Get Outdoors

By Darcie Sosa

If you’ve spent the last few months hiding from the snow and cold indoors, now is the time to get back outside! Embrace the blooming flora and warmer weather, and take advantage of all the outdoor adventure The Berkshires has to offer!

Love to be in the woods? The Berkshires offers plenty of hiking, biking, and camping options to make you feel at one with nature.

The Berkshires has ten state campgrounds that offer cabins, tent, and lean-to sites. There are also five private campgrounds where sites are made available for campers, cabins, and tents.  Gather friends and family and enjoy a night under the stars with a cozy campfire!

If day trips into the woods appeal to you, then you’ll be thrilled that The Berkshires is host to endless trails in all our state parks and beyond. These range from handicap accessible and easy to moderate and strenuous. Berkshirehiking.com can help you select your trail based on difficulty, distance, and or location in The Berkshires.

Prefer to be outside, but with some pavement under your feet? We have just the thing! The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail was converted from an old railroad track to a bike path. This 10-foot wide paved trail runs 11.2 miles through the towns of Cheshire, Lanesborough, and Adams with scenic views throughout. There are also plenty of city/town road bike trails and over 30 mountain bike trails of all distances and difficulties. Looking for some guidance in your Berkshire outdoor adventures? Happy Trails Guiding offers guided hike, bike, and paddling tours all over Berkshire County.

Speaking of paddling, The Berkshires is home to endless rivers, ponds, and lakes that are often full of canoers, kayakers, paddle boarders and even rowers. Berkshire Canoe Tours is a local business that gives guided tours of the Housatonic River and provides everything you could need to do it.

If your idea of getting out is a bit more refined, The Berkshires is host a number of golf courses at resorts like Cranwell, country clubs like Berkshire Hills, Country Club of Pittsfield, Donnybrook, Egremont, Skyline, and Wahconah and along rolling green hills throughout The Berkshires.

Looking for an adrenaline rush? The Berkshires offers several adventure options throughout the county. Ramblewild Adventure Park offers nine acres of outdoor exploration and exhilaration with eight aerial trails inside the park, each of which starts from a tree fort suspended 15 feet above the ground. Many of the winter ski resorts transition into zip-lining attractions in The Berkshires including Berkshire East Mountain Resort, Catamount Aerial Adventure Park, and Deerfield Valley Canopy Tours. As it gets into the warmer summer months consider a fun white water rafting trip down the Deerfield River with Crabapple or Zoar OutdoorDon’t forget that many of the outdoor cultural venues like Tanglewood and Jacob’s Pillow will open in June. Now that it’s warm, there are several great reasons to get outdoors in The Berkshires. What are you waiting for?

Darcie Sosa is a Berkshire marketing/PR professional, who when isn’t working loves being outside hiking with her dogs, going to live music and theatre shows, networking, trying new restaurants and volunteering for local nonprofits. She is an alum of Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.