Category ArchiveEverywhere Once |

Conquering Moby Dick

by Brian on July 20, 2010 in Massachusetts

View from Stony Ledge

“All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby-Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”

– Herman Melville, Moby Dick

My, oh-my, Melville must have hated Mount Greylock to have written such vitriol.* For it is rumored that the snow-covered profile of this gently sloping mountain peak provided the inspiration for his leviathan, Moby Dick. From a distance, and with enough psychotropics, you can definitely imagine the mountain as the hump of a great whale breaching the surrounding granite waves. But our objective today wasn’t to view it from a distance, it was to summit Massachusetts’ tallest peak.

Mt. Greylock as seen from Herman Melville's house

That certainly sounds impressive, and it might have been, if only we had taken the nine or so hours needed to hike the entirety of it. But we were short on time and ambition today so we packed a lunch and drove to the 3,491 foot peak. From the summit you can see several mountain ranges (the Adirondacks, the Catskills and the Green Mountains) depending on which direction you look.

Stony Ledge Trail

While Greylock’s vista is admirable, the better view, in our opinion, is from the lower summit of Stony Ledge. Some 900 feet beneath its larger sister, Stony Ledge gives an excellent view of Greylock, as well as the undeveloped valley on its western slope. The hike to the ledge would have been fairly easy, but the wide trail just begged to be tackled via mountain bike, which proved to be harder than we expected. The entire trip is a hill, halfway up, and halfway down. Going down is loads of fun, but biking a mile or so straight up kicked the asses of a couple of fatties like us. Good thing we got back early enough for a nap.

(* This will wind Shannon up good, because Melville loved Mount Greylock. Heh, heh, heh, heh.)

Cool Mountain Air

by Brian on July 19, 2010 in Massachusetts

Mr. Heatmiser

The nightly news keeps saying we’re still in the middle of a heat wave, but you wouldn’t know it from Lanesborough, MA. It’s 61 degrees here as I type and it isn’t supposed to get much above 80 all week. When the sun ducked behind clouds yesterday it actually felt a little chilly. Maybe it’s the higher elevation (1,130 ft) or because we’re in a valley between Mount Greylock to the north and Brodie Mountain to the south. I don’t know, but whatever the reason, it’s pretty great.

Longer Hose Wanted

by Brian on July 16, 2010 in Massachusetts

Our sewer hose (bottom right), stretched to the limit

We arrived safely in Massachusetts basically on schedule, a few wrong turns aside. The rig leveled successfully, which was never a problem, but whether we’ll be able to un-level it, remains to be seen. It could be that our leveling jacks are now a permanent foundation. So if anyone wants to see us, we’re in Lanesborough, MA, possibly for the foreseeable future.

Set-up took longer than usual today. When entering our campsite Shannon helpfully pointed out that my hose wasn’t quite long enough to reach the desired spot. So I had to pull out, and back in, and out, and in, many more times than either of us wanted. But once started, you have to see the job through to completion, or else everyone just ends up cranky. Through persistence, and no small measure of skill on my part, we eventually got things situated to everyone’s satisfaction. But life would be much easier if only I had a longer hose. So I’m off to see if I can find an extension.

Monet Monday

by Brian on June 21, 2010 in Massachusetts

We took the bikes out along the Nashua River Rail Trail, in Massachusetts, and happened upon a scene right out of Giverny.

We also saw a really cool yellow bird fly by. He didn’t stop for a picture, so you’ll just have to imagine this: “Yellow . . . Bird”, Ahhhh.

Catching Up . . .

by Brian on June 20, 2010 in Massachusetts

We’ve been busy lately so here’s the illustrated and abridged version of our week . . .

A day in Cambridge started with the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House. This is one of the better preserved author houses I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a bunch (matrimonial hazard). If you dig that kind of stuff, you should check out Shannon’s other blog over at NovelDestinations.com.

This is the squirrel that pelted me with a half-eaten crab apple in Longfellow’s garden. Jerk.

Cambridge, MA, looks nothing like Cambridge, England. I’m not sure why anyone would have imagined them similarly; not me of course. We had lunch in Harvard Yard and strolled around the shops downtown. By far the largest number of tourists we’ve seen on our travels so far was on the Harvard University campus. Hordes of them.

We made friends at the Globe Corner Bookstore. This dog has the life. She lays by the front door and rolls over to be petted by the near-constant stream of visitors. We didn’t see a single person pass up the opportunity. I wonder if it’s possible for a dog to tire of affection? This dog probably knows, but she wasn’t telling.

Harvard’s Museum of Natural History is filled with either animals we exterminated or animals we tried to exterminate and had stuffed. Shannon didn’t care much for the rooms upon rooms of dead critters. We don’t usually visit natural history museums, and now I know why. We decided to do this one instead of the art museum to change things up. I think we’ll probably change back.

But the museum’s glass flower exhibit was worth a visit. I was dubious about a glass flower display, at first, but it turned out to be pretty interesting. The flowers look surprisingly real, and the detail is incredible. It’s impossible to believe someone hand blew them from glass . . . so I’m choosing not to believe it. But that’s Harvard’s story, anyway.

On to Concord, and the Old Manse. This is another author house. I skipped the tour, but Shannon will probably be commenting on it over at NovelDestinations.

While she was doing that I strolled over to the Old North Bridge, where the first battle of the Revolutionary War took place. And then took a short hike through Minute Man National Park.