It’s been rough getting back into hiking and climbing due to my knee, but thankfully I found a couple of easier hiking/peakbagging lists to keep me busy and complement my PT/recovery goals – the 50 Highest Public Peaks in Massachusetts as well as the Massachusetts County High Points. There is some crossover between the two lists, but across the two lists it covers all areas of the state, so it’ll be fun to explore. I created a page which covers the two lists and tracks my progress, you can check it out here.
This post covers the first few peaks I hiked in June.
Adams Mountain & Todd Mountain
The first peaks I climbed after “officially” starting the list were located near the town of Rowe and Pelham Lake. “Officially”, Pelham Lake is off limits for parking, except if you are a resident of Rowe, but several previous trip reports indicated there were no issues. I nevertheless opted to play it safe and park on a more secluded trailhead to the southeast of the lake on Davis Mine Road. The trail was a bit overgrown in places but was otherwise fairly easy to follow, and I had no issues taking on Todd, then Adams; at the latter I took a quick break before taking a fairly long trail down towards the lake. It was a bit hard on my knee but it was a pretty trail and overall enjoyable. I planned to go to a vista on the south part of the lake to try out swimming (I hadn’t swam since either of my shoulder or knee/ankle injuries) but I missed my turn off and by the time I realized, I decided to head straight back to the car. Overall, a solid first day back to peakbagging!
Massaemett Mountain
I took a week off after Adams and Todd – I tweaked my knee running and opted to take it easy the weekend between the two hikes. Good news is I took up stand up paddleboarding which started to aggravate my shoulder eventually but was nice cross training.
Massaemett is the shortest peak on the list of 50 highest public peaks in Massachusetts, but it was a pretty intense little hike with immediate elevation gain and a solid incline, and a pretty cool fire tower (Shelburne Fire Tower) at the top. There are two interlaced routes up, one which is a bit steeper than the other. I opted to take the steep trail up and down. The trail was almost entirely in the woods and was pretty peaceful and shaded the whole way and was a good test for my knee. It took just under 40 mins to reach the summit, gaining almost 1000 feet over 2km of travel. I brought my foam roller with me (I’ve been religiously rolling my tight af quads every day) and it felt good to get some rolling in on both the picnic table at the top as well as in the fire tower (which I probably shouldn’t have climbed – lots of steep steps!). After a short break I took my time descending and while my knee was a bit bothersome, it went well and I took a little longer than the ascent.
Peter Hill
Massaemett wasn’t my only objective for the day. I took a short drive past Shelburne Falls and Buckland down to Ashland to hike Peter Hill. The route, which follows part of the Fern Glade Trail, is pretty flat and was a good option after the steep Massaemett hike. I opted to park on Bear Swamp Road and take a shorter hike, which was just over one kilometer each way and only gained about 200 feet. Pretty enjoyable and found out there used to be a fire tower at the top of Peter Hill as well but is no more.
Upon returning to my car, I remembered there was a lake (Ashfield Lake) very close by, and I packed my SUP just in case I was up for paddling, and it turned out to be a pretty good spot – super calm and good size to get a good workout in. I paddled about 4km and probably went a bit too hard as my shoulder was pretty sore when I paddled next. It was also super sunny and I got a pretty bad sunburn. Assuming I don’t blow out my shoulder, I’ll definitely plan to couple some of these hiking missions with a shake out paddle.
Veg 'n' Alpine 