Friday, November 19, 2021

Tekoa!


Helping Mike finish this year's trip to Western Massachusetts, we met at an access point north of majestic Mt. Tekoa. The goal was to check the summit ridge for a reported cave, then continue the hike a ways towards English Grass Cave.

View from the summit ridge of Mt. Tekoa

Some prep work, along with modern GPS and mapping technology, made accessing the Tekoa Summit fairly easy. But along the way we quickly became aware of severe trail flooding with impoundments creating small ponds at certain points. After reaching the ridge that looks down on the Westfield River 900 feet below, we followed that ridge to the northwest to use the existing network of trails (along with a moderately long bushwhack) to eventually end up at English Grass Cave. A lot of walking and a lot of climbing involved. Upon our departure from the cave, it was one more lengthy walk and a bushwhack to skirt a pond covering the old woods road. Beat up and tired, we eventually reached our cars and said goodbye until our next adventure.

Mike extracting himself from English Grass Cave