Date: 2015-07-08
From: Kent, CT

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Day 1 Wednesday 7-8-15Acorn and I met on the AT in 2013 in the Smoky Mountains. Both of us had been driven out of the Smokies by horrible winter weather. This was just after a major snow storm and a lot of the trail was horrible ice. I was very lucky that I had crampons. I hiked 17 miles out in 13 hours in freezing rain to Standing Bear Farm. It was so crowded with hikers that I was assigned an open porch to sleep on. BRRRR! I got lucky. Someone that I had already met had already taken the cabin & invited me to join them. I was on the floor. It was WARM!! Nice! Acorn had called to be picked up at a road. She also had been driven out of the Smokies by bad weather. We both zero¢d at Standing Bear. My second stay there. Great place. We teamed up & hiked together as far as Irwin.   Acorn was having foot trouble & her husband picked her up at Irwin. I continued on to Damascus but got off trail there. Acorn emailed me a few months ago & asked if I still would hike with her as I had offered. Well yes! I should point out that my wife had never met Acorn until she came to our house a couple of days before the hike. They got along well though.Our plan is to start the Appalachian Trail (AT) in Kent, CT and hike north for 20 days. Our goal is Manchester Center, VT but that is flexible. On 7-8-15 we arrive in Kent. My wife is dropping us off. Lunch first at the Villager Restaurant on Rt. 4. We arrived there (11:15 AM) before their lunch menu starts but they let us have lunch instead of breakfast. Points and a bigger tip for the waitress. Then on to the AT. We reach the rt. 341 AT trail crossing at noon, say our good byes and good lucks and Acorn & Triple Step start our adventure. The first 100 yards or so is fairly flat with some raised board marsh crossing. It is not wet today. Then the real AT starts. Our first climb is a rocky 460 feet or so (Caleb¢s Peak). The rest of our day is continual rocky ups & downs. Nothing terrible but difficult enough to remind us that there is no preparation for hiking the AT that really prepares you for hiking the AT. There will definitely be a few days of adapting for our feet, legs & lungs. All that preparation hiking & stair climbing just helps me survive. Acorn is struggling too. A couple of hours after we start, a young healthy, tall south to north (SN) thru hiker blows by us like we are on a break. He says that he is a slow hiker but if he is here now, he is a pretty fast hiker. He started at Springer on March 7th (?). A bit later on just south of St. John¢s Ledges we met a female north to south (NS) section hiker who had camped at those ledges last night. We stopped to chat. Any chance to catch our breath is good. She told us that she had left camp (leaving her tent still up) to explore the ledges. She went back 12 to 2 hours later and her tent (MSR Hubba) was gone¢¦..stolen. She asked us to keep an eye out for her tent & she was planning to check Ebay & Craig¢s list for it when she got home. She was nice enough but I thought it was curious that she had a mostly full back pack on. I thought: Why would someone steal a tent but not a backpack if both were available? The backpack would probably have the good stuff.   And if she had her backpack & gear as she explored, why had she left her tent up? Curious.The day was hot (mid 80¢s) and humid (about 90%) with practically no wind. It was a perfect day for self basting. We hit a little light rain a bit after we passed St. John¢s Ledges. I almost always leave my pack cover on¢¦just in case. Coming down the ledges (about 480 ft. total to river) to the Housatonic River are what Awol¢s guide calls ¢steep stone steps¢. Yes, there were some steep stone steps (a generous term) to break up the spots that required tossing your poles down & using hands & feet to descend, sometimes sliding on belly or butt. The initial descent (240 ft.) was not vertical (but seemed like it) averaged about a 70 degree slope. Acorn & I are both tired & sore. I believe that I am in better condition than Acorn.   I am sure that most other hikers find all of this less challenging. I am 72 and 5-4. Acorn is 64 & about 5-2. All of the AT is challenging to us. Short legs are a killer.We arrive at Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter about 6 PM. We have done about 6.7 miles in 6 hours. Not too bad for our first day. And we did take breaks so it is not as slow as it sounds. We had been planning for 6-8 miles a day for the first week then about 9-10 miles a day thereafter. We are tenting near the shelter. Acorn has the new Light Heart solo tent. I have the older model. The shelter has a fairly new and has a not too smelly privy. So far the bugs are not bad. I have my first DUH moment. I hook up my Sawyer water filter for gravity feed as usual but I brought the wrong connector for the upper Platypus bag. It leaks with raw water running down the outside of the filter into the lower clean water bag. DUH for me. Luckily Acorn brought her own water filter (gravity) so she filters water for both of us. I have very little appetite and cannot finish my meal.