After visiting a small summit bump on Mount Everett's west ridge recently, I wanted to go back to check out another small summit bump, this one on the east ridge. A sunny but cool early spring day of exploring would be a nice, albeit temporary, escape from the uncertainty out in the real world. Parked at the gated entrance on the Mount Everett access road and headed out, elevation 1780 feet. Quietly ascended the access road under a canopy of eastern hemlocks for just under 7/10 of a mile up to the shores of gorgeous Guilder Pond. The pond sits at a high elevation of 2042 feet, one of the highest bodies of water in the commonwealth.
The road walk offers up up sublime views of the pond. There is a one mile loop trail around the pond, but I would be getting to that later.
My first objective of the day was to try to find the open rock atop a 2300 foot summit bump on Mount Everett's east ridge. Once past the pond and just beyond the upper summer parking area I headed off trail into the woods, hoping to stay out of the mountain laurel, which are infamous in this area of the Berkshires. Things started pretty well, passing through a mix of open hardwoods and conifers.
No matter how hard you try to avoid mountain laurel in the southern Berkshires, you will probably still run into some. This wasn't quite the worst I've seen, but there were some thick spots. Luckily I managed to make my way towards the summit bump, slowly but surely.
As I emerged into a clearing just below the high point, I found decent views to the east.
East views from a clearing below the summit.
I carefully wound my way around towards some nice SE views as well.
A zoom view down towards Twin Lakes in the Litchfield hills of Connecticut.
Finally made my way up to the high point of this small summit bump and found all the open rock I was looking for!
From the open rock I enjoyed great views of its parent peak-Mount Everett, rising over 300 feet above.
On my return I stuck close to the east ridge and had a much easier time, passing through mostly open conifers and only hitting a brief thick mountain laurel section.
Once back to the trail, I finally decided to do the pond loop. This is a very pleasant trail that circles the pond, offering up several fantastic photo ops. My favorite spot was the rocky clearing and water view towards Mount Everett. What a spot!!
Completed the one mile loop before returning to the car via the access road. A very nice 4.5 miles RT with 850 feet of ascent.
Today's Route below. Red=Ascent Blue=Descent(return)
No comments:
Post a Comment