On January 9th Ben and I made an improptu day hike out to Ten Mile Hill. The weather was predicted to be cold, in the teens, but not much wind. The hike took us from the historic Bull’s Bridge in Kent, CT. The bridge is a single lane, covered bridge that has been around since the 1840’s. The bridge is still part of a public road and carries some traffic, at least as much as a single lane can carry.
From the snow we got at the end of 2009 and beginning 2010 all that remained was 3 or so inches. This made the hike pretty easy, no snowshoes required. The beginning of the trail was wide and seemed like it was an old railroad bed that wound along the Housatonic River. Before long it broke off into a smaller, more typical, AT trail. Shortly thereafter the trail crosses the Ten Mile River by way of a large steel bridge specifically for the trail. From the river the trail starts to gain elevation. After about two hours from our car we “summited” Ten Mile hill, which is exactly 2/3 of the way from Georgia on the AT. After a short rest we headed back which was significantly quicker than the way up. To kill some time we stopped at the Ten Mile Hill shelter. There we found 4 guys who trekked in a cast iron dutch oven, Coleman stove, and beers. They were cooking up some spicy sausage and swilling some brews. The sausage looked good but the beers seemed a little too cold, especially since it was going to be in the single digits that night. But hey they brought a saw and cut down wood to make a fire. Not that fires are allowed in CT…