CT/MA/NY

I woke up on Sunday morning a bit sore from Snowshoe racing (up and down Catamount) and running up Alander Mountain the previous day. Eric and I fortified ourselves with some Dunkin’s and then re-fortified with some Day’s Inn “lobby coffee” and were off to the Mt Washington State forest headquarters. We met up with my High School teammate, and great friend, Jim Sullivan. I hadn’t seen Jim since my 100,000 mile run back in 2007 but we keep in touch at least monthly.
Jim rolled in a couple of minutes late after getting turned around and nearly stuck on East road (dirt and mud). We gathered up our gear and piled into Eric’s car for the bouncy 3 mile drive south to the CT/MA state line. The road was barricaded at that point, which was fine as that is where we were planning on parking for our hike to the CT state high point (and beyond). Eric and I went with shorts and long sleeve shirts and Jim opted for running pants. We all went with running shoes, although I opted for my END stumptown high topped runners.

The first part of the Mt Frissell trail was wet, VERY wet. It was basically a stream where the trail should be. At one point it was mid-calf deep and with the Mountain laurel all around it would be difficult to avoid. Jim and I bushwhacked, but Eric plowed on through. Soon we began climbing and Eric rued his choice as Jim and I would have dry feet for the entire hike. We hit the top of Round Mountain (2,293’) in just over 20 minutes. There wasn’t much of a view but we could see our next goal (Frissell right in front of us). A quick dip down into the snowy coll and nice climb up the rocky and dry east side of Frissell had us on top in another 20+ minutes. We signed in at the log took a few pictures then headed down the south and slightly west flank to pick up the Connecticut state line. It was a quick 10 minutes later that we were standing at Jim’s first state high point and Eric’s 8th. This was my second time standing at the highest point in CT but it had been nearly 10 years and I had very little memory of the trail.

After some picture taking we were off again, now heading pretty much west to the coll between Frissell and Brace. We hit the CT/NY/MA tri-state marker in another 11 minutes (total time 1:06) and again stopped for some pictures. I’ll have to check on my tri-state list to see how many of those I’ve got (I know it is the third one that involves MA that I’ve been to). Next up we climbed up out of the coll to the top of North Brace and the connection with the Taconic Crest Trail. There was a fair amount of snow in some sections on top, especially where snowmobiles and 4-wheelers had been to pack it down. The view from this 2,200’ peak was great we could see the NY farmlands that seemed to be right at our feet. We could also see the peaks we’d climbed earlier and off in the distance Mt Everett that we planned to hit later in the day. We did a little running on the ridge and ascended to the big open summit of Brace which also had a huge cairn on top. This was my 99th county high point. We took a couple of pictures and zoomed south to pick up South Brace.

This is where I messed up…I was planning on heading back part of the way then making our way southeast to the Mt Washington road. I was thinking clearly and we continued south off of South Brace for 5 minutes before I realized we needed to retrace our steps all the way back to the tri-state marker before heading for the road. So at 2:20:57 we were standing back on the summit of Brace (we only lost a little less than 15 minutes with my boo boo). It took us 20 minutes to drop back down (and climb a bit) to the tri-state marker. There was a trail heading in the direction we wanted to go but it died out about 10 minutes into our descent. I was a bit disappointed but we’d have to back-track and head out the way we’d come in. It took us 10 minutes to get back to the State HP and another 15 and we were on top of Frissell again. The rocky drop to the cull between Round mountain was slow going but we were back on the top of Round in 15 minutes and from there it was an easy 18 minutes back to the car.

The entire trek took us 3:25 and it was a perfect day to spend three hours out in the woods!

We drove back to the Mt W headquarters and Jim headed for home. Eric and I headed over to the base of Mt Everett to get in a run. We climbed a little over 900’ (1,700’ to 2,608’) over 2.5 miles at a reasonable clip. The footing wasn’t bad, mostly packed snow and even some bare ground. Temps were in the upper 50’s so it was very comfortable for running. We hit the top in 27 minutes then spent just a couple of minutes taking in the view (not much from the summit but there were a couple of rock faces to climb on and check out the scene). Eric noted that the view was probably pretty excellent when the fire tower was there (we stood on the tower footings but couldn’t see much). The run down was uneventful except for one good posthole by me (knee deep) on the Appalachian trail section of the run. We were down in 23 minutes for a round trip of a little over 50 minutes. It was a nice way to close out the week and I was pleased to not feel too beat up (I guess I’d feel that on Monday).

Peaks in order:
Round – 2,293’
Frissell – 2,451’
Frissell east slope (CT state high point/Litchfield COHP) – 2,372’
North Brace – 2,224’
Brace (Dutchess County NY High point) – 2,323’
South Brace – 2,303’
South Brace – 2,303’
Brace – 2,323’
North Brace – 2,224’
Frissell east slope – 2,372’
Frissell – 2,451’
Round – 2,293’
Mt Everett – 2,608’ (#12 on the MA 100 highest)