Great Barrington — An event to commemorate the opening of the Whale Rock Trail at the Thomas & Palmer Brook conservation reserve was held on Sunday, November 6.
The reserve was established in 2015 by The Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC) and is located at 305 State Road. According to BNRC’s website, the 267-acre reserve is part of the ancestral homeland of the Mohican reserve.
The land is part of a habitat corridor that includes Monument Mountain Reservation, Housatonic Flats, and Fountain Pond State Park. The land includes three different trails including the half-mile Meadow Loop, the 0.6-mile Woodland Trail, and now the recently created 0.3-mile Whale Rock Trail.
The Whale Rock Trail was constructed and designed by staff from BNRC, Greenagers, and the Student Conservation Association. According to a press release by BRNC Community Conservation Manager Mariah Fogg, the trail climbs in elevation over stone structures to a unique rock feature which is locally known as the Whale Rock. “It took the entire summer to construct the new trail,” Fogg told The Berkshire Edge during the Nov. 6 event. “It climbs in elevation a little bit, and it brings you into a fairly mature forest. It’s pretty wooded the entire way. You climb in elevation, but there are some nice switchbacks and stone features that kind of help to support the hiker. When you get to the top, you’re not getting to a vista, but instead another wooded area. The spine-like enormous rock looks like a while, which is why it’s called the Whale Rock.”
“Building the trail was a little intimidating at first,” BRNC Trail Crew member Jonathan Lueken said. “But little by little, having a bunch of help from the organizations and volunteers made it all mesh well together. It’s probably one of the bigger rocks here in the Berkshires, and to be on top of it and see down, it’s pretty impressive.”
The rain started to pour down right at the start of the Nov. 6 event. Despite this, more than 20 residents took part in the hike, along with family activities provided by the Berkshire Family Hikes organization.
The event was also held to celebrate the publication of “Everybody Can Hike,” a pamphlet on what to bring and expect while hiking on trails, along with the publication of the “Berkshire County Trails For All” resource guide.
For more information about The Berkshire Natural Resources Council go to its website.
