October 19, 2007 Hike #1
I have two days of hiking left in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The dilemma is that the weather prediction is one day of fog and one day of sun. I prefer not to hit a state high point in the fog, but decided that the other hike I had planned would be more ideal for a sunny day which left today to hit Connecticut's high point.
Ironically, Connecticut's highest peak is not Connecticut's highest point. How is this possible? The highest point is located on the Massachusetts/Connecticut border on Mount Frissell and is marked with a green stake. The mountain continues to climb into Massachusetts where the actually summit of the mountain is. Connecticut and Nevada are the only two states that have this distinction. I don't think either state is proud of it, and most visitors go to the highest peak rather than the highest point. Tomorrow the Appalachian Trail will take me over Bear Mountain, the highest peak, so I'm covered either way. As I mentioned, Bear Mountain is the highest peak and gets most of the attention while Mount Frissell is referred to as 'the mountain with the green stake'.
With Lynn crewing me, I don't have to do an out and back hike, so I'll go up one way and come down another.
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I headed up an old jeep road which began a little more than a mile south of the MA/CT border.
This was easy going, so I jogged most of it.
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I came to a small cairn which marked a very narrow trail.
A minute later I was on the New York/Connecticut border.
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The trail follows the NY/CT border up to Massachusetts where I found a tri-state marker. I noticed that New York and Massachusetts were inscribed on the stone, but Connecticut was scratched on. I later read on the Internet that there was a border dispute at the time the marker was erected.
I couldn't resist putting a foot in one state, a foot in another state, and a hand in the third state so that I could be in three states at once. I think the only place you can do better than this is way out west at the four corners of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
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From here the trail was well marked with bright red blazes. This is an easy state high point to reach, especially from the old jeep road, but there was a few minutes where the trail was fairly steep.
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Across some ledges
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With most states (excluding Connecticut and Nevada) you just climb until you can't climb anymore. But here you have to keep an eye out for the green stake. Take it from my experience, it is easier to look for the cairn that marks the spot. Once you find the cairn, then you can easily find the green stake next to it(circled in the picture below).
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I found 'The Green Stake' - mission accomplished.
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Although I bagged another state high point, I couldn't stop without bagging the summit of Mount Frissell so I continued on into Massachusetts. I reached the summit of Mount Frissell and continued onto Round Mountain.
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Summit of Round Mountain
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Both Round Mountain and the south slope of Frissell have views, but not today. Coming down Round Mountain was the most challenging part of this hike, especially with the wet leaves.
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Despite the overcast weather, it was still a great day with brilliant fall colors.
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Lynn was parked on the Massachusetts/Connecticut border where she took my picture.
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We then took a side trip to nearby Bash Bish Falls. This was a short hike of just a half mile roundtrip, but very steep. The lack of recent rain in the area was evident as the falls were nearly dry. We're supposed to get a big rain storm tonight, so I'm sure that will help.
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Now I'm off to do a 12 mile section of the Appalachian Trail.
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