A Pleasant Evening of Mild Adventure

I only had time for a short hike this week, so rather than continue south as I had been for an 8ish mile hike along section 2 of the Massachusetts New England Trial, I went for a shorter 4 mile out and back trip to complete section 1. Once I return to complete section 2, I will have finished the southernmost 8 out of 18 sections of the trail in Massachusetts. It’ll be a little trickier from there on out though, since the drives to the trailhead will get quite a bit longer.

I arrived at the parking lot a little more than an hour before sunset with my usual backpack, my twenty pound sack of training rice, and a reduced basal insulin. The weather was pleasantly cool as I walked up the road a little ways to find the actual trailhead. I ended up passing through what seemed to be someone’s backyard before reaching what felt like normal trail. Continuing along the top of a short ridge, I could see an archery club through the trees to one side, and eventually dropped down and joined up with a maze of crisscrossing gravel roads. A series of numbered boards where posted on various trees beside the path, and based on their vaguely arrowhead-like shape, I suspect they may have been connected to the archery club somehow.

The hike after that was a standard woodland jaunt, mostly following along the ridge of a couple of hills. It was pretty but unspectacular, most of the views being blocked by surrounding trees. At one point though between the two hills, a gasline cut (or something similar) through the woods did open up to provide a slightly wider view of the landscape.

This far south from Mt Tom and the Mt Holyoke Range, the hills aren’t quite so large or spectacular, but they try to make up for it with a pastoral sense of calm and smaller scenic moments. I generally prefer large and spectacular, but right near the end of the section, the tree shrouded trail opened up again. A boardwalk stretched across a large pond that was worthy of pause. Dried grey-brown cattails choked most of the water, while thick pads of green vegetation covered other sections. Staring over the edge of the boardwalk into the water, the complexity of roots and other life in the still water fascinated me.

On the other side of the boardwalk, a well groomed gravel trail led the last few hundred feet to the end of the section and my turn around point. The Connecticut border was still about 0.1 miles further on, but that would have to wait for another time.

The return journey was much like the way out, but this time the sun was trying to set on me. I had brought my headlamp in case it got dark, so I wasn’t concerned and still paused to appreciate some of the smaller things. A pretty pine branch. Some bright red berries still clinging to their bush. The setting sun bathed everything in a beautiful reddish glow.

The sun finally reached the horizon just as I was returned to the cut in the forest where I could appreciate it. I paused to bask in the evening glow as it vanished behind the distant hills. It had been a pleasantly cool, relatively windless evening thus far, but the moment the sun vanished from sight, a cold breeze blew through the trees, prompting me to consider donning my coat. The coincidence of the setting sun and the wind was absolutely impeccable, and regardless of what reasonable meteorological explanations exist, it was wonderfully dramatic in its timing.

The remaining journey was cool and pleasant, but nothing captured my attention the way the sunset had. I enjoyed the early twilight though, and made it back to the car before I needed to use my headlamp. I returned my basal insulin to it’s regular level a few minutes before getting back to the car to help reduce my post hike blood sugar increase. Overall, it was another wonderful couple of hours spent in the woods, and I was still left with plenty of time to finish all my other work for the day.

Hike Details:

• Date: November 27, 2021
• Distance: 4.2 miles
• Route: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/massachusetts/ma-net-section-1