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View Full Version : Tips for first time section hiker in CT



redworm
07-26-2011, 15:12
Hey, I am doing my first section of the AT this weekend into next week, the whole CT section and about 10 miles of MA. Can anyone offer any insight? Tips and whatnot? I have heard it will be easy to resupply water and food, will I need to bring a filter?

Tom Murphy
07-26-2011, 15:58
North of Salisbury & Southern MA

The Riga Shelter offers limited views but that is better than the "no views" at the shelters just north and south of it.

The NOBO descent off of Bear Mt is pretty steep.

I enjoyed the Sage Ravine campsite but it was crowded site.

The views from the ridge south of Mt Race are exceptional, try to plan a lunch break here, and the views there are better than at the summit of Mt Everett just north of it.

Guilder Pond was the only reliable water between Race Brook and 41. It is off trail a couple of 100 feet and might not be marked, so know where it is.

GL

Driver8
07-27-2011, 09:24
The views from the ridge south of Mt Race are exceptional, try to plan a lunch break here, and the views there are better than at the summit of Mt Everett just north of it.

This is peak blueberry season in the high ground areas from Lion Head to Jug End - enjoy that if you like, but rustle a stick or trekking pole in the bushes first b/c rattlesnakes sometimes like to lurk in the bushes. On the cliffs of Race, about halfway up, if you go pretty far out to the right (east) on the cliffs on a clear day, you can see Mt. Greylock looming just right of the cliffline. Pretty neat.

From Bear's summit cairn and Race's summit on a clear day, you can see downtown Albany to the northwest. Bear affords fine views north and west from its true summit, which is about 100 yards NW of the cairn just off the AT on unmarked side paths. Everett's views mostly are inferior to Bear's and Race's, but there are a couple of fine viewpoints just off trail: 1) at the summit, the AT takes a sharp right turn, and about 100 yards NOBO there's a rock outcrop on the left (couple of little paths to it from the trail) which affords very good views of Greylock and points northeast and the Housatonic Valley east and south, and 2) about a quarter mile past the summit, the old road diverges right to a clearing with fine views next to the little stone storm shelter - north and east.

The Race Brook Falls trail is amazing and very much worth a side trip if time permits. Six or seven very nice waterfalls if you hug along the brook below the ridgeline. The main trail switchbacks and crosses the brook below the biggest upper fall, from there you can follow the brook down along a roughly blaze trail (rocky and tricky). The lowest fall is the tallest and most spectacular. It's a mile and a half of trail to the lowest falls and a lot of work, but very pretty, especially after a good rain. It's been a wet summer, so it will be relatively good for this time of year.

Salisbury has an outfitter, Peter Beck's Village Store, who are friendly and helpful if needed, and there's a tea house right at the 41/44 section across 41 from the White Hart Inn named Chaiwalla that has superb pies, cobblers and the like along with a good selection of tea. The owner, Mary, likes hikers and loves to trade stories.

Finally, the Limestone Spring shelter is in a beautiful glen with a brook alongside it that has neat exposed limestone in its stream bed. The side trail down to it, about half a mile, is very steep and somewhat treacherous in places but is very pretty. I've heard bears and mosquitoes can be an issue down there, but just know that it's one of the prettiest trails I've seen in New England. Branches off the AT (it is an old AT routing itself) about 0.1 south of Rand's View, which is a very pretty panorama of the southern Taconics and the Housy Valley.

Bumpa
07-27-2011, 12:12
Good luck Redworm....I am doing that stretch in mid August and so it would be helpful if you posted after your hike. I would be particularily interested in where the water is running...thanks in advance Bumpa

Berserker
07-27-2011, 12:52
I did part of CT a couple of weeks ago as part of a week long section hike (included most of NY). In general I found CT to be quite enjoyable. The ascents and descents there are a bit challenging compared to other sections I’ve done as they tend to not be well graded, but rather just go straight up or down with lots of rocks included. The good thing is that they’re fairly short (i.e. elevation gains aren’t that big). I didn’t make it as far as Mt. Everett, so I can’t comment on that one as it looks to be the most challenging mountain in CT at least from the map.

Bugs were definitely an annoyance. There were mosquitos, deer flies, noseeums and ticks. So make sure to carry some type of shelter so you can get away from them while sleeping. Many of the thrus I met were complaining about sleeping in the shelters, and having to get inside of their sleeping bags to get away from the bugs. This was an issue for them because some of the nights were fairly warm (I actually slept on my pad with only my clothing on a couple of the nights).

There was ample water while I was there in the form of springs, brooks and hand pumps at the shelters/tent sites. The hand pumps are kinda iffy sometimes cause the water that comes out of some of them has a strong metallic taste. So I tried to hit the springs and brooks as much as possible.

The other thing worth mentioning is that you are supposed to camp in designated spots in CT. The good thing there is that there are a lot of them. All the shelters I passed had ample room for tenting, and there were several camp spots just for setting up tents.

Have a good hike.

GoldenBear
07-27-2011, 14:48
> I have heard it will be easy to resupply water and food, will I need to bring a filter?

All water sources listed in my guidebook were flowing well when I hiked from Highway 112 to Sages Ravine last week.

Is filtering necessary? Since I always filter water I get in the back-country, I can't say. The presence and type of microbes in back-country water, and the ability of people to handle them, is so variable (the former can change literally in a minute) that any blanket statement would be meaningless.

Since this is your first section hike, you most likely do not know your tolerance for water microbes. My opinion (and, like the saying goes, everyone's got one) is that you should filter.

Blissful
07-27-2011, 15:02
Aqua Mira is all you need.

I stayed at one of the guesthouses in Salisbury. Worked out fine, but the grocery store there is pricey. I did do a mail drop.

Prepare for bugs. Some good ups and downs but they are short.

WingedMonkey
07-27-2011, 15:08
Why would you need a town stop on a 60 mile hike?

Joker4ink
07-27-2011, 17:34
Of the people I know or who I have met on the trail, it seems that CT is underestimated. It is no White Mountains by any means. But I recall meeting a gentleman on the trail sectioning CT and he was saying how the elevation change (not enough to register on a topo) was really throwing his time off. Have fun with it though. I may see you on the trail even!

redworm
07-28-2011, 09:49
thanks everyone for the help. I bought generic brand water tablets before hearing about aqua mira, will they be ok? also re: food and bears at night, what is the proper protocol?

Driver8
07-28-2011, 11:41
Hi Redworm - there are bear boxes at many camping sites in Connecticut, you can put your foodstuffs in those where available. Beyond that, there is a methodology for hanging your food bag. There'll be plenty of threads about that here - just check around.

redworm
07-28-2011, 14:13
to be more specific, when I say generic tablets, I meant iodine tablets. I have those.