Coldfeet Fun in the Wintertime: Best Lil Sno Haus in Connecticut

[Chip]

This trip was an overnight encompassing all of about 14 hours, door to door for me. It was about 6 hours longer for Coldfeet, but I think he still enjoyed himself. We knew we were going to get snow here Friday and this section of Connecticut ended up with about 10 inches. We both worked and planned to snowshoe the short hike on the AT from Bulls Bridge to Ten Mile River by headlamp, pitch a tent or crash in the lean-to, eat, sleep and leave...which is exactly what we did.

Coldfeet will add more prose to the posting, but I wanted to share the pics and video. Good time with great company. Thanks for looking.

Here's the pictures.

And here's the short video.

 

[coldfeet]

Ahhh, I told you I was gonna write it up tomorrow, you beat me to it. What a great time! Big shout out to Chip for just hanging out on a snowy Friday night with a little boy in a 50yo body! So the car ride was the pits, should have taken maybe 2 hours, instead it took app 4 hours and 15 min, but who's counting? Rt 684 was bumpa to bumpa for a while and Rt 84 was the same, luckily I wasn't going West because it was closed down...We finally got to the trailhead and Chip let me borrow his Aether 85 because I was thinking about buying one, loved it. We hiked in with our lights on and snowshoes. We were hiking on the AT in CT. My first time being there, this was going to be an easy walk for app 1 mile. Got to the lean to and I had a big grin on my face. When Chip asked about not using the tent and we'd sleep in the lean to I was gung ho! Yea baby, sleeping in the lean to, and I could officially sign in on the log. I brought along a "wood burning stove" to cook my salami, something I read online. After a few sips of a nightcap we went to sleep. Woke up in the am with a nice partial blue sky and the field in front of us looked beautiful with snow hanging on tree branches. We had some warm food, packed up, swept out the really nice lean to, which had some type of standing section built into it and used micro spikes going back to the car. We stopped along the way to check out the privy which had it's front door on but no rear door We then checked out the Housatonic (sp?) river and took pictures all over the place. another great memory with another great person from VFTT!...I need to figure out how to give Chip a green square, big thx. This was my last hike before getting my total knee replacement in a few weeks. It was perfect, gonna have to make it a yearly trip!..Thx again Chip! Will get pics up tomorrow, hopefully

 

[Jay H]

Awesome, sounds like a killer trip.. I hope Coldfeet brought his iron skillet!

Sounds like you guys had a lot more snow than I have in the berkshires or in the ADKs... I came home sunday from the ADKs to only a few inches at most.. I didn't even have to shovel out my driveway...

David, I again, wish you the absolute best later this month, I hope to see you this summer too at your camp... cheers...


Nice pictures Chip and nice covered bridge... The housatonic goes very close to where i live and right next to where I work (of course, GE polluted it)
Jay

 

[coldfeet]

ok, got pics on the computer, now I need to check out a place to show them...used to use webshots but it was so confusing, any suggestions on place to use?

Thx Jay, I mentioned that river to Chip being near you, I see it at Great Barrington

 

[Trudy]

Is that stove made out of a cookie tin?
Nice blaze, and I see you even put a rock under it to protect the shelter's sill.

 

[Chip]

Is that stove made out of a cookie tin?
Nice blaze, and I see you even put a rock under it to protect the shelter's sill.

Yes to all. It was great to have. Coldfeet put the thing together last week for this trip. We'll both be working on variations. I'd like a small internal metal platform for the wood to help with air flow and the tin lid could be used as the heat shield platform if a flat rock wasn't available. A small grill, like the old round hibachis had would be perfect for this...then again, an old round hibachi may be all that's needed . He had brought a small starter log the size of a large candy bar and some cut wood to get us started. Fires are not allowed on this section of the AT and this was obviously pushing the limits of what could be considered a cooking stove, but for other areas where fires are allowed, this thing would be perfect.

 

[Jay H]

ok, got pics on the computer, now I need to check out a place to show them...used to use webshots but it was so confusing, any suggestions on place to use?

Thx Jay, I mentioned that river to Chip being near you, I see it at Great Barrington

Coldfeet, I use Google's Picasa and their software to download photos from your camera and upload to Google...

I can walk you through the process some evening, just call me after you have it setup...

Jay

 

[coldfeet]

. He had brought a small starter log the size of a large candy bar and some cut wood to get us started. allowed, this thing would QUOTE]



Jay, did you see the info about the fire starter I brough this time? A lot different from the fire starter log I tried to bring on that Catskill trip a few years ago, right? heheheheh, funny memories, I told chip about that...

I was thinking about using an old coffee can next time and use tent pegs going across to let a pot sit on top of it. Not my idea, saw a post about wood buring stoves on General Backcountry on vftt. I'm going with Indian Chris kayak camping tis Fri night and will try the cookie stove again, with a few alterations, maybe skewers going through it to rest pot on top.

Jay, thx for the offer, I'll try first and see how it goes...

 

[Jay H]

. He had brought a small starter log the size of a large candy bar and some cut wood to get us started. allowed, this thing would QUOTE]



Jay, did you see the info about the fire starter I brough this time? A lot different from the fire starter log I tried to bring on that Catskill trip a few years ago, right? heheheheh, funny memories, I told chip about that...

Yes, I did notice the smaller fire starters... Which brings back to the fact that there is a missing duralog somewhere in the biscuit brook vincinity!!! I hope there is not a burning porcupine wandering somewhere around there now.

Jay

 

[coldfeet]

ok, lets see if I got this...


http://picasaweb.google.com/DShwide/ATInCTWithChip#

 

[Jay H]

Worked great for me, coldfeet... I hope that picture of you driving was actually when you were stopped!

Fun times, I like your use of the cookie can..

Jay

 

[coldfeet]

Of course I was stopped. Cookie can went out this weekend again with the "iron skillet"...gonna write that trip up now..went out camping the last 2 Friday nights, would love to try for the "turkey" and go out one more time before next weeks operation..