Trip report
Jul 20, 2021 — I decided to hike Mount Greylock, the high point of Massachusetts, from the east using two separate trails to form a nice loop. The peak can be accessed from other directions as well as just by driving to the top. I parked at the Bellows South Trailhead and headed up the well-marked Bellows Pipe Trail trail to the summit. It's really just an old roadbed through the forest and therefore wasn't a particularly interesting endeavor, but a steep forest walk is always a good time for the quads.
From the summit of Mount Greylock, I headed down its southwest slope on the Appalachian Trail, where I picked up the Gould Trail at a small parking lot. This trail leads down through some pretty forest that was quite a bit nicer than my ascent route on the Bellows Pipe Trail. The trail descended the south side of Mount Greylock and eventually I came to a junction that pointed to the Gould Trailhead, the trail crossing over Peeks Brook to reach it. It seems the standard way to do this loop would be to reach the trailhead and then continue along the south bank of Peeks Brook on a connector trail. Rather than take this and follow the Gould Connector Trail, I stayed on the north side of Peeks Brook along an old roadbed. This continued descending for a while and led into an overgrown field with a great view of Mount Greylock above. Past the field was an old covered bridge, which I marked on my attached map. If you're scared of ticks, you can just cross over Peeks Brook rather than go through the field. Either way, I was back on the Gould Trail and continued north to the Bellows Trailhead.