Excursion sign-up is first-come first-serve, some excursions have limited availability. Please sign up here and indicate first and second choices. If the weather is truly horrendous we can revise. If you will have a car at the meeting it will be helpful and give us more flexibility if you don’t mind driving a couple of colleagues to the excursion you choose. Thanks!
Hancock Shaker Village
Espousing egalitarian ideals, women took on spiritual leadership roles alongside men. The Shakers emigrated from England and settled in Revolutionary colonial America, with an initial settlement in 1774. They practice a celibate and communal utopian lifestyle, pacifism, uniform charismatic worship, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, technological innovation, music, and furniture. There is only one remaining active Shaker community, in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
Tour of the cleverly designed buildings, beautiful grounds, and farm. 35 minutes from Great Barrington. For more information, see the website.
Olana NY State Historic Site
Olana State Historic Site is a historic house museum and landscape in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The centerpiece of Olana is an eclectic villa which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. The residence has a wide view of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Range.
Tour of the house, meticulously designed by Church, and walking trails with great views. 50 minutes from Great Barrington. For more information, see the website.
Hiking Options
Dry Hill (New Marlborough)- Hike through dense thickets of mountain laurel, which make an impressive display of pink and white blooms in late June, to Dry Hill summit. (2.6 miles, 272 ft elevation gain, moderate). 20 minutes from Great Barrington.
Race Brook Falls and Mount Race (Sheffield, Mt. Washington)- Enjoy several waterfalls, mountain laurel blooms, gneiss outcrops, and great views from the southern Taconic ridgeline. (6.6 miles, 1,625 ft elevation gain, difficult). 20 minutes from Great Barrington.
Bartholomew’s Cobble (Sheffield)- Quartzite and marble rocky knolls support woodland wildflowers and a particularly diverse fern community at this National Natural Landmark along the Housatonic river floodplain. (several trail options up to 4.0 miles, up to 310 ft. elevation gain, easy-moderate). 20 minutes from Great Barrington.
Bash Bish Falls (Mt. Washington, Copake Falls)- An easy stroll to Massachusetts’s most spectacular waterfall, steep climb for a fine view of Bash Bish Gorge, New York’s Harlem Valley, and the distant Catskills (2.0 miles, 470 ft elevation gain, moderate). 25 minutes from Great Barrington.
Canoeing
Canoeing, most likely on Goose Pond on the border between Lee and Tyringham. Although Goose Pond has summer homes along half of the lower larger pond, the upper pond seems almost wilderness like. The upper lake intersects the Appalachian Trail and an Appalachian Mountain Club for hikers sits on its shore. Four thousand acres surrounding the upper pond were purchased by the National Park Service to be included as part of the Appalachian Trail Corridor. Bald eagles, hawks, and turkey vultures are sometimes observed. 25 minutes from Great Barrington.
Swimming
Benedict Pond (Great Barrington, Monterey)- Loop trail around a picturesque forested pond, with an option to explore the Appalachian Trail. Swimming is available from the small beach. (1.7 miles, 114 ft elevation gain, easy). 15 minutes from Great Barrington.
Bicycling
Four bikes, four e-bikes available for rental from bike shop in town. Hilly but very scenic bicycling.
Bowling
The Cove Lanes, the inspiration for The Big Lebowski. Really doesn’t seem any different from any other bowling alley, but a collegial way to spend an afternoon with colleagues. And maybe the Dude will show up.