Trip to Mount Major 1786’ and Straightback Mountain 1840'

Boulder Trail/Brook Trail/Mount Straightback Trail/Mount Major Trail

5 Miles 1200’ Elevation gain

Kevin, Judy and Emma

There was a two-fold purpose to this hike. One was to get out and stretch. Use our muscles before the upcoming Seek the Peak hike-a-thon. We've been cooped up a lot taking care of mom and needed to be outdoors. The low impact, infrequent hiking we've had this spring/summer has meant a lot of things: One that we are somewhat out of shape, but also that Emma's leg seems to have healed up pretty nicely. There is still some lag when she gets up off the hearth or the basement floor, but it's to be expected, she's almost eleven!

The second purpose to this hike was more important to me than the first: Blueberries! AS we started to level off on the Boulder Trail at about 1700' the forest floor surrounding the rocky ledges is made up of mostly Low Bush Blueberry. We stopped to pick here for awhile and picked about 3qts. in a half an hour, and could have kept picking, but decided to leave some for the next fellow. The plan all along had been to pick over Straighback Mountain, so after a brief stop at the summit of Major we continued onto Straightback.

I've been told that Mount Straightback had once been a blueberry farm, and indeed there is a tractor road to the summit. Although it is overgrown now, there is Low Bush Blueberry everywhere as well and we were literally able to just strip the berries right into our containers. Some of the bunches were so clustered they reminded me of a bunch off grapes. At home the bounty weighed in at 7lbs. Already have had pancakes, will make some Blueberry Crisp and a couple of pies today.

KDT