Mount Tom and Campground Jam

Hi Blog! Today is Saturday, July 12, 2014.  The campground is full to the brim in anticipation of tonight's pig roast and live concert. We decided to leave the pool for the kids and head out into the woods for a short hike.

Our campground is not far from the Mt. Tom State Reservation. Mt. Tom boasts unparalleled view of the Connecticut Valley north and south, the Berkshire mountains to the west and the Pelham Hills to the east. This 2,161 acre facility offers 22 miles of hiking and walking trails, so we should be able to keep ourselves busy. Despite all that space, the park road was a little narrow. Here is a photo of Great White about to shimmy between a couple boulders

After parking near the Visitor's Center, we found the trailhead for the M-M Trail. The Metacomet-Monadnock Trail (M-M Trail) is a 114-mile-long hiking trail that traverses the Metacomet Ridge of the Pioneer Valley region of Massachusetts and the central uplands of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The trail cuts through the entire length of the Mt. Tom Reserve passing by a number of scenic views. Here is Dave taking in the view of the Connecticut River Valley looking west.

Our first stop was the Goat Peak Lookout Tower, known as a great location for watching migrating hawks, since birds following the Connecticut River valley flyway make use of the rising air along the mountains.  The platform is not very big, so we had to take turns with other hikers looking for some good views.

Here is Mt. Tom (elevation 1,202 feet).  While not a big mountain, it is a steep, rugged traprock mountain peak. The mountain is the southernmost and highest peak of the Mount Tom Range and the highest traprock peak of the 100-mile long Metacomet Ridge.

Here is the view in the opposite direction along the Metacomet Ridge as it marches north. Younger and geologically distinct from the nearby Appalachian Mountains and surrounding uplands, the Metacomet Ridge is composed of volcanic basalt, also known as trap rock, and sedimentary rock in faulted and tilted layers many hundreds of feet thick. In most but not all cases, the basalt layers are dominant, prevalent, and exposed. Although only 1,200 feet above sea level at its highest, with an average summit elevation of 725 feet, the Metacomet Ridge rises dramatically from much lower valley elevations, making it a prominent landscape feature.

All good things must come to an end, however. Here we are making our way down from the fire tower.

We continued on the M-M Trail to see the old ruins of the Eyrie House, a summit house hotel that burned down in 1901.  Along the way, we crossed the Dry Knoll, which gave us a great view of the Connecticut River.

Before long we reached the turn off for the Eyrie Ruins. Kathy stopped to ask a local for directions.

In 1861, William Street opened a summit hotel on Mount Nonotuck and named it Eyrie House. The hotel burned down in 1901 when Street attempted to cremate two horses on the mountain and lost control of the fire, leaving only the cellar holes and the walls of the stone understory standing. Here is the view up from the trail.

Here is the view down from the old hotel. If you look closely, you can just see Dave down on the trail.

Having reached our turn-around point, it was time to head back.  Rather than retrace our path on the M-M Trail, we decided to walk back on the old John McCool Trail. Our short little one mile walk to the lookout tower and back ended up being a five mile hike up and down several mountains.  Luckily, Kathy's new orthotics seem to be working and breaking in nicely.

We built up a powerful thirst and hunger from all that hiking. After quaffing a brew or two, we headed over to the pig roast. We chowed down on roast pork, roast beef, corn, baked potato and coleslaw. Having stuffed ourselves we settled in to enjoy some great classic rock and roll by the Mid Life Crisis Band.

We weren't going to mention the ice cream social, but a neighbor took this picture of us, so we felt obliged to include the evidence of our evil indulgence.

The party raged into the night. The campground found an ingenious way to get rid of old decks, fences, picnic tables, wooden cable spools and wooden pallets - bonfire! We called it quits about 9:00 p.m.  We heard from others during breakfast that, although the band wrapped up at 10:00, the party didn't finally quiet down until about 12:30 a.m.

There was not much evidence left - just the ashy remains of the bonfire and a trailer with a few burnable wood items.

This campground is one of the more "campground-y" RV parks we've stayed in, and the crowd reminded us of the campers we spent time with in all those years of Rug Rat Camping at WT Family Campground - now under new ownership and known as Peaceful Woodlands Family Campground in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains.  It was a lot of fun clapping and singing to the music and watching the millions of little rug rats frolicking across the lawn as the bonfire blazed and the adults quietly shared their discreet coolers of jello shots and spiked watermelon.  Warms the heart.