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- From: pnsf01dw@UMASSD.EDU (Dennis J. Wilkinson)
- Subject: Re: When to do The Long Trail?
- Message-ID: <BxxBDz.EB5@umassd.edu>
- Sender: usenet@umassd.edu (USENET News System)
- Reply-To: pnsf01dw@UMASSD.EDU
- Organization: UMASS DARTMOUTH, NO. DARTMOUTH, MA.
- References: <Q5k-r*AP2@stile.stonemarche.org>
- Distribution: na
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:01:10 GMT
- Lines: 34
-
- In article <Q5k-r*AP2@stile.stonemarche.org>, me@stile.stonemarche.org (Mark Eklof) writes:
- > The two big unknowns for me are when is water usually most
- >scarce (I'll have my filter), and when do the bulk of the AT
- >through-hikers generally hit the portion of the trail that co∩ncides.
- >I'm not planning on taking a tent, and don't want to have too much
- >contention for shelter space (though I will have something I can rig
- >in case I have to spend a night or two in the rain. Also, does
- >Vermont have a blackfly infestation on roughly the same schedule as
- >New Hampshire (which depends on how far north one is)?
-
- I don't know if water is _ever_ scarce in Vermont... I've been hiking in the
- Green Mountains and on the Long Trail for almost ten years now, and I don't
- think I've ever seen dry trails... all too frequently, there's much mud
- (nothing like the mud in Maine, but, hey!). You definitely want a filter or
- other purification device though - the vast majority of the water along the
- Long Trail comes from beaver ponds.
-
- As far as AT thruhikers, the trickle starts in late June and generally
- increases through to late August, so you stand a chance of running into a few
- just about anytime through the summer. You're far more likely to run into
- shelter contention with weekenders that with thru-hikers (only about 25% of
- starting northbound thru-hikers actually make it as far as Vermont, anyway.)
-
- I've never run into large numbers of blackflies in Vermont, or at least nothing
- like the numbers I've seen in New Hampshire, but there are almost always large
- clouds of mosquitos out there, especially if it's been a wet spring (it's
- almost always a wet spring in Vermont...)
-
- Hope this helps....
- ----------------------------------------------------
- Dennis J. Wilkinson, II (pnsf01dw@umassd.edu)
- University of Massachusetts Dartmouth - Design/CS Project
-
- The opinions reflected in this post are MINE!!!! ALL MINE!!!!!
-