traffic conditions aug.27-sept.10

[cricket71]

Gonna be heading up from salsbury,thru mass and into VT. aug 27-sept 10 and I was wondering if the trail will be packed. Also heading up on aug 20-22 with a friend from work who is interested in backpacking. Picked up an REI flash 65 instead of the old gregory, took the 65 out for a one day shake down and was really impressed with its ride @26lbs. Happy trails folks.:banana

[Jeff]

That late in August in CT, MA and southern VT you will have mostly SOBO's, section hikers and day hikers.

[Painted Turtle]

I have been doing a lot of shuttling the past week and from what people have told me very little traffic. A few North bounders and a few south bounders. Very quit. I will be out hiking almost every day next week and shuttling everyday so if i hear or see anything that changes that I will let you know. My understanding is the hikers are in VT, NH and ME.

[Cosmo]

Packed? Probably not, weekends at popular sites (southern Mass for sure) will be busy. At this point, thru hikers are getting pretty scarce compared to July.

You will run into the usual college groups at various sites, less as you get later into Sept. Can't predict when they will be where as most don't submit itineraries to the local clubs. Some are great and respectful of others' desire for a relatively quiet backcountry experience. Others are less well-lead and have little to no respect for others, the environment or the Trail. Hopefully, you won't hit an overnight site where there are two groups at once. If you encounter any really bad ones (last year in Mass we had a group from a large, famous southern New-England university--initial letter of their name is near the end of the alphabet--that washed their dishes in the water source at 2 consecutive campsites), please let our respective clubs know (me for Mass, GMC for VT).

Cosmo

[Slo-go'en]

You will run into the usual college groups at various sites, less as you get later into Sept. Can't predict when they will be where as most don't submit itineraries to the local clubs.

Oh yeah, its that time of year again. You can pretty much count on every shelter and every camp site to be full with these college orintation groups from NY to NH. The schools don't seem to co-ordinate with each other, so it is possible that 2 or more groups will show up at the same site and each group usually has at least 10 in it. Late August to mid Sept is the usual time frame. Mid-week, weekend, doesn't seem to matter.

Funny story, I was at a shelter in Vermont when one of these groups shows up and sets up near-by. There was a light rain coming down, but I had a nice little camp fire going at the shelter fire pit. Two young girls from the group wander over and one of them asks "Excuse me sir, but where can we find dry fire wood?" I could not help myself. With a straight face I replied "What? You didn't bring any with you?". Of course, I then went on to explain about standing dead wood and even though the wood might look wet, it was really dry just under the surface.