LANESBOROUGH — Instead of filling up shopping bags, some local hikers spent their Black Friday in pursuit of a different goal: escape into nature.
At Mount Greylock State Reservation, participants in a “Gratitude After Gravy” hike kept the Thanksgiving spirit going by appreciating the natural world’s beauty. Despite the snow rapidly falling on the reservation’s Bradley Farm Trail on Friday afternoon, a small group of hikers braved the cold and wind to learn more about the local flora and fauna.
“We love when anyone decides to step out of the fast lane,” said Mike Whalen, the DCR interpreter who led the hike. And the snow, he said, wouldn’t deter the hike: “We kind of embrace the elements as much as we can.”
Hikers hit the trails instead of shopping on Black Friday for a guided post-Thanksgiving “Gratitude After Gravy” hike at Mount Greylock State Reservation in Lanesborough.
Hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the annual statewide hiking program — formerly known as “Go Green on Black Friday” — encourages participants to trade department store aisles for hiking trails. Eight hikes in total took place across the state on Friday.
The Bradley Farm Trail is a roughly two-mile loop that occasionally pitches upward or plunges downhill. Among the frigid winds and barren trees, plenty of curiosities awaited discovery, including running brooks, panoramic views and a trail marker that denoted the town boundary between Lanesborough and Cheshire.
“There is life, still, in this frozen forest,” Whalen told the group. From yellow birch trees to fat tiger moth caterpillars, the trail offered plenty of glimpses into the local ecosystem.
Mike Whalen, a park interpreter, leads the annual post-Thanksgiving “Gratitude After Gravy” hike at Mount Greylock State Reservation on Friday, stopping frequently to point out aspects of the terrain and the history of the people who inhabited the mountain and the surrounding area in the past.
But life in the forest often means struggle, whether it’s black knot fungus bulging out of tree trunks or scars left in bark by parasitic insects. Hikers also came to understand the challenges facing the reservation’s natural landscape, which will likely continue to play out over the next few decades under the influence of climate change.
While Whalen said a typical Black Friday hike sees over a dozen participants, this year the harsh snow whittled that number down to about half. Most of the six hikers who joined Friday were volunteers with DCR who signed up to help lead a larger group, but found themselves sticking around despite the small crowd.
Noses went red from the cold, and the fallen leaves made extra slippery by the snow turned each step into a gamble. But not a single hiker said they regretted their decision to attend Friday’s hike.
Hikers hit the trails instead of shopping on Black Friday for a guided post-Thanksgiving “Gratitude After Gravy” hike at Mount Greylock State Reservation in Lanesborough.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” said DCR volunteer Andrea Fox. “That’s the truth.”
While the snowflakes sticking to her binoculars lens made it impossible to use them, Ellie Goerlach, another DCR volunteer, said she still preferred exploring the frigid outdoors to trawling bargain bins.
“I hate shopping,” she said. “I’ve never done Black Friday shopping before and I don’t intend to start now.”
Hikers hit the trails instead of shopping on Black Friday for a guided post-Thanksgiving “Gratitude After Gravy” hike at Mount Greylock State Reservation in Lanesborough.
For Whalen, Thanksgiving Weekend also serves as the perfect time to reflect on the knowledge of the natural world that Indigenous peoples have contributed. For that reason, he began the hike by teaching participants an Abenaki expression of gratitude.
“It just seems common to overlook the presence of Native Americans,” Whalen said. “We’d like to be able to tell more of that story at Mount Greylock.”
To that end, he said, Mount Greylock State Reservation is looking to provide more programming that centers Indigenous perspectives, as well as work with local tribal communities.
