Thursday Hikers

The rain held off and we had a wonderful hike up Mt Tom, a 2000 acre state reservation in Holyoke with 21 miles of hiking trails, and with today’s hope of watching the hawk migrations. Thousands of hawks pass overhead in the Fall – but not today because the winds/thermals weren’t conducive to it. Nonetheless, the hike was great although only 5 of us were able to go today. I found a stand of pinesap and when asked how I knew it was pinesap I responded, “Because Cousin Phil said so”. You have become a “household name” with our hiking group. Phil, and your word goes unchallenged. We climbed the daunting watch tower leaving one of us at a time behind to calm the dogs as they clearly didn’t want us to leave them. An unparalleled view of the CT River Valley is seen from the top. But, no hawks, alas, whereas last year we got to see kettles of hawks approaching and flying by. It had been very exciting. Once back down from the tower, we snacked on apples and cookies left over from piano yesterday, then hiked back down on different trails to picnic tables by a lake where we ate our bag lunches and solved the problems of the world. Happy Autumn days, xo Penny