GoldenBear

Day 3 should have been an equally easy, ten-mile hike to Stony Brook Shelter. And, until the last hour, it was actually quite easy. When a sign at Chateuaguay Road stated I was a mere 4.4 miles to Stony Brook, I was feeling pretty good. When I got to a bridge and road intersection at the bottom of the hill where my map said I would find SB, I was feeling even better. When a sign just south of this bridge stated that I was 4.3 miles from Chateauguay, I was feeling REALLY good. After all, simple arithmetic ...

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a weather shaman, able to bring rain to whatever part of The Trail I happen to walk on. Remember in April of this year, when I said that (near Harpers Ferry) I hiked in the rain for the first time? I’ve since made seven treks on the AT – and gotten rained on every trip! If your part of the country is in a drought, feel free to pay me to hike there, so that you’ll get a minimum of a centimeter of rain in a matter of days.

This trip was still another to Vermont ...

As usual with my trips to Vermont, the weather has been exactly what I did NOT want to experience – lots of humidity, grey, cloudy, gloomy, and rain that gets you wet but doesn’t clear out the humidity. It was thus with great relief that my hike to the top of Mount Stratton – with a former fire tower now usable as a great scene viewer – featured sunshine and blue skies. Indeed, I was even able to get some pretty good photos from the lookout:
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=57335 ...

Tags: goddard shelter, stratton

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As noted in the previous blog entry, I have imposed some restrictions on where I can hike. To cover my miles, I must-
1) return home within a week.
2) cover not much more than ten miles a day.
3) stay at a shelter or established campground.
4) get to both trail heads via mass transit; or between trail heads with minimal shuttling.

As I already covered all miles between Rockfish Gap and the Vermont border, travel between home and any trail head requires ...

For wimpy backpackers like me, one of the problems of hiking the A.T. are the long climbs up (and down!) the mountains. In particular, those parts of the Trail that deliberately go to the top of the highest mountain around. And most specifically, places like Mount Greylock in Massachusetts – going from elevations of 990 feet to 3491 feet to 900 feet, all in a distance of thirteen miles. Real backpackers generally have no problem with these kinds of elevation changes, but I do!

For ...

Tags: bascom, greylock

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