I went hiking today with Michelle to October Mountain in the Berkshires, though I've recently learned that the mountains are actually in the Taconic Range of the Appalachian Mountains. In fact the trail we took ran rather close to the Appalachian Trail; I believe it was called the Roaring Brook trail; it started at Felton Lake but we had to walk up Schermerhorn Rd. because it was clogged with snow. In fact we almost got stuck in the snow but thanks to our great pushing skills we got out

Last week we hiked a part of what might have been the Taconic Crest Trail near Williamstown, in the Petersburg Pass, near the Snow Hole. There was tons of snow, up past my knees at times and if it weren't for the cross-country skiers who had packed down the trail somewhat we might not have made it to the top. As it was our pant legs were soaked and our boots weren't doing much better.

Anyway, we're hoping to go hiking at least once a week so we can get in shape to climb some of the Adirondacks' 46 high peaks (above 4000 ft.) this summer!

I also have to give credit to my brother Jason for coming up with an ingenious method of preventing snow from getting in one's boots while hiking - just duct-tape your pant legs to your boots; make sure you're bending your knee while doing this and try not to leave any creases for snow to get in.