TRAIL MIX: Access for All

 

There’s no shortage of easy and rewarding leaf-peeping hikes for the able-bodied, from Stone Hill in Williamstown, Mass., in the north to Hurlburt’s Hill at Bartholomew’s Cobble in Sheffield, Mass., in the south—but for those with mobility issues, the pickings are slim.

 

Enter the Housatonic Valley Association, with its brand-new Old Mill Trail on the Hinsdale-Dalton line. This handicapped-accessible passageway winds along the banks of one of the Housatonic River’s prettiest sections, a burbling, rocky reach of the East Branch, upstream of the old General Electric plant in Pittsfield, Mass., and the unfortunate environmental legacy it left behind.

 

The well-marked trail starts across the street from the Hinsdale Trading Company on Old Dalton Road. To find it, follow Route 8 south (and uphill) out of Dalton. Old Dalton Road is the first left after crossing the town line into Hinsdale.

 

The wide, hardened path departs from the end of a paved parking area. With the aid of multiple bridges, it travels an almost level route parallel to the river, passing by ruins of the woolen mills that once prospered as a result of the easy access to hydropower. Today, this corridor of land is owned by Crane & Company, the fine papermaker that made Dalton home in 1802 to take advantage of the region’s superior water quality.

 

A twenty- to thirty-minute stroll takes explorers through a mature, mixed-hardwood forest, where great sugar maples flame orange, and into a darker hemlock glen. Sharp-eyed (or lucky) visitors may spot a muskrat or a pileated woodpecker.

 

Though the accessible portion ends in the hemlocks, a footpath continues downstream, crossing Route 8 before dipping close to the water along a section known for its remarkable stonework. After a mile and a half, the trail ends just upstream from the old Renfrew Manufacturing Company cotton mill in Dalton, now home to condominiums.

 

The grade here is gentle, but as any route following a river downstream will, by default, head downhill, keep in mind that the return is uphill—and will be slightly more arduous than the outbound trip. [OCTOBER 2010]

 

Tad Ames is president of Berkshire Natural Resources Council.

 

THE GOODS

Old Mill Trail

Hinsdale and Dalton, Mass.

Housatonic Valley Association