Appalachian Trail: Massachusetts Northbound: Sages Ravine to MA23 Parking (total time on the trail this trip: 3 days/2 nights)
Day 1: Sages Ravine to The Hemlocks and Glenn Brook Shelter. Approximately, 7 miles, crossing over Mt. Race and Mt. Everett.
This hike got off to a rough start when we parked our first car at the MA23 trail head and my dad realized that he forgot his hiking boots. He likes to drive in his sneakers and then change into his boots right before hitting the trail, and unfortunately, he ended up forgetting his boots on the porch where he put them so he wouldn’t forget them.
We all know that feeling, right? I’ve lost count of how many hours I’ve spent looking for things that I remember putting somewhere specifically so I wouldn’t forget where I put them. Or purposefully hung a bag from the front door handle, only to walk right by it when its time to go.
But I digress…
We ended up finding an outdoorsy mom and pop store that thankfully had hiking boots in my dad’s size, and so the detour only ended up costing us less than an hour. Not too shabby.
Back on the trail, we were both anxious to get to the point where we left off the last time that we day hiked; a ‘Y’ by the river, next to Sages Ravine campsite. We pretty much sprinted the first portion of the trail that leads from the parking lot to here – about a mile in.
(Oh, and in case you haven’t read any of my earlier posts – we are starting the Massachusetts section of the Appalachian Trail, heading Northbound.)
Heading North from Sages Ravine, the trail consists of a lot of ups and downs, even before crossing the 2 peaks (Mt. Race and Mt. Everett) needed to get to camp for the night. We essentially spent the next few miles scrambling over mossy boulders, through a pretty dense forest.
In order to save on load time from too many photos, I will cover Mt. Race and Mt. Everett in the next post…
Continue reading about this section hike in the next post: MT. RACE AND MT. EVERETT