Running Without a Net

We don’t get a lot of opportunities for extreme exposure here in western Massachusetts. Not the way you do up in the White Mountains or out west in the Rockies or Sierras. The magazine covers and clickbait photos featuring runners up on scary-looking escarpments or gliding along the edges of too-technical precipices aren’t exactly our standard geography wheelhouse. BUT, we do occasionally have our moments.

An example: the local trail running community as a whole LOVES Mt. Tom, and the Metacomet-Monadnock (M-M) Trail (also a part of the New England Trail) along the summit ridge in particular. For nearly two miles the trail hugs the western edge of the mountain’s crest, sometimes edging right out to the top of the cliffs. Parts of it allow you to run fast and parts require you to use your hands to scramble up or down steep outcrops. Whether you consider it “fun” or not probably depends a lot on your personal comfort level with heights. But no one would deny it’s dramatic as all get-out.

Clifftop run on Mt. Tom

Another obvious example would be the handful of ledges along the Seven Sisters ridge across the river. Most of the route there is quite safe, albeit highly rugged and technical and challenging, but in a few spots the trail flirts with vertigo-inducing drop-offs and steep pitches. A bit further east in the Holyoke Range there’s another ledge near the top of Long Mountain that has a slightly similar feel.

Running right along the edge on Mt. Holyoke

Sometimes the dangerous sections don’t have sweeping views. In an area of Wendell State Forest known as Hidden Valley, an unnamed trail traces along the top of a steep cliff in a fully wooded setting. It’s not like running up the Angel’s Landing Trail in Zion national Park or anything, but the actual feeling is nearly as exhilarating. 

Other sites that come to mind where you can briefly court real danger or feel a surge of adrenaline on your run include: a short stretch in the open below the summit of Peaked Mountain in Monson; a thin fin of ridgecrest along the M-M Trail on East Mountain in Holyoke; Sachem Head in Greenfield; Spruce Hill along the Hoosac Ridge Trail in Savoy; “The Ramp” along the NET in Northfield (map); above Farley Ledge in Erving; and the AT on Jug End in Egremont.

at the summit of Spruce Hill in Savoy (Mt. Greylock across the valley)

Scenic vistas and view ledges are quite common in this area, but actual moments where you get to run along the edge of a high cliff and/or truly experience a thrilling moment where one wrong step could actually make all the difference are rare. My choice? Seek them. Find them. Run ‘em. Live.

Ben is the editor of The Sugarloaf Sun newsletter and author of the guidebook Trail Running Western Massachusetts.