Sometime in 2005 Les, Bob and I are going to start hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). This is the evolving plan. I propose we hike from North to South. Depending on how many nights we plan to be out, we'll adopt one of the options below. Options are for 1 night, 2 night and 3 night two-car hikes.
Map 1 Options
Map 1 starts near Kent, CT and ends at NY52. Map 1 includes sections 1 through 4 of the NY Appalachian Trail. I have proposed 6 options for starting Map 1:
Option 1 - Day hike
Day 1
I don't recommend this option, since it would require more driving than hiking. However, should we choose it, we would meet Les and park a car at Hoyt Road, mile 11.5, end of section 1. We would then drive to Kent and could park at the trailhead, hike 11.5 miles to the first car, then return to the trailhead to pick up the other car. Bob and I will have about a 4 hour drive each way from CNY to this area.
Option 2 - 1 night short hike
Day 1
We would still park car 1 at Hoyt Road. But since the trail guide recommends not parking overnight at the parking area near the trial head, we'll find someplace in Kent to park. This will add 0.8 miles to get to the trailhead. The trailhead is where the trail crosses CT 341 @ 350' elevation. At 4.2 miles we will cross into NY. At about 5.5 miles we will cross back into CT. For the day, we can hike to either the Ten Mile Camping Area (8.5 miles) or the Ten Mile River Lean-To (8.7 miles) to spend the night. This should be about 4.5 to 5 trail hours, which after driving from home to meet up and get started, should be plenty.
Day 2
Starting out our 2nd day, after breakfast and packing up, we'll hike 2.8 miles to the southern end of NY Section 1 where the trail crosses Hoyt Road and re-enters NY. This is where we parked car 1. We'll drive back to get car 2 in Kent and we're done. About 1.4 trail hours.
Option 3 - 1 night longer hike
Day 1 - same as Option 2, except
We'll park car 1 at the NY22 lot, which is at the send of section 2 and the beginning of section 3.
Day 2
Starting out our 2nd day, after breakfast and packing up, we'll hike 2.8 miles to the southern end of NY Section 1 where the trail crosses Hoyt Road and re-enters NY. We'll continue onto section 2 and hike all the way to the end of section 2, which is another 7.1 miles. This brings us back to car 1 with 9.9 trail miles or about 5 trail hours. Then we drive back to Kent to pick up car 2 and go home.
Option 4 - 2 night short hike
Day 1 - same as Option 3 - park at NY22
Day 2
Starting out our 2nd day, after breakfast and packing up, we'll hike 2.8 miles to the southern end of NY Section 1 where the trail crosses Hoyt Road and re-enters NY. We'll continue onto section 2 and hike to spend the night at the Wiley Shelter at mile 1.2 of section 2. This makes 4 Trail miles for the day, or about 2 trail hours.
Day 3
We hike from the Wiley Shelter to the end of section 2 and our car parked at NY 22, which will make 5.9 trail miles or about 3 trail hours on day 3. Then we drive back to Kent, etc.
Option 5 - 2 night longer hike
Day 1 - same as Option 4, except
We'll park car 1 at the NY 55 lot, which is at the send of section 3 and the beginning of section 4.
Day 2
Starting out our 2nd day, after breakfast and packing up, we'll hike 2.8 miles to the southern end of NY Section 1 where the trail crosses Hoyt Road and re-enters NY. We'll continue onto to hike all 7.1 miles of section 2. Then we also continue on and hike the first 3.1 miles of section 3. This brings us for the night to the Telephone Pioneers Shelter at mile 3.1 of section 3. This makes 13 Trail miles for the day, or about 6.5 trail hours. This section of trail includes the "Gate of Heaven," the Pawling Nature Reserve, a train station, the Swamp River and the Dover Oak.
Day 3
We hike from the Telephone Pioneers Shelter to the end of section 3 and our car parked at NY 55, which will make 4.3 trail miles or about 2 trail hours on day 3. Then we drive back to Kent, etc. This section of trail includes Nuclear Lake.
Option 6 - 3 night hike
Day 1 - same as Option 5, except
We'll park car 1 at the NY 52 lot, which is at the send of section 4 and the beginning of section 5. This is also the end of Map 1.
Day 2 - same as Option 5
Day 3
We hike 4.3 miles from the Telephone Pioneers Shelter to the end of section 3 and then on Section 4 for another 3.3 miles to spend the night at the Morgan Stewart Memorial Shelter. This makes a total of 7.6 trail miles or 3.8 trail hours for day 3.
Day 4
We'll pack up at the Morgan Stewart Memorial Shelter and hike to our car parked at NY 52, which will make 3.9 trail miles or about 2 trail hours on day 4. Then we drive back to Kent, etc. This section of trail includes a view of Green Haven State Prison, the I-84 Overpass, and the Shawagunk and Catskill Mountains.
