Appalachian Trail section hike - first section of VT

Hike occurred on October 13th, 2013

Vermont Appalachian Trail section hike

By "Timex"

Sunday, October 13th:

VT-9, Woodford, VT to Greylock Community Club, North Adams, MA
18.4 total miles for the day - rough map completed after the fact.

Mountains climbed: Harmon Hill (2,325 ft), Consultation Peak (2,840 ft), Eph's Lookout (2,254 ft).

Summary: I started the hike from the USFS parking lot on VT-9 (Molly Stark Trail) at 10:15am. I climbed Harmon Hill and got a picture of the view.

After a few more miles, I arrived at Congdon Shelter. 

While a bit old, the shelter was quite nice and looked like it would comfortably sleep 8. The privy was new and very nice. Between Congdon and Warner shelters, I went by a very nice beaver pond. 

View of Scrub Hill

I also went underneath some power lines which provided an excellent view (sans wires). 

I arrived at the Seth Warner shelter at 4:15pm. I set up my bed roll in the shelter and made dinner. 

As I was eating, I turned on my phone to see if I could get signal. I found a message from my Monday morning ride, indicating they were unable to provide me with a ride. This change of plans meant that I had to pack up and continue hiking into North Adams, as no one I knew was available on Monday. I set out at 6pm to hike the ~7 miles. 

I eventually passed by the VT/MA border, which is where the Long Trail begins.

After following along Sherman Brook for over a mile, I finally crossed it and walked into town. 

From there, it was a few minutes walk to get to Greylock Community Club. I arrived at 9pm and met up with my ride. Since it was the weekend of the Greylock Ramble, there was quite a lot of festivities. 

Sleeping Giant - Blue & White

Hike occurred on October 19th, 2013

Trail Head:
Chestnut Lane, Hamden, CT - Parking: We parked on Chestnut Ln, on the far side of Sleeping Giant. There is roadside parking for at least a dozen vehicles.

Length/Distance: 
We completed a loop hike, taking the Blue trail up to the tower and then coming back on the White trail; this was slated to be around 5 miles. According to my GPS tracking program, our route was 5.9 miles, which included a short off-shoot when we missed a trail split. 

Summary: We began our hike at Chestnut Lane. We followed Yellow to Blue and then hiked up Blue to the tower. From the tower, we followed the Tower trail down to Triangle and then followed Triangle to White. We then followed White back to Chestnut Lane. 

We did find some Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) that looks tasty (part of the grape family) but is in fact poisonous. 

The trails were fairly busy given that it was a nice day at the tail end of leaf peeping season. The views were delightful; unlike Vermont, Connecticut trees were still in the process of shedding leaves.