Wednesday May 29, 16.2mi/26.1km

Cheshire MA (1579.9) to Sherman Brook campsite (1596.1) (MA)

It was a lazy morning in the motel, and I had a pint of ice cream and watched old episodes of the Office. We packed up and got a Lyft back to the trail, which went right by a Dunkin donuts.

After eating way too many donuts, we began the long climb up to Mt Greylock.

As we got higher up, these flowers started appearing everywhere.

And up on the ridge, we were at 3000ft/900m elevation, and the pine forests are back! They smell so good.

In what has become a regular occurrence, there were some bogs, and plank bridges to cross them.

The summit of Mt Greylock has an auto road to the top, so there was signage and infrastructure everywhere.

Just below the summit was a cool alpine pond, and the frogs were making so much noise.

Since there is a road to the top, there is also a monument, interpretive signs, and a cafe. Mt Greylock is 3,491ft, the highest point in Massachusetts.

The view from the top was less than optimal.

We walked over to a stone shelter and had lunch. The sun came out!

Then we did the 6 mile hike downhill to town, where I had a package waiting at the post office. And since there was a mexican restaurant nearby, we had to stop and get burritos and margaritas.

The walk out of North Adams was interesting, crossing a bridge with handprints all over.

The river under the bridge looked kind of murky.

And just before reentering the forest, the final quirk was walking up someone’s driveway!

The last mile was gradually uphill in a forest, and we stopped at 6:30pm to camp at a designated site with some tent platforms. The sound of the nearby creek is nice sleeping noise.