Training Log: Fanatic

Hike to Tom Ball Mountain and back:

Berkshire Natural Resources Council has received rights of way to access their Tom Ball Mountain property and is currently building some new trails that will open later this year.

However, there are some trails that already exist and they lead to Tom Ball Mountain--the only "problem" was that until these rights of way were secured, one was trespassing on private property.

Nonetheless, I wanted to hike to Tom Ball today and to see what kind of new trails were being made. The folks working on the trails are actually from Greenagers, under contract to BNRC. They had marked the route with red flagging tape, which I followed for a while, but then lost and just continued up the linear trail to the summit of Tom Ball.

On my way back, I noticed a narrow trail leading down to Long Pond and decided that was worth exploring. Much to my delight, I ran into the Greenagers who were building some switchbacks, which involved moving a lot of big rocks to create a decent trail. See the photo.

I believe these new trails will be beautiful and we can all finally have access without worrying about trespassing.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11249862233

Hike south of Reservoir Road:

A beautiful day and dry trails were on order today. Met one mountain biker and a lady walking her two dogs.

I spent some time clearing the trails of branches and small trees, of which there seems to be an unending supply. But if everyone would just do that, we'd all enjoy the trails a wee bit more.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11242000022

Walk in downtown Pittsfield:

Cold and windy while walking on the sidewalks of beautiful Pittsfield. ;-)

Alford Springs Reserve Hike:

Hike with eight students from Bard at Simon's Rock College. Very fortunate that the rain stopped and didn't reappear during the hike.

We met a woman with two Rhodesian Ridgebacks off-lease, but they were well behaved. They are gorgeous, fast dogs and I'd love to own one someday.

Couple of the students were in no rush, so the pace was a bit slower than I had expected.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11225961528

Short walk in the neighborhood along East Street and back to the condo. Fortunately, the rain had stopped.