Today we hiked the 6.3 miles from route 141 across Mt. Tom to route 5. So we’ve hiked all the way from the Connecticut border to the Connecticut River. It feels like a nice milestone.
There is some nice scenery from the top of Mt. Tom, especially overlooking Easthampton. We also got a nice look back along the ridge to see where we’d come from in Connecticut. It was clear enough to see the towers in Hartford.
We came across some folks from MassWildlife rappelling down one of the cliff faces to a peregrin falcon nest. Apparently the chick in this nest is the first bird hatched in about 50 years or so on the Mt. Tom range. They were planning to band the chick in order to follow its development. What a job! We saw the falcon soaring around the cliff, making quite a bit of noise. I suppose it wasn’t too happy to see people climbing down to the nest. It felt a little like “My Side of the Mountain”.
There were still quite a few wildflowers, though they are not quite as plentiful as the previous weeks. Some notable new ones include wild geraniums and yellow stargrass.
And an amphibian:
And a click beetle:
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