Williamstown Rural Lands Offers Guided Hike Series
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Grab your water bottle, boots and boundless curiosity about the woods that surround you and join the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation for a series of guided hikes this summer and fall.
The non-profit is offering a series of seven Saturday morning hikes that began on May 21 and continue this Saturday to help expose hikers of all abilities — or even no ability — to some of the trails it manages or helps manage in and around the Village Beautiful.
"Rural Lands owns land on which a number of trails sit," said Dustin Griffin, a member of the WRLF Board of Directors. "It monitors trails on other properties. And it wants to encourage people to come out and discover the land that's been conserved by Rural Lands and the trails that give access to that land.
"I think people don't realize A) how many trails there are and B) how much land has been preserved to which the public has access. This is a great way for people to see, 'Those woods up there are not just locked up for the benefit of who knows who. There's a trail up there, and I can hike up and get a view?' "
Griffin and WRLF Board President Philip McKnight explained that the monthly guided hikes are designed to cover light to moderate terrain, making the events accessible to all. Hiking boots are not required, but sturdy shoes are a must.
The events begin at Sheep Hill on Cold Spring Road at 9:30 a.m. From there, the hiking party carpools to the trail head of the day's destination. The hikes vary in length from 1.5 miles to 4 miles and are designed to get everyone back to Sheep Hill in time for them to leave and get lunch.
Saturday's hike will run through four miles of trails in Williams College's Hopkins Forest. Other sites include Stone Hill, the Sara Tenney Trail and the Chestnut Trail to Pine Cobble, which will wrap up the season on Oct. 22.
No reservations are required. Each hike will have at least two trained and experienced hikers, one who will lead the trek and the other who will carry a first-aid kit and bring up the rear.
"We want to make it very simple for the organizers and the hikers," Griffin said. "You wake up on Saturday morning and you say, 'It's a nice day, and there's a hike today, so I think I'll go.' Organizers don't have to keep a reservation list."
The hikes will be canceled in the event of extreme weather. But a little rain won't stop them, Griffin and McKnight said.
At the inaugural hike through the Fitch Memorial Woodlands above Sheep Hill on May 21, Griffin had about seven hikers show up, he said.
"One was about 80 years old, and she turned out to be the fittest of the hikers," he said. "She's a member of the Berkshire Knapsackers, a local hiking club. She knows birds. She knows plants. So we appointed her the designated botanical expert of the hike.
"There was a 7-year-old who had done a little hiking with her mom. She had no trouble staying with the group."
WRLF is one of several groups working to maintain hiking trails throughout the area. And there are plenty of trails to maintain in Williamstown alone.
The foundation is working with the town's Conservation Commission and other non-profits, like the Williams Outing Club, to see if those trails can be connected in a network that will allow enthusiastic hikers to circumambulate the town without getting off a trail.
"What we'd like to do is tell someone you can start at the top of Mount Greylock, go all around Williamstown and end up at the top of Greylock," McKnight said. "You can do that now, but you have to cross a couple of roads.
"We've been working on a plan that works with private landowners whose land supports a portion of the trail — working with them to get an easement so hikers can go across it. Most of the time, we've had a very good reaction from the homeowners."
In the meantime, WRLF wants to show off the trails as they exist — at a time when those trails are underutilized and not well known.
"We know that from anecdotal evidence," Griffin said. "We know it because we will frequently encounter people — even [WRLF] members — who will say, 'I didn't know about that trail.' "
McKnight said more people should know just how great the great outdoors really are.
"The guided hikes are part of a larger plan Rural Lands has been working on with the Conservation Commission to promote the idea of hiking and promote getting out into the woods on the same theory that John Muir encouraged people to come to the national parks: If you visit them, you'll fall in love with them," McKnight said. "If you fall in love with them, you'll want to protect them and preserve them and maintain them.
"You can't do that if you're sitting in your living room in an urban setting. You have to get out and see how spectacular these properties are."
Upcoming Hikes (all hikes leave from WRLF center at Sheep Hill):
Saturday, June 18, Hopkins Forest
Tuesday, July 19, Stone Hill
Tuesday, Aug. 16, Sara Tenney Trail
Saturday, Sept. 17, Stone Hill
Saturday, Sept. 24, Berlin Loop
Saturday, Oct. 22, Chestnut Trail to Pine Cobble
More information about Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation is available here.
Tags: forestland, hiking, rural lands, trails,
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