Alander Mt-Mt.Frissell-Mt.Race-Mr.Everett Loop

We went backpacking last weekend. 18 miles, +/-4000 feet in 2 days.

This time the loop covers four mountains in three states, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut. 

Look at the sign!

First we started at headquarter of the Mt.Washington State Forest. The first mountain is of the first day was Alander Mountain. To go there, we started walking on Alander Mtn trail. At the begging of Alander Mtn trail, there is a sign. The sign says "Alcohol Prohibited". It reminded me of Mr.R. He loves whiskey at camping. He brings whiskey for backpacking trip and loves to drink with friends at night. This rule must make him sad.

It is a nice meadow from the beginning and immediately after walking, I found many spring flowers. They are very colorful and joyful. A lot of bees and bugs are enjoying nectar inside the flowers. It was especially nice to see white trillium. Last weekend I saw red trillium. It was good to see different color version. 

Compared to New Hampshire, spring is coming in Western Mass much earlier. So this hike there was no snow at all for the first time of the season for our hikes. It was very nice to hike without microspikes. Monorails by spring snow is kind of hard to walk and slow me down. 

Also, here, there are many more flowers. I felt spring is actually here finally.

Alander Mountain

Then we reached at the top of first mountain, Alander mountain. Actually...to be honest, I didn't expect a good view here in Western Mass. However, the view was really good!

In this area, the trees are light green. Mountains are covered with trees, but they looks like meadow. I like this light green rolling hills. It actually did remind me of California East Bay continuous green hills after rain. The color is kind of similar to them. Also there is a lake over the light green mountains. It looked like Ed Levin County park in Milpitas in California. It was a nice surprise.  We ate lunch with this view (smoked salmon sandwich...my favorite), then headed for the next peak. 

Next peak is Mt.Frissell. We went off trail accidentally for a little (Mr.N always takes me off trail), but back to the trail soon. Then the trail went to NY state. Then, soon the trail comes to Mass gain. THEN, trail goes in to Connecticut. The trail has the highest point of Connecticut with little view but a pile of rocks. Then again, the trail comes back to Mass, then goes to CT (repeat, repeat, repeat). This loop goes through three states! 

There is a good view point before Mr.Frissell, and we took a break here. The peak itself doesn't have much view, so we carried on hiking without stopping. 

Then we reached to the campsite, Sages Ravine campground. There are about ten platforms to pitch a tent. In summer, there is a caretaker and probably costs money, but not now. Free is the best. We enjoyed dinner (Japanese curry) this time. In Japan, the most popular camping food for kids' and family camping is curry and rice. Already it is delicious on normal days, and ten times tastier on camping. 

The second day in the tent around 5 a.m., the rain sound woke me up. 

I thought, "sigh, I don't want to hike 9 miles in rain!"

Luckily, the rain stopped. 

The morning portion of the park was full of water. I saw very nice falls. The most impressive one is in the picture. Very long  and falling through green moss covered rocks. It is great. The thing I can't convey here is sounds. Massive water sound from right and left feel good in walking.

These are from snow and also from recent rains. Indeed New England has a lot of rain this spring. For example, 22 days in April was rainy days in Boston, which was record rainy April. 

Once we took shoes and crossed the river due to amount of water. The water was sooooo cold and by the time I reached the other side of river, my feet were numb. It reminded me of the hike in Paria Canyon. 

Overall, this backpacking was nice and a good workout!

週末にバックパッキングへ出かけた。一泊2日で29km, +/- 1210 mの行程。今回はマサチューセッツ州、ニューヨーク州、コネチカット州の３州をまたぐループ。このループでは４つの山に登る。

１枚目の写真がトレイルヘッド。サインにアルコール禁止と書いてある。もしMrRがいたらさぞかし悲しむことだろう。なぜなら彼はキャンプでウィスキーやワインを飲むのが大好きだからだ。たとえ重くても必ずアルコールを持参するのだ。

最初の部分は草原。そして春の花がたくさん見られた。白のトリリウムを見ることができてラッキーだった。先週は赤のトリリウムを見たので今年はすでに２色見れた。

そして最初の山はアランダーマウンテン。４枚目の写真が頂上から見た所。意外にもすごく綺麗な景色でびっくりした。マサチューセッツの西方面でのハイキングはあまりしていないのでこっちの方面ももっと攻めてい行きたいところ。山は木々に覆われているが木の色は薄い黄緑。なので遠くから見ると草原のように見える。それがメルヘンで美しい。カリフォルニアのエドレビン公園のような美しさがある。すごくいい景色だったのでランチをここでとり景色を十分に楽しんだ。ランチは最近お気に入りで毎日作っているスモークサーモンサンドイッチ。

そしてその後トレイルはニューヨーク州に入りまたマサチューセッツに戻り、そしてコネチカットに入り、と３州を行ったり来たり。面白い。コネチカットの一番標高が高いところも通った。特に景色も見えなかったが。。。

そしてキャンプグラウンドへ。ここはプラットフォームが１０個程度ありそこにテントを立てる仕組み。夏はキャンプホストがいて多分有料がが今はタダ。やっぱりキャンプはタダでないとね。

そしてカレーライスを食べて就寝。

朝、雨の音で目が覚めた。雨の中１４キロも歩きたくないなぁと思っていると幸運にも雨が止んだ。

この日はたくさんの滝を見た。一番印象的だったのは岩の中を落ちていく滝（写真）。美しい。苔に覆われた岩とその間を通っていく滝が見事な絵になっている。雪解けと最近の雨で滝がそこかしこで大きくなっている。

ニューイングランドでは春の雨が記録的でボストンの4月は22日が雨だったのだ。８０％が雨の日。。。。これは過去最高の雨の日率だそうだ。

あまり期待していないルートと公園だったが、意外にも楽しいバックパッキングとなった。