CT - Appalachian Trail

[czimborbryan]

My wife and I are planning on hiking the AT portion through Connecticut as a series of long day hikes on the first week of May. I will be mapping the trail as well as the intersections of side trails along the way for posting on my website.

If anybody has any trail updates or suggestions, please let me know.

FYI - I've learned to replace backpacking with a series of long day hikes as a way to speed up the mapping process. For example, if I'm backpacking, I can easily max out with about 12 miles under foot, but when day hiking I can hit between 20-25 miles in a single day. When I was a mountain guide out west, I would conduct our staff training in the same manor. We could cover three weeks of backpacking routes in just 5 days with the help of a 4-wheel drive off roader and some handy jeep trails for easy access.

[cbcbd]

Originally Posted by czimborbryan

FYI - I've learned to replace backpacking with a series of long day hikes as a way to speed up the mapping process. For example, if I'm backpacking, I can easily max out with about 12 miles under foot, but when day hiking I can hit between 20-25 miles in a single day. When I was a mountain guide out west, I would conduct our staff training in the same manor. We could cover three weeks of backpacking routes in just 5 days with the help of a 4-wheel drive off roader and some handy jeep trails for easy access.

Yep, it's called fastpacking... which can easily be done as backpacking trips if you pack very light.

If you're willing to do 20-25 mile single days then you could do CT in 2 days. If you took a lightweight sleeping bag/pad and ate foods that required no cooking you could "easily" do a 2-day backpack of the CT AT.

I might try for the CT AT dayhike again this year if you're interested, but if I was to break up the CT AT into a couple long hikes it would/could be:

CT/NY border -> rt 4 intersection = ~23mi
rt 4 intersecton -> rt 7 intersection = ~10mi
rt7 int -> CT/MA border = 20mi


-Doug

[Mike P.]

Sounds like fun, For some of those day hikes, I'll just carry a good sized fanny pack with a jacket, food, light water & a filter. If I liked iodine, you could even make it lighter.

[czimborbryan]

I usually do these type of hikes using an old original Camel Bak Mule. It's just big eneough for a little food, first-aid, and a rain jacket. It'll also hold enough water for the entire day and the top loop is just perfect to attach an external GPS antenna.