Steadman Pond and Unnamed Ridge(Town of Monterey, Berkshires)

Following a dreary, rainy afternoon, I decided to try to take advantage of a window of clearing in the early evening by doing a little exploration at Steadman Pond at Hudson-Howard near the Monterey/ Tyringham town line in the southern Berkshires.  The 790 acre property is conserved and managed by the Berkshire Natural Resources Center and has a marked parking lot and trailhead off of Tyringham Road(Elevation 1325 feet).  

A short path crosses through the edge of an open but extremely muddy field and drops down to 13 acre Steadman Pond, the property's centerpiece.  Showers and light drizzle were passing by just to the north as I got started but it was nothing blue skies as I circled around the edge of the north end of the pond.

 

Just below the dam at the north end of the pond, a simple rock hop got me across the outlet stream and into the nearby woods, where I was able to pick up a good logging road heading up the steep slopes above. 

There are multiple logging roads that criss-cross these woods, with some being nearly impossible to follow, so I simply bushwhacked my way up towards the ridge, garnering some decent through the trees views to the east.

After hitting the edge of public land, I turned more northerly and headed up through an increasingly dark, coniferous forest to one of the wooded high spots on the ridge.  Due to time restraints I didn't hit the true high spot on the ridge, which is well over 1900 feet but also sits nearly a mile away.

From the high point on the hike-my nondescript 1680 foot "high spot"- I headed over towards the steep east facing slopes, where I was able to manage some more nice screened views.  With the sun quickly setting in the sky, however, I decided to make my way back down the steep slopes and towards the pond.

Once back off the slopes of the ridge, it was an easy rock hop across the outlet and then a walk back to the car on the wet and muddy mowed path.  Took one last look back at the southern end of the ridge high above the pond from the field by the car.

Got back to the parking lot just prior to sunset and lucked out by staying mostly dry.  A nice little 2.5 mile exploration with just under 500 feet of combined ascent.  Didn't see another soul in these quiet woods.