7/7/04

I was at UConn in Storrs, CT to see the corpse flower exhibit, and, since I had some extra time I figured I would pick up Greylock and Frissel on the way home. Unfortunately, my wife, who was picking up the baby at 5:30pm, left her keys at home so I had to skip Frissel to go rescue her.

But I did make it to Greylock. I went from I-91 to the Mass Pike approached from Pittsfield. It took a long long time to get through the moderate-sized town because I was being stopped at every single traffic light. When I finally got through the town and on to the access road, I was met with more frustrations. Now I don’t drive extremely fast but I don’t like to be slowed down by people who drive ridiculously slow – and a ten mile access road up Greylock is not my idea of a good time when stuck behind someone like that. I also knew by now that my wife would need to be rescued and was holding out hope that I would be able to get Frissel. But by the time I got through all the delays I knew it was a lost cause.

At the top, there is a small parking area where you are required to pay $2 – exact change. I am glad I happened to have a bunch of quarters because I didn’t know about this and would have risked a ticket if I didn’t happen to have it. Another thing that surprised me was the number of people up there on a Wednesday afternoon. This is certainly the most visited highpoint I’ve been to so far, and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it’s the busiest one of the 50.

Walking up to the enourmous Monument, which is dedicated to MA war veterans, you get a profound feeling of dignity and honor which is only exacerbated by entering the monument and standing inside the atrium. Then you going up the narrow staircase to the base of the spiral stairs which reminds you of a secret passageway in some midevil castle. The stairs themselves are pretty scary, and a little girl, apparently afraid of heights, was screaming like, well, a little girl. I thought the views from the top are nice but typical for this part of the country. I took a few pictures, and, to make them interesting I included some 3-d topo maps rendered by delorme.

I spent 23 minutes at the top, went west to NY the first opportunity I could get (things just seem to move faster in NY), got on the Taconic State Parkway and was home by 6pm. My wife ended up waiting 30 minutes. oh well.

pictures (including the 3d topos) here:
http://turzman.com/projects/highpoints/ma.html