archive of hikes
(beginning april 25, 2025)
4.25.25 @ goat rock in hampden, massachusetts
★★★★
first time hiking this spot and i really enjoyed it! my husband joined me but we left the dogs at home. parked at the western trailhead off country club drive, a pretty spacious neighborhood with modern homes that mostly seemed to be going through their own individual construction and landscaping transformations. there was one other car at the trailhead with two guys who looked like they had just finished the trail-- warned us to stay on the white trail as often as possible. the trail wasted no time in appearing daunting as we approached a pretty sharp incline that ascended a great elevation, at least a few hundred feet within a short distance. we were able to scale it in a few short minutes and it ended up being one of the more difficult parts of the hike, the effort worth a great pay off with not one but several clear and gorgeous vistas at various lookout points. stopped and enjoyed a few different spots spread out over the very high but relatively easy terrain before we decided to stop and check our place on the trail-- a luxury that was not as accessible just a decade ago, and one that i do feel occasional resentment for as it dampens the sense of adventure brought on by being on the woods to be able to place yourself so exactly on in the context of the trail and have a clear understanding of where you are headed and how long it will take you to get there. that sense of resentment quickly evaporated when, after stopping to take in one last set of beautiful views, we followed an incorrect trail that had us tiptoeing down a pretty steep descent which ended up not even being a proper trail, but rather a 'homemade' trail that connected to some properties out on the main street. with our sense of adventure waning and the car being a little over half a mile down the road, we took the risk of sneaking through the yard of one of those main street abutting properties to walk the rest of the way out of the woods. we accidentally startled a teenager who had been peeing out of the side of his truck door while he was doing work in the driveway, and we quickly apologized-- he was light-hearted about it. the whole experience took us a little over 90 minutes, which was about the amount of time we would have spent if we had done the hike 'properly,' but it was a great adventure to have and only a 10 minute drive from home!