What a long snowy winter we had!  But now, finally, it's time for me, Dickens, to resume my role as the  world's first Welsh terrier to blog about hikes here in the Northeast USA.
     For our first hike of 2009, my human companion Bruce and I decided to go with one of our favorite early season hikes, Mt. Holyoke MA from the west along the Metacomet Monadnock trail.  When we arrived at the trailhead at 11 AM we had the only car there, but, given the popularity of the Holyoke Range, we knew more hikers would soon show up.  It was a beautiful sunny day, getting up to about 70 degrees F.  Very comfortable hiking weather.
     Very early on we met a young hiker coming down from the mountain who asked Bruce, "Can your dog hike all the way to the top?"  Lucky for him we dogs don't know how to snicker. 
     The trail goes up along a number of rocky ledges, coming to an area where you can look out into the distance and see Springfield MA and Harford CT off to the south.  A large raven flew overhead.
     As we approached the summit we met a series of hikers.  A pair of young ladies came over and greeted me.  Then after that we met a family with two young children.  Finally, we arrived at the summit at 12:15 PM and had lunch in the picnic area to the east of the stately white summit house.  The summit house is closed until May but it does have porches that you can roam around.
     The view from the summit is outstanding, taking in the Connecticut River, Northampton, the Berkshires, the Green Mountains, Amherst.... you can even see the Peace Pagoda up in the hills in Leverett MA.  For lunch, I had a bowl of water and a roast beef sandwich, plus a bit of Bruce's ham and cheese sandwich.  Yummy.
     Since there was no one at the summit house then, after lunch we went up and walked around the porches and took in the view.  It was breezy and almost blew Bruce's hat away.
     Leaving the summit at 1 PM we started off towards the Dry Brook trail.  Here we met a young man about 30 years old with a long black beard.  Keeping him company was a thin, medium sized black dog.  
     Bruce asked, "What is the name of your dog?"
     "Reus," he said.
     "Oh you mean like actus reus?"  (a legal term, for you laymen)
     "No, like Jose Reyes, the Mets' shortstop."
     In this area we saw some beautiful flowering bloodroot.  A runner came flying by us.  This was the second runner we had met on the trail.  I shouldn't say met, because they just went zooming by.
The Dry Brook trail was a little wet at the start and near the end, but mostly was in fine condition.  The Metacomet Monadnock trail is rocky and had no wet spots on it.  When we got near Dry Brook the trail was very shady due to all the tall hemlocks there.  I went for a few baths in Dry Brook which was very refreshing.  Despite its name we have never seen it when it was actually dried up.
     Near the end we met a young man who had never been in this area before.  Bruce talked to him about some of the trails in the area, and he decided to head off to Black Rock, which is a spot we visited in April of 2008. 
     We finished the hike at 2:15 PM and  saw that there were five more cars parked at the trailhead.
Lots of people were able to take today off, a Friday, to enjoy the first warm sunny day of the year.  A good move since the predictions were that the weekend might be cool and rainy.  But today was just  perfect for hiking.

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