It is winter in the Berkshires

It is during the winter months that I am mostly reminded that we live on hills. When I began running this realization also came to me quite quickly as roads that seemed relatively flat or with a mild grade took on a totally different feel when it is you who are running what is unquestionably up.

Lenox itself sits atop a hill and then my neighborhood is a bit of an elevation above that, so just getting into town requires going up hill and then once there it is a choice of which way is the lesser of evils for the final “up”.

My normal route is winding and along the river until it gets to within a mile and a half or so of my house then it’s a left turn and a steady up hill for a mile then a quick right turn and up a sharp hill for a half mile. Or I can go another way which has a longer hill and slightly less of grade until that final steep hill. Or I can abandon my usual route and stay on route 7 which leaves Lee and goes up hill for 2 miles until it gets to the lake then levels off and goes up again. None of these is easy when the roads are slick and the car in front of you stops leaving you with absolutely no momentum.

Almost every day of the year I roll my eyes at the 4 wheel drive SUVs that are all over the place as I tool around in my front wheel drive Toyota. Except on these very few hours of these very few days when I would love to have a bigger 4-wheel drive vehicle to make the trip easier and less complicated. But those are the choices. When you live in the Berkshires you make choices and one of them is living with the weather as it is most of time and accommodating for the times when it is extreme.

But it is quiet and peaceful in the blowing snow. The pellet stove pumps out that heat, the Christmas lights in the neighborhood glow beneath drifts of snow and the lights on the Christmas tree bring it to life. So much better than how friends have it that were in the path of the ice storm last week. We completely avoided it, a fluke current of warmer air gave us just rain.

It is winter in the Berkshires.