Berlin Mountain

I took a nice drive up to Rensselaer County to hike up to its high point. Situated along the NY/MA border, it afforded views of Mt Greylock, Massachusetts' highest point. The parking lot was situated right off Route 2 and was pretty high up. I probably only ascended about 500 ft.

As I went through the town of Berlin, I could see the Taconics clearly and it appeared their was snow on them, much to my surprise. Immediately, I'm thinking, "I'm such an idiot!", because I was wearing cotton. But, I was not planning on the hike to take much more than 2 hours.

I started out from the parking lot, signed in and headed along a nice woods trail. The trees are still bare. The snow appears to be fairly fresh as there is just a light cover. There is not much snow on the trail itself. About 10 minutes in there was a 200 ft climb which led to the Taconic Crest Trail. There were many signs stating no ATV use. These signs were clearly not being followed as the trail had a lot of tire tracks. Fortunately, nobody was motoring by on this beautiful but extremely windy day (there were gusts up to 40 mph).

I strolled on for one more mini ascent to the primarily bare summit. The views were outstanding. Looking west you could see the Catskills in the distance and the city of Albany. Looking east you could see Mt. Greylock and its stone tower. Looking north you can see the northern part of the Taconics in Vermont and the Green Mountains.

I headed back after a few minutes on the summit as it was starting to get cold due to the heavy winds. I think I'll come back and do part of this Taconic Crest trail as part of a backpacking trip.