AT in a Day.

10-13-09 SHORT HILLS: It’s mid October and Fall is clearly here, in NJ. Last night we had temps in the low forties, and I put the heat on. The foliage here is not at peak, but close. The maples have color, the ash are dumping. It is an early Fall as predicted, in August, on this site. There was 1.5 inches of rain in the gauge here when we returned from Croatia, but none since.

Last Saturday we, Lynn, Alison, Valerie, Lily, Maggie, Lucy G, Lucy D and I, hiked a segment of the Appalachian Trail in NW NJ along he NY-NJ border. It was a seven mile section with two easy hills and one fairly steep, rocky descent and a section of flats. The day was windy and threatening early and sunny and warmer at the end. We did it in a bit less than four hours. We met other day hikers and two through hikers on our segment. Lunch was at a Bird Refuge in a swampy area with ponds and water birds. Ticks and bugs were not a problem. It was Alison’s birthday.

The hike was part of the celebration of the Dartmouth [College] Outing Club’s 100th Anniversary. Other hikers, all with some connection to the college, did almost all the rest of the AT, all 2100 plus miles. The final tally is still pending, but we may have, in one day, covered the entire AT. The students did a great job organizing and managing the project. Here’s a link to the web site: http://doc.dartmouth.edu/atinaday/

Vermont later this week. I put about 100 more pix from the Croatia trip on Picasa. The link to the album is listed to the left under "Links".


Everyone looking eager at the start.

Halfway.

Bird Refuge.