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  1. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by Old Grouse View Post
    The shelter is at the confluence of two rivers. The Housatonic has the PCBs but the Ten Mile is probably PCB-free.
    Hmm, that is true. The campsite sign though warns not to drink the river water, so I avoided it when I was there.

  2. #62

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    Quote Originally Posted by Old Grouse View Post
    The shelter is at the confluence of two rivers. The Housatonic has the PCBs but the Ten Mile is probably PCB-free.
    The Ten Mile river at the confluence of the Housatonic river in CT is not considered safe. PCBs from the Housatonic have migrated upstream into Ten Mile, however there is lead and other contamination that keeps this section of the Ten Mile river posted with non-potable water warnings. There are periodic fecal counts from upstream storm run off and water foul as well. It's not something you want to tangle with if you can avoid it.

  3. #63
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    Thanks for that extra information. So the question of the day is, is the pump currently functional? Has anyone successfully gotten water from it recently?

  4. #64
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    What I wonder is how much PCBs/Lead/Mercury/whatever are you exposed to if you're drinking 1L of water. Most of that stuff is in the sediment from pollution which mostly stopped in the 70s (though some leaching may be occurring upstream on the Ten Mile at former construction waste dumps). Assume you don't stir up sediment I would think the exposure would be stupendously low. I'll still look for alternative sources but I'm not going to go thirsty if those are the only sources.

  5. #65
    Coach Lou coach lou's Avatar
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    Folks, 500 yards from the shelter is small grocery store, if you really can't get that pump to work..................next door is a Restuarant/ bar!

  6. #66
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    right on! mousies are part of backpacking, right? i mean, you might aw well clearcut along the trail!

    and yes, the group sites are across the river from the shelter. north over the bridge, left, trail eventually bears right and the sites are up the hill and on the left. and there's an outdoor privy there (no walls or roof, just a hole and a seat.) i much prefer the area by the river. but scouts are often there. and the harley noise is louder. there's a (fairly) busy road east across the housy.

    lemme see ... harleys, or rushing water ... um ... water rushes all night, harleys go by now and then. see you by the river, mousies!
    To this day, I see mention of a group site in the guide books (it's in the 2015 version I just picked up even). But I've talked to two different people that use the field for groups. When I visited this section, I assumed (incorrectly I guess) that the area immediately to the left of the North side of the bridge was the group area. It is an area about 30' deep but that goes back along the river maybe as much as 40 yards? Easily enough for a group and it is all under some pines and on soft duff. If I took a group here (which is a distinct possibility), I would prefer this area over the field just to keep separation and avoid any possibility of disturbing folks at the lovely tent site next to the field. I now get the impression that the "official" group site is defunct? Anyone thoughts?

  7. #67
    Registered User linus72's Avatar
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    coach, are you referring to the bulls bridge place on rt 7 across from the bridge? the shelter and campsite are at least a mile south from the road where the bridge is so you're looking at 1.3-ish miles to that shop/restaurant. in the other direction you have to go over ten mile hill to rt 55 which is a few miles and i dont recall seeing anything on rt 55 that's that close to the trail. of course i could be wrong but i just hiked it last year.

  8. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by linus72 View Post
    coach, are you referring to the bulls bridge place on rt 7 across from the bridge? the shelter and campsite are at least a mile south from the road where the bridge is so you're looking at 1.3-ish miles to that shop/restaurant. in the other direction you have to go over ten mile hill to rt 55 which is a few miles and i dont recall seeing anything on rt 55 that's that close to the trail. of course i could be wrong but i just hiked it last year.
    I think I saw a side trail / forest road to the right a little ways North of the bridge. I never followed it, but i assumed from Coach's comment that it must be a shortcut to the road and a market? I don't really know though, like I said I never followed it to see where it went.

  9. #69
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    That forest road basically leads to the same road you cross further up the AT. If you take a right at the road you cross the covered bridge and there's a market/gas station and restaurant at the light. The short cut isn't much of a short cut. The only benefit of the short cut is you avoid the elevation climbs. It's a fairly level walk. And as linus says, it's a lot more than 500 yards.
    Last edited by Havana; 02-16-2015 at 15:12.

  10. #70
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    Tom, You are correct. There was a group site on the north side of the bridge but was removed from service several years ago by the CT-AMC AT Committee. Groups were generally using the field on the south side of the bridge and the one on the north side was not being used at all, hence the decision to shut it down. If true, I am very disappointed to hear that the site is still listed in the new guide. There seems to be a growing number of errors that were identified by the AT Committee but failed to make it to the book.
    Jim Liptack
    CT-AMC Overseer of Trails

  11. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by liptackj View Post
    Tom, You are correct. There was a group site on the north side of the bridge but was removed from service several years ago by the CT-AMC AT Committee. Groups were generally using the field on the south side of the bridge and the one on the north side was not being used at all, hence the decision to shut it down. If true, I am very disappointed to hear that the site is still listed in the new guide. There seems to be a growing number of errors that were identified by the AT Committee but failed to make it to the book.
    Jim Liptack
    CT-AMC Overseer of Trails
    I have both recent guide books (the official one and awols). I'll double-check when I get home, but I saw it in at least one of them. I'll post back if no one does before me.

    I'm not a huge fan of that field personally because I'm a bit of of a tick-a-phobe and the grass gets really high there. It is too bad that the area across the bridge to the north and the immediate left cannot be used.

  12. #72
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    It was the AT Guide that listed a group area north of the bridge. The Thru Hikers Companion doesn't seem to track that information either way for any of the sites. The CT trail brochure just lists the area as having a Group Area but without a specific location or reference to the old area. So I guess it is just one of those things that will have to slowly fade out of everyone's memory eventually.

  13. #73
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    Stopped in to the shelter on May 4. Found everything in good order, including the pump. A very pleasant area.

    There's still a sign for camping at the south end of the Ned Anderson Bridge, and there's a privy there. If there's a pump there, I didn't see it.

    I shot a short video of the shelter area:



    --Peter

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