Hey all.. Got home last night after about a 4.5 hour hike up Mt. Greylock. It happens to be the highest peak in Massachusetts, and I'm fortunate it's only about 10 minutes away from my house.
I went up the Thunderbolt Trail, an old ski trail apparently used quite frequently back in the 50's. Here's a shot of the whole mountain I took from a couple years back:
There's a big rocky patch you can see on the above photo - the thunderbolt trail goes up to the right of that.
I'm not in bad shape physically, but that trail is a whopper with a backpack with camera, lenses & crap, plus extra shirts, water/juice, snacks, and the tripod. I really have to weigh the whole setup and see if I can pare anything down.. Thank goodness I took the extra shirts too - by the time I got to the top my inner layer was soaked - so I removed it all and replaced with the dry shirts - I was very comfortable.
Anyway, here are the pictures from this trip:
1. Looking out from near the top of the trail:
2. War Memorial tower on the top of the mountain:
3. Sunset - I was starting to get fidgety because I know the side I have to go back down faces east and thus gets dark quickly.
4. One more before I started my ride back down the trail. I brought a small sled with me called a swiss bob. I rode that down the less-steep portions...
I walked/jogged down the steeper parts because it was too dark and I didn't want to break something.
5. One last shot just before I got back to the car at the bottom of the mountain.
As I was taking my stuff off my legs felt like jello. Actually I've groaned quite a bit getting around the house today, that was a strenuous trip. But well worth it, except for a few pictures which were ruined by interference from a cell tower on the top of the mountain. (caused nasty diagonal banding on some of the pics which I didn't notice until I got home - *grumble* - will post one of those shortly in this thread.