We frequently visit Mt. Tom located in Holyoke, MA. This mountain has a lot to explore during all four seasons including winter and it is conveniently close to our house. We woke up early Saturday morning as we knew the day would be fairly long if we wanted to reach the summit with all the snow on the ground. Plus the forecast was calling for another storm starting in the afternoon.
We parked in a parking lot that is almost halfway up the mountain on Reservation Road. At first you may think all the hard work is pretty much done since you drove half way up, but that certainly isn't the case. There is normally a $2 charge for parking, but during the winter there is no fee. Depending on weather conditions this road can sometimes be closed which has forced us to change our planned hike, but today it was open. One plus about Mt. Tom is that all the trail signs are very well marked along with the mileage.
The hike started on the Keystone Trail which is marked by red blazes. After .3 miles we took a right onto the Keystone Extension for another .7 miles. The Keystone Extension is also a red blazed trail (although I'd argue it's more of an orange). Both of these trails were pretty packed down as it hadn't snowed in over a week (seems as if that might be a record this winter for length without snow), so we didn't need our snowshoes to start. It was pretty quiet today on the trails which was probably due to the temperature and the approaching storm, but normally Mt. Tom isn't as quiet as one would think it is in the cold snowy weather of New England. After a short time on the Keystone Extension we saw about 6 deer playing in the snow in a distance. This was quite a sight to see, but they quickly scattered when they heard us. At the end of the Keystone Extension we came across an intersection which gives an option of either taking the DOC Trail or the Quarry Trail. We chose the DOC Trail which is .9 miles long and still marked with red blazes. This trail was less packed down and the further we went we found that we needed to put on our snowshoes. This part of the trail has some steeper sections than the other trails the closer you get to the top of mountain, but pretty manageable. One problem that we were running into was our Camelbak hoses were freezing while we were climbing due to the cold conditions, so we were constantly having to put the tube in our jackets to warm them up and blow water from the hoses back to the bladders, so we had a water supply.
Once we reached the top of the mountain we headed left onto the M&M Trail. The trail sign indicated 1.3 miles until the summit of Mt. Tom. This is a white blazed trail and with all the white snow on the trees and the rocks it made for a challenging time following the blazes. The snow at parts were packed down, but other parts you would take a step and I would sink into snow that was up to my thigh. It was pretty exhausting when trying to climb up hill at parts and having to pull your body our of thigh-high snow. The top of the M&M Trail is pretty unique as the trail follows rocky ledge cliffs for most of the way scrambling over rocks and boulders. At some spots I was a little nervous of slipping, but made sure to be very careful during those sections. Another challenge at the top of the mountain is that there were areas that were thigh-high snow, then there were areas that were packed in, and other areas by the cliffs edge where there was hardly any snow and bare rock showing. We constantly were taking off our snowshoes, putting them on, and taking them back out again as you don't want to traverse bare rock in snowshoes. We had brought micro-spikes with us in case there were icy conditions, but didn't end up using them. At one point while we were up there we lost part of the trail and detoured up a hill. Once we were up the hill we realized we were not going the right direction and headed back down. This looked a little steep and as I watched Ross in the distance I saw him fall face first into the snow and then attempt to toboggan down the hill like a penguin. After a good laugh, I decided I didn't want to go down hill like that so I was proactive and decided to slide down on my butt. The snow as this point was lightly covering a large rock. The slide wasn't as smooth as I had hoped and ended up being a little painful. As we continued hiking Ross noticed that I had a huge hole in my snow pants across my butt. Yup, of course I didn't escape my clumsiness with a hole in my pants. We continued on the adventure as we could see Mt. Tom in the distance. On top of the trail we came across a few hikers. We looked at my watch and noticed that it was almost one o'clock and if we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get back before the park gates closed at 4 we needed to turn around. We were a little disappointed we didn't make it to the summit this time around as it looked a little under a 1/2 mile away, but with the time it took to trudge thru the deep snow that would take us at least half an hour or so to get there plus back.
At this point we reversed our course back on the M&M Trail and took a right onto the red blazed DOC Trail. After getting past the last of the bare rock on the M&M Trail we decided to leave our snowshoes on the whole way back. While we were on the DOC Trail the snow started to come down, so it was probably another good reason we turned around when we did. We reached the Keystone Extension and then took a left at the end of the trail onto the Keystone Trail back to our car. In total we went 5.7 miles in about 4 1/2 hours. 2 1/2 of those hours consisted of going thru snow that was thigh deep which is why the time and distance seem a little off. This is where we spent a lot of energy and took a while to trudge thru. Mt. Tom is a beautiful spot to visit in the winter as you hike thru the woods and up to the picturesque snow covered cliffs on top of the mountain. There a lot of different trails that you can explore. We are determined next time to wake up even earlier so we have plenty of time to make another attempt to summit Mt. Tom in the winter.
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| Part of the trail packed down |
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| The beginning of the M&M Trail |
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| Some of the thigh-high snow |
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| A view from off the cliff ledge on top of the mountain overlooking the town below |
