#138 - Initial Impressions of the Appalachian Trail - March 30, 2013

One of the things that I was very excited about when I first started researching moving to this part of New York was our proximity to the Appalachian Trail.  This trail stretches almost the length of the Eastern Seaboard.  My house is less than 10 miles from the AT, and there is a certain mystique for me. It brings images of rural Kentucky to me (or how I imagine it to be) and here it is in my own back yard!

One of my Boy Scouts recommended that we camp at a place on the AT, so that's where we set out to go.  Directions were not hard to find, and we set out on a short hike at 6:15pm.  The parking area (in Oregon it would be a Trailhead) was at an old cemetery.  Some of the headstones show death dates in the early 1800s, so the area has been inhabited by Europeans for a while.

We walked across the road and 100ft down a gentle hill and there we were: the mythical AT, previously only known to me by legend.  The entire area here is heavily wooded.  So this is just one more heavily wooded hillside, like many that I drive by every day on the way to or from work.  The trail follows a gentle switchback.  The woods in the Winter (and the forest has not fully woken from its Winter slumber yet) are lifeless and brown.  The only green is a little bit of moss, and some ferns flattened by snow that have not risen above the leaf layer yet.

You can walk any way you want through the forest.  There is no undergrowth to slow you down, nothing to impede your progress.  Although the area is completely natural, you would think it is carefully cleared.  A hillside such as this one in Western Oregon would be nearly impossible to plow through.  You would sink into 6 inches of detritus, stumble over hidden logs, slip on moss and ferns, and find yourself stopped by impenetrable bushes.

We arrived at our camp site in about 15 minutes.  It was only a quarter mile.  The site was 3 sites under one name.  A smaller site just East of the shelter that has a large platform for a tent and a fire ring, the shelter with its wood pile and stone cooking area, and a larger site with a larger fire ring close to the edge of the hill.  There is a spring, and a well attached to it (although the well pump is currently out of order), and a composting outhouse.  The outhouse is required, because there is no cover for a person to get some privacy.  It's a very foreign environment.

The shelter has a plastic box with a log book and some pens, and another with emergency supplies.  It's wonderful.  Water, food, shelter, and privacy for bodily functions.

The forest was quiet, but we didn't notice this so much until the morning.  An owl hooted all night, but we heard nothing.  Our dirty dishes were not touched all night.  No animal made itself known to us at all.  We made breakfast, broke camp, and got ourselves ready to leave.   Then we headed on a day hike, to explore.  We ended up following a trail marked by white paint on the bark of trees.  It wound around and over hills, over creeks, crossing roads, and sometimes in sight of houses.  The whole morning, we saw nothing that moved.  No squirrels, no snakes, nothing.  We found some raccoon tracks, deer tracks, a dead frog, woodpecker holes.   But nothing alive.  It was eery.

On the way back we spotted a hawk circling, and heard another bird, but it was so little life.  Almost a Silent Spring.  It would not have to change much.

I think, though, that the area will be nearly unrecognizable in a couple weeks, once leaves have come on the trees.  The Pacific Crest Trail has many long sections, and they are not accessible by car.  The AT has short sections (1-2 miles) that are accessible by car.  I think that over time, I'll be able to hike a large portion of the AT with Christian and Jake and my brother Tim.  It's going to be a good accomplishment.  Maybe I'll do all of NY first, then get Connecticut, then move to New Jersey.  Fun stuff.