Mt Toby is “the highest summit of a sprawling collection of mostly wooded hills that rise from a plateau in Sunderland and Leverett MA just east of the Connecticut River”. We hiked up its 1269 feet on a darned hot day today, all the while remembering when we hiked it on a particularly frigid, icy winter day 2 years ago. There are streams and pools for the dogs along the way, and water was always a welcome sight for all of us. Lots of wildflowers and one toad also caught our eye. As Lynn and Gwen would have to leave the hike early, we made a crude birch bark arrow in the trail so they wouldn’t miss an otherwise unmarked turn on the way down. Hope they made it! We were thankful for our bag lunches and bottles of water once we reached the top, then challenged ourselves to go yet higher and climb the fire tower. The 360 degree view from it was gorgeous. That’s Mt. Sugarloaf in the distance in my photo. (And I was very happy when I got back down from the tower and onto solid ground again.) On the way home I took a photo of Mt Toby from the car while crossing the Sunderland Bridge. Mt. Toby is the highest bump on the big mountain in the middle of the photo. I’m happy to have climbed it today and also so happy to have come home and had a refreshing swim in the Conway Pond. Ah!!!!! Life is good, Love, Penny P.S. We’re going as a group to the memorial service for our Thursday hiker friend Kit. His love of the Thursday hikes and hikers was mentioned in his obituary. We will always miss his quiet way, and his unique outlook on life and nature. . 
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