as well, I let it slide... LOL He told me when he got back about how deep the snow was and that if I had
kept going, I probably would be still up top as it was a struggle for him even. By the way, if you find a Yaktrax Pro somewhere
on the AT north of the summit, let me know, Rob lost his when he was post-holing the deep snow.
We were on the road not that long before 4pm and were on our way to go grab some eats on the ride home. We thought about pizza,
but ended up going for burritos at La Choza Burritos in Great Barrington. If you have not been there, you should stop by if you are
in the area, they only have burritos,and they are real tasty!
Overall this was a great hike, I had other plans, but things fell apart, and since Rob had wanted to go to Greylock for a while, things ended working out for the best in the end. I do look forward to heading back and attempting to summit, maybe this winter, if not, definitely this summer. We both commented about how fun the hike was and that snow shoes would have been the way to go for many sections of the trail. I would have loved them on Notch Road, and I may have tried to summit if I had them. We had talked about taking them, but it was not until you almost in Williamstown. On the ride home it seemed that there was more snow by the afternoon though, we passed through a few snow squalls and saw many more on the ridges around the valley. We did see the tower from Rte 7 on our way home which was pretty cool since I did not get anywhere near it.
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