Trail loop from NYC?

[ignisdea]

A friend of mine is thru-hiking the trail from north to south, and I'd love to meet up with him for a few days. I'd like to travel north via car, bus, train, or any other vehicle and then walk back to the Pawling train station to get back.

Does anyone know of good transportation out of NYC? Would I be better of meeting him in Pawling and then continuing south, and catching a ride back up? I know zero people with vehicles in the area (I'm only here working for the summer myself), so I'm stumped.

I'd love any advice you can give me.

[Old Grouse]

By all means start at Pawling via train. You can accompany your friend as far as Bear Mtn, Harriman, High Point, DWG. All have bus or train back to NYC. North of Pawling there are no good options.

[XCskiNYC]

How far north do you want to go?

You can get to Great Barrington, MA and towns further north on Peter Pan buslines out of Port Authority. GB is within a few miles of the trail.

Also on Peter Pan you can get to Canaan, CT which is about 6 miles north of Salisbury, CT which is right on the trail. You'd probably have pretty good luck hitching from Canaan to Salisbury and it's not too far for a road walk. Vanessa Breton out of Salisbury would probably be willing to do a shuttle Canaan-Salisbury. Not sure what she'd want for this but she charges $30 from Salisbury to Wassaic, NY which is around 20 miles.

The Harlem line on metro north parellels the trail about ten miles to the west. From Wassaic (the northernmost stop and end of the line) you can hitch to Salisbury or get a shuttle with Vanessa. She also will rent a small shared room with two single beds for $35/ person. There's another woman in town with the same deal and word has it a third person may be going into the hiker room rental biz which appears to be burgeoning in Salisbury. Details on the first two room rentals in http://www.aldha.org/comp_pdf.htm .

Also on the Harlem Line train the Ten Mile River stop is close to the CT341 road crossing of the AT (7 miles west) which is just west of Kent, CT. Back Country Outfitters quotes a rate of $1/mile roundtrip for shuttles but if you don't insist on seeing their actual odometer reading before starting the ride they will round it up about 50%. Going by their stated rates the roundtrip from their store in the middle of Kent should be $16 (8 miles) for the trip to the Ten Mile River stop.

Again, you might luck out hitching from the TMR stop to the CT341 road crossing and it's not an impossibly long length for a road walk.

The Harlem Valley-Wingdale stop also on the Harlem line is about six miles west of the NY55/CT55 AT road crossing at the NY/CT border.

[Appalachian Tater]

Pawling to DWG, easy transportation both ways, nice section to hike, about 150 miles.

If that is too much, then do Pawling to Bear Mountain or Bear Mountain to DWG.

Here: http://www.aldha.org/companyn/wv-ny10.pdf