Mount Tom and Summit House

Dated 9/4/2021

Its been a lazy summer. I did not do much hiking but in preparing for our trip to Franconia Notch, I woke up from my slumber and decided to hike up Mount Tom on Saturday. I woke up around 7 am and asked Rania, my eight yeard old daughter/princess to wake up. She jumped out of bed in no time. She is extremely enthusiastic about hiking and we decided to name this weekend as , father-daughter weekend. We also woke up Cocco, our Australian cobberdog, who gingerly got up from Sarim’s bed and stretched his body on me. He wolfed down his breakfast and was eager to jump into our car. He has been growing smart at a fast rate and we can communicate much better with him now. Sometimes its all non verbal and just in the eyes.

We left the house early and were planning to get coffee and sandwich at Mount Joe cafe in the parking lot. Sadly it closed due to COVID-19 and has not been operational yet. Slightly upset at the idea of no coffee and food, we gingerly made our way to the trailhead. Crossing the rode carefully with cocco, who turns into a poop monster in the woods, I made sure I had plenty of bags to pick up after him. As we started up, Cocco was pretty excited and was way in front of us. Unleashing the beast as we call him, he galloped up the mountain. We kept a brisk pace to keep up with him. On our way up, Rania and Cocco started running and explore different trails and I educated Rania on blazes on the trees. Cocco did not seem to care and after some time, I realized that Rania did not care much either.

Going up, we neared the top as we took in some great views of pioneer valley. Cocco was not afraid and walked right to edge reminding me of the tune of Aerosmith’s classic “Living on the edge”

As we reached the top, we soaked in some beautiful scenes. Cocco went crazy as he started sniffing newer adventures. We met a cool couple from South Hadley who had 3 children and a German doodle named cocco. The guy was freakishly tall and his wife was a school teacher. I also saw a beautiful hawk gliding up the sky. One thing about going up is that everything looks small. This hawk was such a magnificent creature and reminded me of Iqbal when he said “Tu shaheen hai, Basera kar paharo ki Chitanoo per”. The beautiful animal owned the sky and I marvelled at its majesty as a king of the skies and also of the creator who made this possible in the first place. Subhan Allah. We hung out for a while and than started our descent as we ran into some nice hikers and another young kid with a dog. Cocco was polite and very well behaved. Our way back in the car was fun as we decided to skip Dunkin Donuts for moms magnificent breakfast. We had french toast done right, Pakistani style. Although the hiking ended, we ended the father daughter day with some shopping at Longmeadow shops followed by lunch at our happy place, Max burger.

Our adventure continued on Monday as we decided to do skinner mountain, to the top of summit house which was built in 1821 and now stands perched on top with majestic views of the valley with Mount Greylock visible in the distance as far as the Berkshires. We started early but were a little tired. The hike up is much better paved. We were smart this time to pack a peanut butter sandwich for Rania. We also had cold water and this made going up much easier. As we reached the top, Cocco met another canine and wanted so bad to play with him. We reached the summit house and than met an elderly couple from New Hampshire. Rania devoured her sandwich and cocco took some much needed rest in a shaded area.

As we came down, Cocco was quick to jump into the driving seat. The ride home was special as Rania was tired and fell asleep next to me on the passenger seat holding my fingers in her tiny hands. Mindful of the beauty of this special event, I was grateful of this time that Allah allowed me to spend with my daughter. Coming down we met a father with 2 little kids. His older son was 3 year old. I remembered my time with my boys ten years ago as I hiked frequently with them. It goes fast as both boys are now older and are engaged in other things that are more exciting than hanging out with their old man. Oh well, still got Rania…..For now !!!!