From left: John Galt, Bob Baum, Skunk the Doodle, Richie Pollack and Richard Gelman turned up to walk and talk about the Monday Mountain Boys with me last week in Stockbridge. Photo: Hannah Van Sickle

The Monday Mountain Boys explore the Berkshires by foot, forge meaningful connections on and off the trail

As if their love of the mountains and the outdoors were not enough, the Monday Mountain Boys care deeply about one another.

Stockbridge — Bob Baum remembers the moment, as clear as if it were yesterday, when he first learned of the Monday Mountain Boys. He was at Tanglewood for a Koussevitzky Society dinner when his wife pointed him in the direction of Howard Kaufman of K-B Toys. “Do you hike?” was Kaufman’s first query of this new acquaintance. “I said yes, and the rest is history,” Baum told me last week as we tramped through Gould Meadows (owned by the town of Stockbridge) for a morning walk, his dog Skunk and three others hikers rounding out the group. What began serendipitously in 1993 — when a bunch of guys bumped into each other on the trail — has grown over the past quarter century to include upwards of 50 members who meet on Mondays, hence the group’s moniker, to explore Berkshire County by foot and forge meaningful connections both on and off the trail.

Traipsing through wooded portions of Gould Meadows in Stockbridge, having just passed portions of shoreline on Lake Mahkeenac, with the Monday Mountain Boys. Photo: Hannah Van Sickle

“If anyone thinks we are boys, they need an eye exam,” joked John Galt, a retired ophthalmologist from Pittsfield who identifies as “the first guy to slow down.” Galt, who is 88 years old, met Baum, who is 82 — and the rest of the group, most of whom “aren’t boys anymore” — following his retirement in 1999. He was invited to join the group when one of the original members, Sy Schwartz (an avid biker, marathoner and prominent Pittsfield accountant who ran to work each day), caught wind that Galt was hiking solo and invited him to join the MMB. He initially joined the Monday hikes and happily added a second day on the trail when the idea for a power-hike on Thursdays evolved. Locales stretch the length of Berkshire County, from the Thunderbolt Trail in Adams (the steepest and shortest route up or down Mount Greylock) to Mount Alander in Mount Washington (part of the Taconics at the confluence of Massachusetts and New York state). Beyond the benefits of fresh air and exercise, members cite connection as drawing them back year after year.

Bob Baum of Stockbridge is lauded as one of the patriarchs of the Monday Mountain Boys, a group he joined more than 25 years ago. Photo: Hannah Van Sickle

“The camaraderie is special,” said Richie Pollack of Stockbridge and Coconut Grove, Florida, who, despite not being retired, joined the Monday Mountain Boys several years ago after hearing about them via word of mouth. For Richard Gelman of New Lebanon, New York, and Davie, Florida, it was his wife’s Mahjong group that served as an introduction. “We are all different,” said Pollack, citing membership running the gamut from doctors, lawyers and CPAs to businessmen, entrepreneurs and even a handful of Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians. “We agree to disagree, agreeably,” is how Galt puts it, especially when the topic of conversation trends toward politics or religion. And women have slowly begun to hit the trail as well. “We started single-sex, but we’ve mellowed out a bit,” Galt admitted, another sign that the times are indeed changing.

Over the years, three distinct groups have taken shape. Howard Leffenfeld, who retired from shopkeeping and importing in Great Barrington, is “the original fast guy,” according to Galt; fittingly, he leads the fast group. Dan Parnell, described by Galt as “the slower guy in the fast group but too fast for the slow group” leads the intermediate group. This leaves Galt at the helm of 12-14 individuals in the over-80 group, which really took shape in January as a means of getting out on the trail and connecting with Baum, the group’s former leader, who spends much of his time caring for his ailing wife. Additionally, a plethora of dual hikes in central and south Berkshire County happen quite regularly, giving the larger group an opportunity to converge without fear of leaving anyone behind; in short, no one is discouraged from showing up based on age or perceived ability.

John Galt, who leads fundraising efforts, joined the Monday Mountain Boys almost two decades ago following his retirement. Photo: Hannah Van Sickle

“John has really taken this to another level with a cause,” Pollack said of the group’s philanthropic leanings, in particular its fairly recent support of Greenagers. Years ago, at the annual summer get-together — historically staged on Baum’s lawn, later at the Dream Away Lodge and now at the Pittsfield Country Club — the boys took to “passing a hat,” and most everyone could be counted on for $20. Early on, those funds were sent to the Appalachian Mountain Club, stewards of many trails the MMB traversed. Galt remembers one year, when walking on the Appalachian Trail south of Route 23, turning the corner and “com[ing] across a bunch of smelly, sweaty kids throwing rocks.” Perhaps that was 2008, when the AMC was renting space at April Hill (now home to Greenagers), and Galt had a realization: “These kids are the groundskeepers of our fairways,” he said, in a nod to the upkeep needed on a golf course, for instance. Over the past four years, the MMB have continued their tradition of passing the proverbial hat to the whopping tune of $40,000 in gifts to the local nonprofit’s trail-building efforts. Their giving to Greenagers was a no-brainer: Raising money to maintain the trails they love while paying kids minimum wage was a win-win. And so the tradition continues. They even have signature purple T-shirts (one of which I am now the proud owner) emblazoned with the Greenagers’ logo on the front, and the Monday Mountain Boys on the back.

As if their love of the mountains and the outdoors were not enough, the Monday Mountain Boys care deeply about one another. In the past eight months, a new tradition has quickly taken shape as Galt phones Baum at 8:30 a.m. sharp each morning: “Hey, Bob, where do you want to hike today?” and the pair makes a plan from there, spending the bulk of their time together traversing trails south of Pittsfield and north of Great Barrington. The friends walk most every day at 9:45 a.m. sharp save for Sundays, when Galt’s wife requests his company at church. “I learned 90% of the trails I know today from the Monday Mountain Boys,” Galt said with a bit of surprise, considering he grew up here and was active with the Boy Scouts, as were his kids. “When we were young, we used to climb,” said Baum, conjuring in my mind a pair of mountain goats scaling crazy hills. And Galt, in his gentle spirit of inclusivity, chimed in to assure me: “I’m sure we won’t go too fast for you.”

Want to join in on the fun? Contact MondayMtnBoys@gmail.com.