M&M Trail 1

August 22, 2012:  SO IT BEGINS.

First blaze!  August 22, 2012.

- ed. note - I didn't start this blog until we were about 25% through the M&M, so the dates for the first several posts will be significantly later than the actual hike dates.

The Metacomet-Monadnock trail is blazed white, just like another long-distance trail I have some experience with (see http://tenfeetofcrazy.blogspot.com/).  Which makes it kinda oddly reminiscent of that grand trip.  The biggest difference now is that I have Peanut on my back and there is no ultra-lite way to travel with her.  In fact, she'll keep getting heavier as we go.  But since we are section hikers, we travel without tent, bag, etc: just some water, milk in a thermos, squeezy pouch of pulverized fruit, and some goldfish.  I may share the latter.

For our debut, we drove to the very tiny village of Rising Corner, Mass and parked along Rising Corner Rd., just a few hundred feet north of the Conn. border, which I am happy to report is a peaceful frontier.  I didn't see signs for the blue-blazed Metacomet Trail which travels south towards Hartford, though I believe its initial stretch is a road walk.  Instead, we turned north, away from a yappy retriever who bolted across this luckily mellow road to bark us either 'good luck' or 'get lost'.   (Been a while since I spoke Dog.)

The M&M crossed a field and immediately entered a wild woods, soon crossing a large and submerged swamp area via beautifully made puncheons:

This was a great welcome - not only because you really feel like you are leaving civilization behind, but also because it's evident how much care goes into the maintenance of the M&M.  The Berkshire chapter of the famed Appalachian Mountain Club or AMC, which is New England's - nay America's - premier hiking and trail maintenance organization.

From here we climbed onto the low ridge and followed it for 2 miles to Route 57, mostly on dirt roads that access portions of the Agawam Bowman Archery Club property.  Knowing that helpfully explains the cryptic signs on some of the trees:

Views?  None as of yet, besides a narrow slice west along a power corridor, where we stopped on the return trip for our squeezy pouch and goldfish.  No other hikers seen, but many squirrels and chipmunks in the woods, and frogs and songbirds in the swamp.  All in all, a nice return to long-distance hiking, and a pleasurable start to the M&M.

So we're now at mile 2.3 of 114, though we walked 4.6 miles today.