Mount Greylock
Massachusetts
May 2014
Through the burbs and suburbs and exurbs we go until we get to North Adams where we spend the night. North Adams in Massachusetts, I believe, is the location of the southern terminus of the Long Trail, the oldest long distance hiking trail in the U S of A. It was completed in 1930, seven years before the Appalachian Trail. The footpath runs 272 miles from just south of the bottom of Vermont to the Canadian border at the top. They call the Long Trail Vermont’s footpath in the wilderness. I’ve known that the forests of Vermont, the Green Mountain State, are as good as it gets for wilderness, but over the years, a few backpacking trips on the Long Trail showed me even more than I already appreciated about this natural state.
In North Adams, I wanted to verify that we were in the same town as the terminus of the Long Trail since we were so close to the state border. Once home, I called the Green Mountain Visitor Center. I was able to leave a message. Jen returned my call…
“Hello, this is Jen from the Green Mountain Club. Is Kenn there?”
I start with, “Yah, that’s me.” I jumped right into it, “Jen, do you spell your name with one N or two Ns?”
Jen says, “One N. J – E – N.”
“Oh, okay. My name is spelled K – E – N – N.”
“Yeah,” she says, “I know some Jenns who spell it that way.”
I said, “All the cool kids do it. You can be a cool kid too.”
Then she told me exactly what I wanted to know. Technically, the southern terminus of the Long Trail is at the border between the two states, Vermont and Massachusetts. But there is no road access to this spot — it’s plumb in the middle of the forest. Clarksburg State Forest to be exact. Where the Clarksburg State Forest and the Green Mountain National Forest meet, at the state line, to be exacter.
“You can hike 3.8 miles to the Long Trail on the Appalachian Trail from North Adams or you can do 2.7 miles to get there on the Pine Cobbler Trail off Pine Cobbler Road in Williamstown.”
Pine Cobbler Trail off Pine Cobbler Road. Hmm… It’s that Lou Gehrig’s Disease thing again, y’know, Lou Gehrig dying of Lou Gehrig’s Disease…
If you’ve talked to any of the folks who work with organizations that administer hiking trails, especially the volunteers, you may have noticed that they all have a sprightly energy in their voices. Jen sure did. So much so that I’ll bet she’s spelling her name J – E – N – N now. It’s easy to picture these folks sitting or standing at their desks, wearing forest green clothing and their hiking boots. Their fully loaded packs are propped up on the wall by the door with their hiking poles leaning on the packs. At any moment, they may grab their packs and rush out of the building and onto the trail. This is exactly how Jenn sounds to me. I mean, why be at your desk when you can be on the trail! Right, Jenn?
