Last weekend's Appalachian Trail solo overnight hike

I'm going to write up more then I normally do on these hikes, if only for my only benefit and any other hiking aficionados. For others, it may be TMI.

Joe dropped me off at the intersection of West Mombasha Rd., south of Monroe at 3:45 on Friday, the 16th, and Brigid with Tim picked me up off Rte 210, just south of the NY/NJ border, at about 4PM the next day.

The walk was 5 miles the first day, and 8 miles on day two on the A.T., but then an additional 1.5 miles to get from the A.T. to rte 210 (the exit was longer then I had thought; bad planning on my part).  

It was worthwhile, but challenging. It was VERY HOT and I was carrying too much stuff, because I wanted to try a few different things.

Here's the Appalachian Trail map (#2 of 4 on the NY/NJ series) showing the trail I walked the first day, from West Mombasha Rd. to the Wildcat Shelter. The prior five miles, east of the West Mombasha Rd. Brigid and I had day hiked along with Mike and Karen Riner, way back in December '07.

 

Here's where I started at 3:45

 
And where I ended up a few minutes to 7.

 
There were a a total of about 14 other hikers who tented or stayed in the shelter that night; all of them through-hiking the A.T. from Georgia to Maine and all of them vastly younger then me! Besides myself, there were three other people who actually slept in the shelter.

Here are some pictures from the walk the first day as I headed to the Wildcat Shelter.

 

 

This is Fitgerald Falls, about a 25 foot waterfall. The guidebook picture indicates that the water flow is usually a great deal more then this - in fact the water levels in all the streams and brooks I crossed were low.

 

 

As people kept arriving at the shelter several reported seeing bears as they came north (I was the only one going south; most through-hikers start in Georgia and go north). And then, just as it was getting dark, a bear showed up! A black bear and he (she?) stayed for a few minutes about 70 yards away. Everyone was excited to see the bear and no one was worried.

Unfortunately it was too dark to get even a halfway decent picture. Even when I manipulated the exposure and cropped, there's nothing but a dark, unrecognizable lump, right in the middle. Too bad.

 

After eating a Mountain House freeze dried meal (spaghetti and meat sauce; pretty good) I got a decent night's sleep, despite the mosquitos. I used Deep Woods Off! which works pretty well. Other hikers did not use any repellent; they are concerned about the chemicals. They also said that they were only recently bothered by mosquitos; further south they had no problems with them. One of the hikers was from Tennessee via Colorado Srpings, where he works on the ski patrol. He not only didn't use bug repellent, but he sterilized his water with ultraviolet light, using a steripen. he was concerned about the chemicals from chemically treating water, and I guess he felt a filter was too heavy. Nice guy - about 25 - and we had a short chat that night.

"Tennessee" slept in the shelter and was out the next morning around 6:30. I asked him how far he was going that day and he said "22 miles." He was tall and very fit and took off in his sneakers carrying a pack only a little bigger then a day pack. "Tennessee" had left Georgia in May, so to reach NY in that time frame - he was really "pickin' 'em up and puttin' 'em down".  

Here's a blurry shot as he took off - stopping at the bear box to get his food - note the relatively small pack.

 

Anyway, I got out at 7AM, picking up water from a stream on the way out, and made good time until about 8AM.

Didn't believe my bear story? Here's something right on the trail ...

 

Then, the trail got really quite rugged, as it went for miles mostly across rocky ridges, completely exposed to the sun.  And it was HOT.

Here's the map for the last few miles, and the exit trail off the AT, to the parking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The continuing Bellevalle Mountain ridge line. Yes it was hot.

 
 

I'm sure I mentioned it was hot....

 

 Nice view of Greenwood Lake. I am about 1,400 feet above sea level

 
The border

 
But not done yet; a mile and a half walk out a badly marked trail to the parking area and pick-up by Brigid and Tim. I didn't really calculate for the added distance, and was pretty tired by the time I saw Tim with a bottle of gatorade at the end of the trail.

 

All in all, a good trip. I would, however, not repeat the last section. Unlike much of the NY Appalachian Trail that I have done, this section was not so interesting that I want to do it again.

I now have about 20 miles of the 88 miles of the Trail in NY State to complete - all of it in sections north of the Bear Mountain Bridge. Hard to believe it's taken me since September of 2007 when I first started (on a hike with Tim), to do the other 68 miles.

EXTRA STUFF

I didn't carry a tent or sleeping bag. Instead I carried an AMK bivy sack. I didn't get inside the bivy - It would have been way too hot - just laid it over myself. I had two sleeping pads (an experiment) and used both; a thin full length foam one and a 3/4 length cabelas "self-inflating" pad. Sleeping in the shelter with that rig was good.

For water purification as a save-weight experiment I used aqua mira; I left my katadyn water filter at home. The aqua mira worked fine (slight taste of chlorine, easily covered by a powdered drink like propel).

My cooking system was also lighter. I didn't bring my Jetboil, but used my MSR pocket rocket and a canteen cup. I only used it Friday night to boil water for the Mountain House. AND I wasn't very hungry on the trip; thirsty yes, hungry no. I brought home lots of the food I had bruoght with me(clif bars, packets of tuna, packet of dried fruit), and gave an unopened loaf of italian bread to one of the through-hikers going north.

Despite these weight saving efforts, I still carried too much stuff. As another experiment I had my hiking boots and a pair of new balance cross trainer's.  Wore the boots the first day, and had real big-toe pain (a problem I sometimes have). The second day I wore the cross trainers and the big toe pain disappeared, since the upper is much softer then on the hiking boots. But not a panacea. The cross trainers don't really have a thick enough sole (my sore left knee was even sorer), and I got a hot spot on the bottom of my right foot near the five mile mark the second day (might have been the socks). But for the near term, until I can come up with a better answer, I'll just be wearing the cross trainers on hikes.

And I had too much other auxiliary stuff. 100 ft. of paracord, too many plastic bags, too big a first aid kit, an unnecessary hat for wearing while sleeping, and other impedimenta. By eliminating the unnecessary stuff, one of the sleeping pads, and my hiking boots, that's a good six lbs. Doesn't sound like a lot, but in 90 degree plus heat, it is.

 So, since Thanksgiving, 2009 I've now done three overnight hikes on the Appalachian Trail; two of them solo (you can see the other one here) and one with Jeanne Marie Gagnon and her son Philip. I expect I'll be able to finish the remaining 20 miles of NY Appalachian Trail with three or four day hikes, hopefully before the end of this year. Then, I am toying with the idea of walking across Connecticut on the A.T., perhaps in one four day go. Only a thought.

Comments

[Judith Anderson]

Welcome home, pilgrim.

[Doreen]

T. you are a trip...........that's why we all love ya.

[Maria]

can you be more specific about the unrecognizable lump? I thought if you make a crosshairs on the middle of the picture, I saw two bear eyes just above the upper left quadrant. Charles said that was trees, and the lump must be down at the bottom.

Great to learn all these things from the young hikers (glad so many of them are out there doing this.)

great trip.

[tomfaranda]

Maria, the bear is the dark area almost in the very center of the photo, behind the vertical line, which is a tree. You can only make out a vague shape, no eyes. The bear was about 70 yards away and I cropped and lightened the picture. Wish I gotten a better picture.

[Maria]

I think I see it. A shape that slopes downward from left to right I think. How fun!

[Tom Faranda]

Maria, that's it. And if you look carefully you can make out the 2 front legs.