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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut West Cornwall Covered Bridge |
In one weekend I got to travel along almost all of the section of the Appalachian Trail that meanders through Connecticut in the USA. I experienced ‘Trail Magic’, the kindness of multiple ‘Appalachian Angels’ and what Silk Blazing is, while keeping a wary eye out for Bears.
The Appalachian Trail was the brainchild of Benton MacKaye back in the 1920s and stretches from Georgia to Maine in the USA through 14 states and over a total of 2200 miles. Its estimated that 2 million people visit this trail every year.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
I wanted to spend a weekend on the Appalachian Trail before the winter arrived so last weekend was my only window of opportunity. The plan was to
Fastpack for 2 days from the southern part of Connecticut to the northern part, staying overnight in one of the famous
Appalachian Trail shelters and take everything we needed with us and be self supported.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
Shona and I set off on a very misty Saturday morning near Bulls Bridge heading north on the trail. The entire weekend would spend much of the time meandering near or next to the Housatonic River.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
It was a very humid and damp day, very quiet in the misty woods and both of us were slightly jumpy about encountering Black Bears. The terrain was eerie and beautiful, with huge rocks in the hilly woods. The trail is very well marked with white ‘blazes’. These are basically oblongs of white paint on the trees and rocks. Most of the time you can always see at least two blazes ahead of you so the navigation is incredibly easy on this trail.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
Every half an hour or so you get to cross a stream or waterfall, and amongst the leaves we could see little Red Spotted Newts darting about.
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| Red Spotted Newt on the Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
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| St Johns Ledge Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
Halfway through the day we got to St John’s Ledges. These are very popular with climbers and have a stunning view across the landscape. We then had a very hair raising descent following the white blazes climbing down round and over some sheer rocks to get to the bottom.
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| Descending from St John’s Ledges on the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut |
After St Johns I got my first taste of ‘Trail Magic’ in the form of some snickers bars left out for hikers on a prominent rock. Trail Magic can come in many forms, food , drink (some people leave out coolers full of ice full of drinks or even simply a sighting of an animal or encounter that lifts your spirits). I’d never encountered anything like it in the UK so found it utterly brilliant.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
As we got in to the town of Cornwall we found out that there were no shops or cafes for dinner. Despite that we got our first taste of an ‘Appalachian Angel’. We had only been there for a matter of 2 minutes before a local shop owner had called us over and arranged a lift up a few miles to the next town in West Cornwall where there was decent Cafe for dinner. We came to learn that for a few months of the year locals within the area of the AT are used to helping hikers out in any way they can. Lifts to towns for food, some people even taking hikers in and cooking for them and letting them shower. These people are referred to as Angels.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
The West Cornwall Covered Bridge is a very famous and it is opposite where we had dinner at Pearlys Farm House Cafe in West Cornwall. We planned to hike about 3 miles in the dark after dinner from the Cafe to a nearby shelter on the Appalachian Trail called Pine Swamp Brook Shelter.
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| West Cornwall Covered Bridge Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
The Appalachian Trail is rather wonderful. The entire trail has wooden shelters set up like log cabins but with one wall open to the elements. They usually have a nearby source of water, a composting toilet AND a Bear box ( more about Bear Boxes later !). These AT shelters are part of the whole experience so I was keen to stay there for the night.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
Within 5 minutes of leaving the Cafe another Appalachian Angel arrived out of nowhere and offered us a lift to the trail head by the road ( and save us 1.5 miles on the road to get back to the trail). From there it was a steep sweaty humid night time climb through some very tight rock spaces to get to the shelter in the swamp.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
As we got close to the shelter location I was in two minds. Part of me wanted the shelter to have no one there and part of me was praying there would be lots of people…..because…. I was genuinely worried about sleeping outdoors in the open with Bears about. The need to lock food away from camp in special bear proof boxes or hang food in trees had only fed my fear I was definitely going to be dragged off in the night by an 11ft high Grizzly Bear and mauled to death.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
We arrived at the camp to find it well occupied with tents and a tidy small fire. I’ve never been so hugely relieved that I was in the woods in the middle of nowhere with so many strangers. We chatted for an hour while we set up sleeping bags and mats in the shelter and others smoked pot and asked about what we had seen on the trail. This was an enchanting part of my weekend and gave me a real taste of the Appalachian backpacker culture that exists amongst the overnighters. These were definitely ‘my people’. I learnt that we had had the full experience that day. Those that travel on the trail are known as white blazers (after the markings), you also get Blue blazers that take the odd shortcut and Yellow Blazers who get the odd lift on the road (like we did with the Angel). I also laughed at the term Silk Blazer which describes the unfortunate person up front on the trail that hits EVERY SINGLE SPIDER WEB in their face all day.
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| Great Falls Appalachian Trail Connecticut
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I had a sporadic nights sleep, in 40 minute bursts, waking up to check for bears that never came and enjoying the loud thuds of branches and acorns crashing down on the roof of the shelter all night. We left the shelter early around 7.30am and headed towards the Great Falls further up the Housatonic River.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut Rands View |
The second day was slightly less heavy going underfoot and we got to the stunning Great Falls for lunchtime. From there we were spellbound by Rand’s View later in the day (literally a section that leaves the woods for 200m simply for the enjoyment of the view of the mountains in the distance).
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
We finished the afternoon with a pleasant but tough meander through some woods between Canaan and Salisbury. These were ancient and varied and like something out of the Lord of the Rings, although with the high humidity I again got crippled going up hills with the heat. The last 7 miles took quite a few hours and gave us a chance to look back on a weekend that was tough but stunningly beautiful. We had worked incredibly hard to travel about 40 miles in 2 days on foot with 8kg packs. We had gone up about 8 to 10 peaks and ascended about 5000ft too. Meeting some Austrailians coming the other way on a 4400 mile Yo Yo ( up AND down) of the AT made us realise the true enormity of this trail. I was certain this was some of the most beautiful trail I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world.
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
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| Appalachian Trail Connecticut |
In a world of technology I think the AT is a superb telescope into the past to see how things were in the USA out on the trails. There is something very ‘frontiersy’ about the AT despite it always being within hearing distance of many main roads in CT. Hikers say hello, you camp together in groups in the shelters and trail magic and readily available streams for fresh water makes the distances possible and enjoyable. In the UK you would hardly ever dare dream of risking drinking from a stream.
Judging the AT in this blog based on my single weekend is like a film review based on only watching the trailer of a movie. This trail is huge, beautiful, stunning, scary and completely addictive.I will certainly be back.
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