Section Hike: Kent, CT to New York 17A

This summer's Appalachian Trail section hike is across New York. Last year we section hiked all of New Jersey and stopped at NY 17A due to damaged feet. As we want to continue sectioning north, but don't want to tackle the hardest part of New York first, we're jumping ahead to Kent, CT and hiking southbound (SOBO) to NY 17A. This should give us a week to get our long distance legs and lungs developed to tackle Bear Mountain, the Lemon Squeezer, and Agony Grind the last few days.

Below is my hiking plan much as it looks on my cell phone. My safety person will also have a copy of this schedule to monitor my progress. Noting approximate times, mileage, major features, and notes on water and privy availability have proven useful the last few years. I also carry a printed copy of this hiking plan and review my progress before bed each evening.

Kent CT to NY 17A (93.1m)

DAY 1

8a
Grand Central Station

8:45a
Depart NYC ($22)

10:30 Southeast Station (transfer)

Noon
Arrive Wassaic NY (shuttle $20)

1p m1455.9
Kent CT 06757

2p m1455.5
Algo shelter - W PRIVY

4p m1452.7
Schaghticoke Mtn Campsite - W

4:30p m1452.1
Indian Rocks

6p m1448.1
Trail to Bulls Bridge

7p m1447.4
hand pump (w)

7p m1447.2
Ten Mile River Lean-to - W PRIVY

-------------------------
DAY 2 (12.7m)

11a m1444.4
Ny/CT State Line

Noon m1443.2
Wiley Shelter - w

4p m1437.6
N.Y. 22, Appalachian Trail RR Station 12564
Native Landscapes & Garden Ctr (W, shower, mail drops)

4p m1435.2
Dover Oak

6p
County 20/West Dover Road

7p m1434.5
Telephone Pioneers Shelter - W PRIVY

-------------------------
DAY 3 (7.8m)

10a m1434.0
West Mtn

Noon m1431.2
Nuclear Lake - W

2p m1430.0
N.Y. 55, Poughquag, NY 12570
E - school bus deli/hot dog stand

6p 1,426.7
Morgan Stewart Shelter - W PRIVY

-------------------------
DAY 4 (10.3m)

10a m1426.6
Mt. Egbert

2p m1422.8
N.Y. 52, Stormville, NY - (E–0.3m G, M)

5p m1417.7
RPH shelter - W PRIVY

6p m1416.4
Shenandoah Tenting Area - W

-------------------------
DAY 5 (9.4m)

Noon m1,414.9
Shenandoah Mtn

2p m1,412.0
Canopus Lake, Clarence Fahnestock State Park - W SHOWER

4p m1,410.7
NY 301

7p m1,407.0
Dennytown Rd - W
(Camping W 500 ft, S dirt road to hill)

-------------------------
DAY 6 (12.3m)

10a m1404.3
South Highland Rd

3p m1399.7
Graymoor Spiritual Life Center
W PRIVY SHOWER (donation $10)

4p m1398.3
US 9/Shell station/convenience store - W Meal FUEL
7p m1394.7
Hemlock Springs Campsite - W

-------------------------
DAY 7 (7.2m)

9a m1393.3
Bear Mtn Bridge

9:30a
USPO, Ft Montgomery 10922
(dropbox) RESUPPLY

10a m1393.2
Bear Mtn Museum/Zoo/pool
W PRIVY SHOWER Wx

Noon m1390.7
Bear Mtn - W Wx

6p m1387.5
West Mtn Shelter - NO WATER

-------------------------
DAY 8 (9.2m)

10a m1385.9
Beechy Bottom Brook - W

10a m1385.7
Palisades Interstate Pkwy

11a m1384.4
William Brien Memorial Shelter - NO WATER

1p M1381.6
Seven Lakes Parkway

3p m1379.4
Arden Valley Road - w
SHOWER / PRIVY / DINNER / FILL W BLADDER
(Tiorati Circle/Lake)

6p m1378.3
Fingerboard Shelter - NO WATER

-------------------------
DAY 9 (6.9m)

10a m1377.0
Lemon Squeezer

Noon m1375.6
Island Pond Outlet - W

2p m1373.6
Arden Mtn, Agony Grind

3p m1372.1
Orange Tpk - W (E–0.5m)
(NYC vista)

5p m1371.4
Little Dam Lake - W
NO CAMPING

-------------------------
Day 10 (8.6m)

10a m1367.8
Mombasha High Point

1a m1366.6
Fitzgerald Falls - W

Noon m1364.8 (13.5m)
Wildcat Shelter - W PRIVY

2:00p m1362.8
NY 17A - Bellvale Creamery

2:10p NJ Transit Bus ($15)

6p ARR NYC

Note the above plan can easily be modified for a shorter hike by starting at Pawling, NY; at Peekskill NY; at Fort Montgomery NY; or at Lake Greenwood NY. These are all bus and commuter train access points for the Appalachian Trail.

Rapid Blended eLearning Course: Hiking the Appalachian Trail

We've been studying blended learning and rapid eLearning professionally for the office. As information doesn't become knowledge until acted upon, we have started an after-hours project. We are developing our first online blended learning course using rapid eLearning techniques. We decided to build a hiking course as "playing" is how programmers learn to use their tools of the trade.

For those unfamiliar with rapid eLearning, its a development process that uses subject matter experts to author learning materials using off-the-shelf technologies. As there is already a diverse supply of articles, blog posts, videos, lectures, and other materials for the Appalachian Trail and backpacking, we are actively building activities and links to quality resources. With luck, we shouldn't need to develop any new materials.

We'll update this post to keep you advised of our progress.

4/5/12 UPDATE: We're about halfway through our course development. Have had numerous "Ah-hah!" moments. We selected and organized a nice set of video, blog, and other resources to instruct you on hiking the Appalachian Trail. We've also thought up and added some practical hands-on exercises for you to do as well. We're still moving things around and hope to invite everyone to visit in about second weeks time. (We've also had the idea to use this course as the base for our first Pinterest hosted course.)

5/25/12 UPDATE: Done! We've got the content finished. We're having some trouble with Blogger/Blogspot removing internal links and need to make the links handicap accessible. Feel free to bokmark and tell a friend!

Appalachian Trail Weather from Google

Just discovered you can get Appalachian Trail weather via a cell phone by sending a SMS text message to Google. Google offers an SMS Search service. You can text various short texts to Google and receive detailed text search results on your mobile phone. One of the SMS text searches is for weather.

To get Appalachian Trail weather reports, just open a new outgoing SMS message and send "wx" and the nearby zipcode to 466453 (GOOGLE). You'll receive a weather forecast for the next 24-48 hours from Google.

I usually depart for the Appalachian Trail with a ten day forecast from the Weather channel. One of my peeves about the trail is the lack of current weather data along my hike. Often there's a bulletin board with warnings and admonitions, but no one seems to pin-up a 72 hour forecast for long distance hikers.

This year I plan to annotate the zipcodes of nearby towns on my hiking schedule so I can get updated weather from Google as I work south along the Applachian Trail. When I send an SMS text message to my safety person following my hike, I'll take a moment and get updated weather from Google!

In addition to adding the Shenandoah NPS 24-hour emergency center (800-732-0911) to your phone's contacts, give strong consideration to adding Google SMS search.

Trail Food: Market Pantry Nutrition Bar

Midway in our 2011 section hike of the Appalachian Trail, we lost our appetite and felt a bit lethargic. If you followed our adventure in our TrailJournal, you'll recall we were concerned about a lack of nutrition. We thought perhaps we were too low sugar and low salt and the wilderness EMT suggested low potassium.

We've long noted the nutrition bar aisle at our local Target department store. Looking through the racks of various nutrition bars we noted that calories and content varied. We long wanted to taste test some of these, but recall our first taste of Gatorade many decades ago. Foul! Salty! Since then we have shied away from anything related to sports nutrition and went with everyday nutrition as practiced by ordinary citizens.

So, it was with some trepidation that we selected and purchased a Market Pantry nutrition bar. Target provides individual nutrition bars for purchase, so we were relieved not to have to purchase an entire box, only to find us holding an expensive box of what we refer to as "wood chips". To improve the chances of our taste buds accepting the strange new food, we opted for a nutrition bar marked "chocolate peanut butter".

The wrapper on our bar stated it contained 210 calories, so we decided to eat half one day and half the next. Late in the day when we normally have a wee bit of carbs we tore open the wrapper and bit in.

Not bad. Not bad at all!

This was certainly not the nutrition food of our 1970's youth.

Our first taste was similar to a less sweet candy bar. After two or three bites, we definitely could taste the difference.

We do note the taste was not so inspiring that we weren't able to resist folding up the remaining half of the bar and leaving in front of us until the next afternoon.

Bottom line: Its a keeper. We plan to buy two boxes of the bars for our planned 2012 section hike in CT and NY. We'll update you on our field results after our trip.

UPDATE 5/31/12 - We bought one box of bars for our upcoming 10-day section hike of New York. Plan to eat them on one long day and the three ending mountainous days. Most will be mailed ahead in a resupply dropbox.


Disclosure: We select and purchase the product(s) reviewed. We have no material connection to either the manufacturer nor the retailer(s).

Trail Food: Justin's Honey Peanut Butter

While shopping at a local Target department store, we were browsed the food aisles looking for possible backpacking fare. While standing in front of a wall of peanut butter, we noticed some small boxes with individual packets of peanut butter. From the four boxes we selected a small packet of Justin's Honey Peanut Butter to sample at the office. Today was the day.

The packet of peanut butter stated to knead before opening. Being a military veteran, this brought back memories of little green packets of peanut butter in the ubiquitous Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs). We once failed to knead and were punished with oil and a thick peanut flavored nougat. We rolled the packet between our palms rapidly.

Finding a small nick along the side, we opened the packet slightly and squeezed a dollop onto a waiting cracker. We definitely tasted peanut butter, but not a heavy taste of peanut butter. On our second dollop we distinctly could identify the taste of honey. Finally, we tore open the pouch and dug in with a small plastic spoon. The peanut butter was tasty, but a bit mealy feeling in the mouth. Perhaps we had not spent enough tie kneading it before use.

The packet indicates Justin's Honey Peanut Butter is kosher and gluten-free. A 1.15 oz. (32 grams) packet provides 190 calories. The very high calories to weight ratio and the good taste makes packets of Justin's Honey Peanut Butter a new inclusion on our backpacking meal plan this year. Last year we flagged a bit after a few days out, so we'll toss in some peanut butter packets to see if that helps us maintain our appetite around day four.

UPDATE 5/31/12 - We bought ten packets of Justin's Honey Peanut Butter for our upcoming 10-day section hike of New York.

Disclosure: We select and purchase the product(s) reviewed. We have no material connection to either the manufacturer nor the retailer(s).