Roller Coaster vs Route 601 and 5-6 August 1974

 Leaving Shenandoah National Park in early August 1974, I entered one of the most troubled sections of the AT.  But then again, most of the 500 miles of Trail in Virginia had since been RELOed several times.  See Mt Rogers, Tinker Mtn, and others.  For the PATC, see the newsletter.  Many RELO hikes are found in the 2017 edition of the newsletter.

From my Journal.

5 August Monday

18 Miles today

Good day, Hike with Scouts from Arlington, Va.  In morning left the National Park.  Hike from Chester Gap to Mosby LT kind of lousy.  Had late lunch @ shelter then trucked into Linden to pick up mail & buy food.  Phoned home pick up date Thursday the 8th at 11 am.  Can't wait. Am alone tonight first time ever on this trip. So far not bad.  You need to show dogs you're not afraid.  Will use dog repellent & stick on road walks.  But fortunately just cursing at them will work. "ok, you muffa-fucker you get any closer and I'll bust this stick over your head."  I took one photo of me at camp.

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I hit the town of Linden, and stopped at what I think is this place to pick up some food.  Google Streeview shots are great, but only go back 10 or so years.  Not the 50 years I need to show here.  (You need to remember, photos were scarce since we all used Kodak film rolls of 24 or 36.)

then this

Crossing the gap, I walked on roads until the trail branched into the woods east, and I think it was this spot.

Up the trail a bit, I found a level spot to camp and shoot that "selfie" above.

The USGS map shows the area in 1966.

Next day from my journal.

6 August Tuesday

17.5 m.

Walked miles on roads. Made out ok though.  Blazing poor, signs poor.  Made it to LT at 330.  Passed the Mt Weather which is a military complex top-secret area.  Wonder what it is? I plan to get a recorder the music kind when I get home.  Ed and Scouts arrived at 7:00.  Made sassafras tea in PM.  Too dark to write.

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Today, it looks like this

Read about The Crisis on 601 on the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club website here.  Or other PATC links here.

and then camped at Three Springs LT with some Boy Scouts.  Read the Trail Register at the AT Museum site. 

Good night and sleep tight!

AT RELO in Washington, MA (16th October 1974)

 Hiking south on the 16th of October I awoke to rain.  "Shit, I said, hoping it would stop before I got up.  Well it didn't, so I hike to this LT losing the relocation around Washington Town Hall.  I followed the old AT,  I arrived at the October MT LT before noon, changed my wet clothes & made pancakes for lunch , cause I didn't have any break."

A seven mile day. See the old and new maps of the trail below.

On a later trip I hiked the new section of trail and took these pics.

Notice this stone wall.

I found a few stone walls along the new trail and the LiDAR image with the historic map gives me a clue about who lived there.

Of course you would know this if you used the 1939 trail guide.

Berkshire Hills Conference. 1939. “The Berkshire Hills, Members of the Federal Writers'

Project of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts”. Funk & Wagnalls Co: NY.

The next day, I left the trail.

South of Greylock (14 October 1974)

 I left Williams College on the 14th of October, climbed over Mt. Greylock, the tallest peak in Massachusetts.  I camped at Kitchen Brook LT, that I believe has been torn down and replaced with Mark Noepel Shelter.  The LT was about four miles south of the summit so should be on this map somewhere.

The trail has since been relocated to the east as shown in the newer USGS map and the State Park map here.

If you were hiking the trail in 1939, you could have used this trail map.

Berkshire Hills Conference. 1939. “The Berkshire Hills, Members of the Federal Writers'

Project of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts”. Funk & Wagnalls Co: NY.

Get your free copy from Archive.org.

The next day I continued south, passing through Cheshire and Dalton to camp out.

Even today, RELOs are taking place on the Appalachian Trail

 I tried a google search to find relos on the AT, hoping to find details of the more significant changes in the route over the decade like the on in Virginia (1950s), Cumberland Gap (PA) and so on.  What I found are the numerous ones more recently.  Here are the links.

https://www.mcall.com/sports/outdoors/mc-nws-app-trail-relocation-20210915-mjdhvlsgzraghelwnc5rym4d7m-story.html

https://virginiasmtnplayground.com/relocated-section-of-the-appalachian-trail-will-officially-open/

https://www.ratc.org/part-1-dentons-and-campbells-lead-a-170-mile-relocation-of-the-appalachian-trail/

https://www.hudsonrivervalleyramble.com/ramble/events/ev-detail/appalachian-trail-rehabilitation-relocation-project

https://ktalehighgapat.weebly.com/news/planned-relocations-on-ktas-section-ofthe-appalachian-trail

https://www.satc-hike.org/at-relocation-2022.html

https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=59211

https://m.facebook.com/events/284296643109318/?source=3&action_history=null

https://smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/32652-a-t-gets-1-2-miles-longer

https://www.nynjtc.org/news/appalachian-trail-rerouted-west-mountain-harriman-state-park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N8htcfyJoo

https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=59209

and some news clips

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-12-27-1992362042-story.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-24-mn-24470-story.html

This is why the official length of the AT continues to grow (or shrink).

In the meantime, here are some photos of a relo in Massachusetts, some 200 feet I believe, to avoid a wet spot.

Thanks to the thousands of AT Volunteers!

And if interested a paper on volunteers.

Crossing over into Massachusetts on AT

On this date in 1974, I crossed over the state line between Vermont and Massachusetts on the AT. Left Seth Warner LT*

And reached Route 2 in Mass to head west into Williamstown, where I found a dorm to crash at Williams College.  This is a bridge just north of the highway where Mt. Greylock is in the distance.

The topo map here.

Present day trail has been relocated to the east.

Anyway, I stayed two days at Williams College, not sure why unless it had to do with PO hours on Saturday.  Maybe is was just nice to sleep inside the dorm and get a shower?

* Seth Warner has been closed and apparently a new shelter will open 2 miles north.

Relos in Massachusetts' AT

 Hmmmm, let's think about this relo on the AT..

All these USGS maps were downloaded from this page.  The first is Egremont, 1948 and a scale of 1:31680.

This is back in Earl Shaffer's day, the first recognized thru hike of the AT.  Notice the road walking heading west to east or trail north.  Also this route was described in one of the American Guide Series compiled and written by the Members of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration:

Appalachian Trail: Enters from Egremont at 12.5 m. and crosses Hubbard Brook on the Sheffield-South Egremont Rd. At 12.6 m. is the Shays' Rebellion Battlefield Site, indicated by a stone marker. Left from the Sheffield Rd. on a dirt road at 13.2 m. and R. on US 7 at 14.4 m. At 14.5 m. L. across the Housatonic River at Upper Bridge to East Rd., 15 m. Left on East Rd. to 15.4 m. where the Trail swings R. across fields and woods roads to a road running N.-S. between East and June Mts. Right on this road a short distance and then L. on the Soda Springs Rd. From this road the Trail ascends over a series of ledges and at about 17 m. enters Great Barrington.

         Berkshire Hills Conference. (1939). The Berkshire Hills, Members of the Federal Writers' Project         of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts. Funk & Wagnalls Co: NY.  

Next we have the same titled map from 1958 and a scale of 1:24000.

And still a lot of road walking.

Now I add the map (same title) from 1973 and 1;24000 scale.

Recall, I was hiking this in 1975 and didn't have a guide book or map, so I was depending on the blazes for me to cross the valley.  I did this on the road.

Surprisingly, in 1997, the new 25000 scale maps and now called Great Barrington, since they were printed on larger sheets of paper, the trail returned to the road?

Finally, the most recent map in 2021 shows the newest corridor of the trail on protected NPS lands.

Stay tuned and I will share some info of a historic cultural feature found on the east edge of the map.

Lastly, here is an air photo from 1975.  See me waving?

Wet Boots on the Appalachian Trail (5 June 75)

 Anyone who hikes the AT should expect wet boots, 60% of the time.  On the 5th of June in 1975, I had been trailing several thru hikers and just could not catch up to them.  So I spent many days alone.

"When will the rain stop?"

At this point of my trip I shared my concern about hiking in Connecticut and Massachusetts without maps and a guidebook, but figured I would ask other hikers to see theirs.

oh yeah, Farmers Mill LT leaked.

Here is a recent map of Fahnestock State Park.

Lots of trail relos were in the future for this area of the AT in New York.  Google AT in NY in the 1980s to read more about the relocations.  Lots of interesting stuff.  Kudos to the ATC for making it happen.