Photos: CT and NY Section Hike

We're back from this years southbound section hike from Kent CT to Dennytown Road, NY. We inflamed a knee around Canopus Lake on the poor quality trail and loose talus on the blue blaze trail to the beach area, so we decided to cut our hike short by several days. Still we covered about 50 miles of trail. We're busy updating our TrailJournals log, but have gotten our photos loaded into our TrailJournal album. With our notes, photos, and experiences, we should have plenty to blog until next years section hike in Shenandoah National Park.

National Trails Day 2012

Just got back from a full morning at the Arkansas Trails Council's National Trails Day event at Burns Park in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Too many events and not enough me's to attend them all!

Theo Witsell (backpack) teaching Arkansas Master Naturalists

We started our morning with an 8:30 a.m. plants walk led by Theo Witsell of Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission. Theo is amazing! Its not enough he knows there are five species of wild blueberries in Arkansas, but he managed to point out and help us identify each in just the first half-hour. There wasn't a blade of grass or green leaf Theo didn't know the name of and how to differentiate it from other look a likes. The walk was well attended with most of my fellow walkers being Arkansas Master Naturalists or Naturalists in Training.

The shock of the morning was when Theo spied a small three leafed plant at the base of a tree, snatched off a leaf, and shoved it in his mouth. (Yeah, we thought what you're thinking! Is he an idiot or just not allergic to poison ivy?) Turns out that Fragrant Sumac is non-toxic and looks very much like poison ivy. Don't try this trick with friends until you learn poison ivy's center leaf extends longer than sumac's center leaf and can identify both plants with 100% accuracy.

We left the plants walk early due to it overlapping an edible plants walk on the schedule. Heading back to the Scouts trail head we discovered Friends of the Ouachita Trail had set up an informative display. Bill Mooney was representing FOOT. Nearer to the trail head, two more Arkansas Master Naturalists had a Backpacking 101 display set up. Visitors had the opportunity to handle everything from snow shoes to dehydrated fruit to various backpacking stoves. Several nearby EMT's on bicycles where practicing tying the knots shown on a nearby display panel. We showed the friendly medics a trick for tying the bowline that an old salty Coast Guardsman had shown us in our youth. We also demonstrated how to tie an overhand knot in a rope with a single, quick flick of the wrist.

Turns out that due to Arkansas' lingering Spring drought, the edible plants hike was delayed and relocated to a better wetlands area. We quickly followed our new Master Naturalist friends and met up with Mike Thenes and Steve Fortin, our edible plants guides for the morning. We've attended one of Mike's walks before as he is a regular presenter at our nearby state park. We quickly set off down a new trail built by the Arkansas Master Naturalists to be used for future naturalist walks.

Mike Thenes (left) discussing the four leaf cross vine (inedible,
but useful for basket weaving).

For those who have never been on an edible plants walk, this is the least strenuous outdoor adventure you can engage in besides sitting in a lawn chair and admiring fireflies. There's really no walking. Its more like: take ten paces, stop, and stand for several minutes. Repeat until one hour has elapsed. We never got more than 50 yards from the parking lot at our farthest. We also didn't graze as much as we have on previous edible plants walks. We did discover wild garlic, wild onions, hickory nuts, many grasses (all grass seeds are edible, but watch out for purple ergot fungi lest you perish by St Anthony's fire.) We were also reminded that everything on the Pine tree is edible, but it all tastes like turpentine. (Start with pine tea. Chop the green needles very small for more intense flavor.) Had early Americans known how rich pine needles are in vitamin C, many hundreds of deaths from scurvy might have been prevented.

Finishing up our edible plants walk, we hustled down by the Arkansas River Trail where the Arkansas Trail Riders Association was hosting horse rides for kids and there was a scheduled Leave No Trace (LNT) demonstration. The LNT demo was being disassembled as we arrived, but we did receive a waterproof set of front country and back country ethics cards listing all the best practices for leaving no trace in the woods. As most of the kids in the immediate area were still engaged in soccer games on nearby fields, we wandered over and talked with a few horse owners. Most were busy with a potluck picnic lunch and feeding the sole park ranger. It's good to be the ranger! More so on National Trails Day.

Feel free to comment below and discuss any National Trails Day events you attended or what you might like to participate in at next year's events.

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.