Tower Mountain and Berry Hill, Massachusetts
March 7, 2009 at 8:51 pm adk46r2783 4 comments
Today, I led another Schenectady ADK hike to a section of the Taconic Crest Trail. Several of us are pursuing a patch from the Taconic Hiking Club for completion of all trail sections in calendar winter. Today’s section was about 5.5 miles from Tower Mountain Road north to Potter Mountain Road, off NY/MA43 near Hancock, MA. This hike was entirely in Massachusetts, though other sections of the trail meander back and forth across the state line as they follow the ridge top.
The snow on the ridge was 8-12″ deep, and soft, mushy, and wet. It was like breaking trail in mashed potatoes, and provided a fairly strenuous outing. On the positive side, temps were near 50F with a light wind and lots of sun, so it was a beautiful spring-like day to be out. Early in the hike, we summited Tower Mountain, where I consumed the day’s first cheeseburger. My hiking mates were quite entertained by this compulsion, having never heard of it before.
Soon thereafter, we found a nice dry picnic table overlooking Berry Pond in the Pittsfield State Forest, and stopped there for lunch before continuing north. Just north of the lunch spot, we reached Berry Hill, where I consumed the day’s second cheeseburger. Unfortunately, I had packed my camera with dead batteries, so no pics for this outing, not for the cheeseburger stops or for the wonderful views. Stupid.
There is a lot of up and down on this ridge, and the ups were especially tough given the snow conditions and the unbroken trail. It took us about 5 hours to cover the 5.5 miles, and we’d all had enough when we reached the pre-positioned car on Potter Mountain Road.
Entry filed under: Massachusetts Summits.
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Summit Cheeseburger 
1.
sirloinofbeef | March 10, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Nice two-fer. Too bad about the camera – I would have liked to see some photos.
2.
adk46r2783 | March 15, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Yeah, and I like posting them too, but &#$% happens. I may nab a couple more peaks this week, and will certainly be smarter about it.
Point of clarification: Are photos required for summits to show up as completed?
3.
sirloinofbeef | March 16, 2009 at 8:30 am
Managment insists on photos if you’re hiking alone. But since you were with other folks – it’s okay. But I like seeing photos.
sirloinofbeef
4.
adk46r2783 | March 16, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Fair enough, and perfectly reasonable. I’ll be putting up another two-fer from today, sometime later, with pictures. Please check these two off along with those two new ones whenever you get a chance. Thanks.