Return to Brushy Mountain

With Spring comes (finally) the melting and slow drying of the more lightly-traveled and less-improved Valley trails.  Brushy Mountain provides a good climb, zero human presence (other than logging--see below), a potential pit-stop for water at the North Leverett CoOp, and a 6-mile stretch of road to end the loop (for those days when somebody in the group wants to punish his friends by pushing the pace).

~17.5 miles, 2 hrs 11 min



...Tangent, totally unrelated to evolution and hardly even to running: Brushy Mountain is owned by a large lumber company; the State "bought" the development rights (see below); and now the same company is practicing "sustainable forestry" by attempting to sell land in Amherst for a 600-student housing complex...clearing 150 acres of forest in an area with roads barely able to handle a few cars and bicycles.

civil disobedience   (scroll down the page a bit.)
http://www.savehistoriccushman.com/

"They cannot see that growth for the sake of growth is a cancerous madness, that Phoenix and Albuquerque (Drew's note: Amherst) will not be better cities to live in when their populations are doubled again and again. They would never understand that an economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human." Ed Abbey, Desert Solitaire