Maybe it’s the prolific penis graffiti you find on the access trails. Perhaps it’s the sheer cliffs of traprock that some of those trails scramble up and down. Or maybe it was the two teenagers (and a pug) on a motorbike that I saw riding along steep the mountain summit road the other week, dodging ribbons of ice and testing the limits of their old Yamaha motor. Whatever it is, I’m starting to become infatuated with Mount Tom.
The Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts is often thought of as the on-ramp for the Berkshires, aka “real mountains” in the minds of many travelers. But if you’ve ever completed the merger between I-91 to I-90, then you’ve probably noticed this big-ass hump of a hill looming over the deciduous woodlands along the Connecticut River. This is Mount Tom, the lone alpha mountain between Holyoke and Easthampton. At 1,202 feet high, Mount Tom is not going to be the subject of a feature in Backpacker, but what this mountain may lack in stature it compensates for in ragged beauty and eccentric scenery. In other words, it’s the perfect mountain for this hiking newsletter.