yes thats right
i promised 4 but then surprised even myself by trying
5
yet delivered only 2 class a
so in a nutshell
the new score is 15 completed & 6 elusive
with 23 remaining untried
> the next 4 tripoint tries in this neck of the woods
> all of which are planned ambitiously for today
> will undertake to bring the total berkshire try
> score up to 20
& the 21st point try
hipewa
or hinsdale peru washington
which i added fairly spontaneously in the end
& which i will eventually describe in the proper
sequence
also finally brought the try coverage past october
mountain
where it had been stalled & backed up for so long
so i have both reestablished the desired sense of
order
& have even proceeded one step within this order
or as far as 44 degrees & 23 minutes north now
> as well as to fill in the coverage all the way up to
> october mountain
> or about 44 degrees & 22 minutes of north latitude
> from where i then intend to proceed northward in
> orderly progression
for the first or actually 17th try point in all
i picked the easy looking grstwe in preference to its
difficult mate algrwe
so the order anticipated here below was actually
reversed
> first
> high up on the ridge line of tom ball mountain
> at far left center of the following topo swatch
> is the challenging algrwe
> or the tripoint of alford with great barrington &
> west stockbridge
>
http://topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n=4679724&e=633181&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25
> while in sharp contrast
> at the opposite side of the frame
> is the tame looking grstwe
> where great barrington meets stockbridge & west
> stockbridge
> practically in downtown housatonic village
& because topozone crops a bit from the right side of
the print frame
i found myself already passing alices restaurant on
the approach to housatonic village in the above swatch
before realizing i could have had anything i wanted
but in fact didnt have the tripoint map coverage i
thought i had
so i had to guess & recollect my way to the objective
which wasnt really all that hard
except that the monument was nowhere in sight when i
arrived
& to understand why
please see the first pic attached
for this is all that remains above ground of a 7 or 8
foot rock that must originally have stood 3 or 4 feet
above grade
but was nearly buried when the sloping lawn between
the parsonage & church was backfilled
& it is good i persevered & scored a relatively quick
point because the morning was getting away
& the next or 18th tripoint
algrwe
also as shown & mentioned above
promised to be demanding if not difficult as well
& in fact she was both
& in the end elusive
having decided on a long ramble from the east in
preference to a short scramble from the west
i noticed grwe was pink ribboned where it intersected
long pond road
so when i parked at the trail intersection shown on
long pond road
i had hopes of following the trails shown
first westward toward round pond & then northward
& of thus reducing the bushwhacking by nearly a half
& of then hopefully picking up the pink ribbons from
that point
for the final half mile to the objective
but there were no pink ribbons there
& this was nearly enough to stop me in my tracks
since why proceed at such long range without a lead
line
even if i had roughly the right distance & bearing
but i noticed the topography was in my favor
if i could just make it to the ridge line
& then use the distinctive knolls & steeps to home in
on the target
which i did just fine but without actually finding
anything
oh there was a single pink ribbon hanging on a tree
there all right
just where i determined the tripoint ought to have
been
so i am pleased to imagine that whoever was looking
for her before me was equally as stumped
but with gps receiver already in hand in their case
well i know that is a bit much of a projection on a
pink ribbon
but this location was a topological lock
& i dont believe common gps reception could improve on
my placement in this case
but anyway it is still class e as in elusive & a 4th
fairly tough nut
on the way to a 5th that was yet to come at lnrist
but first or rather 3rd an easy romp at the 19th try
point ristwe
as was anticipated here below
& the pic is attached but hardly worth showing
lnrist tho
the 4th of the day & 20th of the series
was one of the most intriguing misses yet
i went in along the lnri line from lenox road
which wasnt pink but yellow & blue & orange ribboned
& i measured the map & counted paces just to see if i
would hit it on the 345th step as confidently expected
but instead
on the 135th step all 3 colors stopped at a small
unmarked concrete form post
perhaps a lnri or property marker
but still 210 paces short of the tripoint
so i continued the bushwhack without benefit of
ribbons
& lost the line in mountain laurel thickets
but displacing eastward toward the brook
& then ascending the side brook shown just north of
the tripoint
i even imagined myself standing just above the
tripoint at the tip of the projecting hillside that
points toward it from the west
but no dice
even tho it was another likely topological lock
so i would classify it as the 5th in the class of
fairly tough nuts
> & in the next swatch
> lying a few miles northeast of the first one
> ristwe is to the left of
> center
> where richmond meets stockbridge & west stockbridge
> apparently on the shoulder of the access road to a
> radio tower
>
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n=4690176&e=637098&s=24&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25
> but to the right of center in this case is the more
> demanding looking lnrist
> aka the lenox richmond west stockbridge tripoint
> scarcely half a mile away
> probably in difficult woods
>
> & here again is the reference map
> http://www.berkshireweb.com/themap/index.html
& you may need it to find my 5th try & 3rd miss of the
day
& the unexpectedly early 21st try of the series
hipewa
near the northeast corner of washington
http://topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n=4694247&e=656040&s=50&size=l&u=6&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25
which i decided to do only after completing the 4
others
& i should add that it wasnt a matter of making a 5th
try for the sake of a 5th try
since there was no record to be broken or even tied in
doing that
rather my reason for proceeding at that point was to
lift off & finally continue past the stall point at
lelnwa at the first actual opportunity
& in this case i didnt have the benefit of the topo in
front of me
so it was not a pretty try
but it also isnt & probably wont be a fairly tough nut
the way it went was
i did at least remember that i needed to find the
washington school & then head east a couple of miles
from there to find the peculiar triangular block in
which the tripoint is situated
but washington school is now washington town hall
which fooled me at first
& i never found fassell road since it had another name
anyway
& thus came rather close but not very close
before giving it up for a future try with a map
so it was an earnest try but it just wasnt very well
prepared
& unlike the other 5 elusive ones hipewa can very
likely be improved on
when next the chase continues
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