Timex's Appalachian Trail Adventures: September 2013

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Sleeping Giant - Square trail

This hike occurred on September 22, 2013

Trail Heads:
Mt Carmel Ave., Hamden, CT - Parking: There is a parking lot on Mt Carmel Ave with room for maybe 3 cars to park off the road. The entrance to Square trail is accessible directly from the parking lot.

Mansion Rd., Wallingford, CT - Parking: There is a parking lot on Mansion Rd with room for 4-6 cars to park off the road. The Horseback U, Skiing X, and red Square trails are all accessible from here. We hiked from here.

Length/Distance:
We completed a thru-hike on the red Square trail which is listed as 1.6 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 1.87 miles.

Summary: We started the hike from the Mansion Rd parking lot. The trail was well marked and was easy to follow. The trail did have a number of sections with substantial soil erosion. The hike was uneventful but relaxing.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Metacomet trail - Part 8

This hike occurred on September 15, 2013

Trail Heads:

650 Southington Rd, Berlin, CT - Parking: On the side of Southington Rd, there's space to park maybe 1-2 cars. There are no signs prohibiting it but it isn't an optimal spot.

Sheldon Rd, Southington, CT - Parking: On the side of Sheldon Rd, there is on-street parking for 8-10 cars. No parking is allowed on Andrews or Carey Streets so expect to park here and walk to the trail head which is about a third of a mile away.

Length/Distance: According the Connecticut Walk book, the route between the trail heads on Carey St & Southington Rd was 1.7 miles, with the distance between Carey St and the junction with the Ragged Mountain trail system marked as 0.5 miles. We hiked from Sheldon Rd to the trail crossing on Carey St, ascended to the Ragged Mountain junction, descended back to Carey St, and then hiked from Carey St to Southington Rd. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 3.5 miles; this seemed accurate within half a mile or so.

Summary: From Carey St, we turned left towards Ragged Mountain, following the blazes up a driveway.

We saw some Schreber's Aster (Eurybia schreberi/Aster schreberi) on the trail.

The trail parallels a large boulder/cliff side (I believe it is sometimes used for climbing).

The trail wrapped around the side of the cliff. The climb up and down required a bit of scrambling.

At the top of the cliff, the trail meets up with the Ragged Mountain trail system.

The view from the top was nice and looked back towards West & East Peaks.

We then scrambled back down to Carey St, traveled along Mill Brook (a private drive), and entered the woods at the end of the drive. Shortly after, there was a wood bridge over a creek.

From here, the hike did a bit of climbing to ascend Short Mountain though it was lighter than the ascent to Ragged Mountain. There was one or two good viewpoints (as seen at the very top of this blog post). From the top, we worked our way back down to Southington Rd.

Overall, the hike was short and a good trail to ease back into more intense hiking this fall.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Appalachian Trail section hike - MA

Hike occurred on September 5th, 6th, 7th, & 8th, 2013

Massachusetts Appalachian Trail section hike

By "Timex"

Thursday, September 5th:

Greylock Community Club, North Adams, MA to
Crystal Mountain Campsite
18.6 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Mt Williams (2951 ft), Mt Greylock (3491 ft), Saddleball Mountain (3247 ft), & North Mountain (2182 ft).

Summary: I started Day 1 around 8:15am from the community center. I struggled to make good time as I hiked that morning since it was mostly climbing upward and I hadn't yet learned the many ways to make my pack most comfortable. I reached the Greylock summit around noon. I then headed to Crystal Mountain Campsite, reaching the site around 6:30pm. I set up my hammock, made dinner, greeted a group of 12+ backpacking college students, and got to sleep around 9pm.

Pictures:

View from Williams

Sign inside Bascom Lodge

Ceiling of the tower's room

Greylock's observation tower

Adorable Praying Mantis

View from Greylock

Metal casting of the mountain range including Greylock

Friday, September 6th:

Crystal Mountain Campsite to
Upper Goose Pond Cabin
27.3 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Tully Mountain (2070 ft), Warner Hill (2050 ft), Bald Top (2040 ft), Walling Mountain (2200 ft), & Becket Mountain (2178 ft).

Summary: I was woken up multiple times throughout the night by the cold (around 30 degrees) and finally got up for good at 5:40am on the morning of Day 2. I packed up while shaking uncontrollably from the cold and was on the trail by 6:40am. I hiked the 3-4 miles into Dalton, stopping at their Cumberland Farms for skin protectant (which I had stupidly neglected to bring), coffee, and a danish. This helped warm me up and I headed off into the mountains again. I booked it all day and made some serious miles, though my body made me pay in various petty ways. I arrived at Upper Goose Pond Cabin around 6:30pm and almost wept at the sight of the cabin, the wonderfully padded bunks, and real furniture. The week's caretaker, Kevin, kindly heated up some water for my freeze dried Pad Thai (which was delicious) which I enjoyed while chatting with other hikers. I met a married couple from California and Indiana who met in the military and are now thru-hiking from ME to GA (SOBO - or south bound) after seeing a documentary about it on TV. I also met a 20-something year old guy who's doing a 2-3 week SOBO hike, expecting to end around New York or New Jersey. I gratefully ate cookies around a campfire for a while before heading to bed at 9pm.

Pictures:

View from Warner Hill

Greylock from Warner Hill

Selfie with me and Mt Greylock

Cabin's privy

Beautiful 5-star hotel Upper Goose Pond Cabin. Pancakes and coffee each morning, courtesy of Kevin, the week's caretaker.

Access to a boat dock (with boat) and beach!

Second floor with bunks with 3-inch thick mattresses! Just what I needed.

Saturday, September 7th:

Upper Goose Pond Cabin to
Tom Leonard Shelter
21.8 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: Baldy Mountain (1873 ft) & Cobble Hill (1358 ft).

Summary: I started Day 3 at 6:15am. I woke up, packed up my bag, ate a tall stack of chocolate chip pancakes and coffee (courtesy of Kevin), and hit the trail by 7:15am. The terrain for day 3 was mostly flat(ish) and allowed me to make good miles early in the day. The final push to the shelter was a steep mile of uphill but I made it to the shelter by 5:30pm. Once there, I slung my hammock from the rafters of the shelter's loft, cooked my dinner, and had some great conversations with the tent platform's occupant, Kathy. Turns out, Kathy is a recently retired Hamden High School (CT) media specialist/librarian; we had great times talking about hiking, reading, books, and various social justice issues. I turned in for the night around 9pm.

Pictures:

Cooper Brook beaver pond

Me and Cooper Brook beaver pond

View from the Ledges including East Mountain and Mt Everett State Forest with Catskills in the background

Look, I made a fire!

Sunday, September 8th:

Tom Leonard Shelter to
Conn. 41/Undermountain Trail
24.3 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact

Mountains climbed: East Mountain (1800 ft), June Mountain (1220 ft), Jug End Mountain (1750 ft), Mt Bushnell (1834 ft), Mt Everett (2602 ft), & Race Mountain (2372 ft).

Summary: I was woken up around 4:45am by a screech owl screaming. Thankfully, it followed up the screaming with hooing so I knew it was an owl, not a murderer. I woke up for Day 4 at 6:15am. I packed up my hammock, got my bag ready to go, and said farewell to Kathy. She gave me her email in the hopes that we can get coffee back in CT sometime later this fall. I started hiking at 7:30am. I hadn't expected day 4's hike to be quite so steep and mountainous. My miles seemed to take forever. I also managed to sprain my right ankle at 8am and proceeded to sprain it at least half a dozen more times throughout the day. I made the summit of Race Mountain around 5:30pm, Sage's Ravine around 6:30pm, Paradise Lane trail around 6:45pm, Undermountain Trail by 7:30pm, and the parking lot by Conn. 41 at 8:15pm. It was a very long day but I was glad to be done! The next day, I sought out all the pizza, Chinese food, and beer I could fit in my stomach.