Route: Tour du Greylock (MA)

This route circumnavigates all of Mt. Greylock, hitting what I believe to be the most important waypoints along the way.  An ascent of the mountain, followed by a big loop to the north and to the west, a second summit, then a second loop back to the west and to the south  Three major climbs and almost 8000 total feet of gain. 

The route begins and ends at the Greylock Glen in Adams, MA. 

Trails taken include:

• Bellows South to the "Four Corners" intersection
• Thunderbolt Ski Trail; almost 1400 feet of vertical climb in one mile (one of the steepest climbs in Berkshire County)
• Small out-and-back to the summit via the Appalachian Trail, before descending to North Adams via Bellows Pipe
• Bernard Farm Trail, past the site of a tragic 1988 plane crash (the wreckage remains, a few feet off trail), back to another short section of the AT
• AT to Mt. Williams, the over to Prospect Mountain for another short out-and-back
• Money Brook Trail to Money Brook Falls, then back to the Hopper
• Climbing Haley Farm Trail to the Stony Ledge overlook, then onto Hopper Trail, to Overlook Trail, back to the summit
• The last ~9 miles mostly follows the end of the Greylock Half Marathon route (Western Mass Athletic Club); CCC Dynamic Trail to Jones Nose (which, years ago, was covered with blueberry bushes; locals loved coming up "to pick Jones Nose").  Onto Old Adams Road, onto Cheshire Harbor, and back to the start/finish.

Overall - super-challenging, lots of climbing but some nice runnable bits as well.  Lots of climbing; two full ascents of Greylock and a third up Mt. Williams.  Most of trails are very technical (rocks, roots, narrow).  Crossing the borders of six towns/cities.  A few river crossings.  But a few more runnable stretches, especially the Bellows Pipe section to North Adams (gorgeous!) and the last ~4 miles.  

Note that the intentions of the loop were to minimize the use of the Appalachian Trail; folks come to the area to hike the AT already - I wanted to show off some of the OTHER gorgeous trails we are lucky to have.