Quick Trip up The Mountain

Earlier today, I had a casting call as an extra in the local filming of The Liberator.  After walking back
and forth all morning for a "street scene", they fed us lunch and let most of us go early.  With all that afternoon time available and no adventures as of yet on this Independence Day weekend, I figured why not take a quick hike up our local mountain, Mount Wachusett.

Once again, I call my 9-year old grandson so see if he would like to tag along, too.  He's up for it, so I'll have some company for this hike.

We start at my favorite trailhead:  the less-traveled West Side Trail (on the west side of the mountain).  It is a familiar climb, but always enjoyable.  Well, perhaps it's only a little less traveled today;  it's 1:55pm and there no parking spots left. No worries, I can park on the road.

After ascending some steep spots, the trail flattens out as we near the summit chair lift at the top of the ski trails.  We ascend a few more meters and we're at the summit.  It's a pretty hazy day so we can't see the city of Boston.  We settle in on the fire tower platform and have ourselves a little snack.  

For a little variety, we decide to try the Harrington Trail on the way down.  If you check out the elevation profile below, you can see we have to tackle some of the steepness almost as soon as we left the summit.

Out hike to day was 3.08 miles and took 2:18.  Out total altitude gain was 818'.  Not too shabby.