Today is:

NATIONAL TRAILS DAY!

Here I am (middle) with my sister, Hope, and her husband, Donny on the trail in Pittsfield State Forest, Berkshires, MA. My husband, girls and I joined my sis and Donny for a Memorial Day we are not likely to forget! We love hiking but this day......whew....it was a long one!

It was May, 2007. Most of the weekend had been rainy on and off.
Memorial Day ended up being a perfect hiking day. Bright, blue sky, low 80's, low humidity, full sun.
No problem finding the trailhead really, although we did pass it at first and had to backtrack with the car. There was only 1 other car parked....always a nice sign...that means we would most likely have a private hike! My favorite!

The hiking trail book was a bit confusing when comparing the trails to what we actually saw. We believe some of the trails were mismarked. We ended up going about 6 miles rather than the 3.5 mile loop trail we highlighted in the book.

It was hot but not too buggy. Except: notice how I am cringing from something? There were hundreds of caterpillars (I think the kind that turn into moths....ewww...) hanging from trees all along one part of the trail. It creeped us out.
The state forest in Pittsfield is actually very deep woods so parts of it were very cool. Some parts, though, were in open meadow, so the sun really bore down on us. We were thankful that the mosquitos were not prevalent.

We were also thankful that Donny and Dave figured out which trail to take back to the car after a looooonnnnnggggg way around 2 trails that we didn't even see in the book. At one point, they left Hope, the girls and me on the trail and ventured down a side trail only to return to tell us we were near posted land! Not a good thing for hikers........you don't wanna get the locals mad at ya!

And...this is the worst thing: there were about 5 ATV's roaring through these "peaceful woods". I found out later than in this particular state forest, ATV's are allowed. I do not like that at all and never would have suggested the hike if I had known MA allows that. In the ADKS, they are not allowed on most hiking trails...which is a good thing. They ruin the environment, the peace and quiet of the woods, the natural habitats of the animals and just don't belong near hiking trails (in my opinion!) We had to keep getting off the trail to let them pass, which is not good for the soil, plants, etc.

We still managed to have fun, though, and the girls were great sports. No complaints or whining although my youngest got a little scared when we confessed we were a little lost. Well, we knew where we were but we didn't know how to get back to the car from there! Of course we did pray, too.

We rewarded ourselves with a trip to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream at a really nice ice cream parlor in downtown Pittsfield when we finally made our way back to the car. We took the scenic route home, about 2 hours later than we had planned. It all ended up being a fun day with many memories.

My point?
Know exactly what trail you are on, and report any discrepancies you encounter to the regional park office or whomever edited the hiking guide. Since we were in the Berkshires and not all that familiar with those mountains, we decided we would only hike there again if we had a clear trail guidebook and if the trail itself had good blazes (markers).
Today, here in the capital region of NYS, it is very hot and humid.
Not a good day to hike.
We have some stuff to do and then we'll try to head out to one of the lakes with the kayaks.
We'll save the hiking for a less humid day!