SUNDERLAND — At 6:30 a.m., mist drifted across the landscape, frosting car windows, covering vegetation in cold dew and shrouding Cranberry Pond at the foot of Mount Toby in spectral, sallow hues.
Despite the arrival of peak foliage locally this week, the brightly colored maple trees along the pond’s shoreline — afire in oranges, yellows and reds — appeared subdued in the tranquil haze Sunday morning.
“It’s peaceful, there’s so much there,” said South Deerfield native Thomas Sandberg, about hiking at Cranberry Pond and Mount Toby. “I go trail running or hiking and always find a new area to explore each time I go. There’s a lot of ruins, caves, waterfalls, and other interesting sites, too.”
At more than 1,200 feet, Mount Toby towers above the roughly 650-foot-tall Mount Sugarloaf across the Connecticut River. The mountain is maintained by the UMass Department of Environmental Conservation, including its robust trail system.
One trail, which starts at a parking lot next to the pond and winds along the water’s edge, connects to the 47-mile Robert Frost Trail and leads up to a fire tower at the summit (owned by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation).
“There are miles of trails, all different kinds of (difficulty) levels,” said Hannah Jacobson-Hardy, who lives within walking distance of the trail head on Reservation Road. The Sunderland resident said the trail system is diverse enough to get lost in, and frequents the mountain “to get out of my head and into the wild.”
“It’s less traveled, and I’ve heard there’s a high amount of fern diversity here,” she added.
Depending on which trail — there are two, one easier, one more difficult — it’s about a 30- to 45-minute hike to the summit. One hiker at the fire tower Monday, who declined to be named and said they hiked up 200 times in one year, said it’s difficult for the region.
On Monday evening, the panoramic view from the top of the fire tower of Franklin and Hampshire Counties was bright in color typical to New England, which will continue this week as the trees in western Massachusetts hit their peak.
Although the summer drought has had an impact on foliage, experts say rich red, green and yellow leaves are coloring the landscape.
Jeff “Foliage” Folger, who runs a blog called Fall Foliage of New England, says though the foliage may be harder than usual to find, it is out there.
“People are going to have to do some driving around. Go out by the Quabbin. Hit the back roads. If they look, I think they’re going to find good color,” Folger said. “For the average person out there in Massachusetts, even in Connecticut and Rhode Island, it’s going to be a mixed bag. It won’t be perfect, but it will be nice.”
Folger travels New England looking for colorful fall foliage to photograph. He was the first foliage blogger for Yankee Magazine, starting in 2006. In 2011, he started his own blog and continued to document the changing of the seasons.
Across the Northeast, Folger said, leaves have been quick to fall due to the region’s drought.
“The drought definitely has an effect. The biggest problem that we have with it is that the leaves drop faster,” Folger said. “We’re getting a lot of leaf drop. For the average leaf-peeper, it’s not too bad, but it’s a little more noticeable, especially around the lakes region.”
But it is not all bad. Because there has been less rain, the leaves have a higher concentration of sugar. This has led to more bright red leaves on maple trees, Folger said.
Dave Kittredge, a professor in the department of environmental conservation at the University of Massachusetts, agreed the drought has contributed to more red leaves this year.
“The main pigment in leaves is green and that’s called chlorophyll. At the end of growing season, the green breaks down and reveals other things that are in the leaves, and that’s the color we see,” Kittredge said. “One of those colors is attributed to sugars in the leaves — I think that has more to do with the deep reds.”
According to Kittredge, it is likely the foliage was hampered by the drought, though there is no quantitative way to measure the impact.
“There’s no way to measure how colorful the foliage is, at least not for us mere mortals,” Kittredge said. “But I’d say we ought to be in the sweet spot of peak foliage.”
According to Kittredge, the ideal foliage conditions would be average rainfall in the area, which is about 40 inches a year. Above-average rainfall creates an ideal environment for leaf fungus and wilting leaves, he said.
Traditionally, peak foliage season is considered to be Columbus Day weekend. But after a dry summer and above-average temperatures in September, foliage blogger Marek Rzonca says Massachusetts is a little behind.
“This week we’re going back into the upper 70s and that’s good for prolonging the foliage season,” Rzonca said.
Folger agreed the foliage is at its peak this week. As the season continues, the green leaves will fade, yielding yellow and orange leaves, he said.
“Now, it’s pretty much fading. You’re going to see darker oranges, burnt sienna and things like that,” Folger said.