Saturday’s hike was a loop around Ashley Lake in Washington, on the edge of October Mountain State Forest. Parking on Washington Mountain Road/Pittsfield Road where the Appalachian Trail crosses the road with a large sign. Here you can enter on Ashley Lake Road across from parking corner of Beach Road, in 200 feet the AT continues into the woods, we followed the road straight in. At about 1/4 mile there is a short spur on the right taking you to the edge of the lake. Head right at the first large intersection to continue onto Ashley Trail paralleling the lake on a courdoroy road. Trail is laid with logs because it is wet! Pass by colonial settlements until you reach another junction and head right towards the Ashley Dam. We did not make it through the loop, trail was at least 6 inches under water at 1.5 miles ( after all this rain) so we retraced back and entered from the other end. We will be back on this one when things dry up and the leaves drop, many colonial buildings are here including an old tavern. The tower we saw from the trail is a repeater tower, privately installed on the private property across the road. Complete loop with street walking back is 3.3 miles, flat terrain with very slight elevation.

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