hello fellow trail enthusiasts!
i’m finishing up my AT hike this year in big chunks.
i am pinched for ideas as to how i can get from front royal,va to near vernon,nj or harriman st park around may 5th. ive been looking at greyhound and amtrack, alike and have been puzzled at what course to take. i also noticed some shuttle services. do any of you have suggestions? or know of anyone willing to take a lady from front royal to harpers or a nearby bus friendly town? much appreciated.
tofurky
Appalachian Trail Conservancy shuttle list
Harpers to DC - Amtrak (daily-usually late)or MARC (weekdays)
Connections in DC for almost everywhere.
EdDzierzak
tofurky,
Ed is right for getting your start from Front Royal; you need to consult the ATC shuttle list for getting a lift from Front Royal to Harpers Ferry. The train station is a common destination, so no problem there, then it’s either Amtrak (the station code for Harpers Ferry if HFY, for Penn Station NY it’s NYP) straight to NYC or the MARC Brunswick line to DC and then Amtrak or a series of local services to NYC. I’d not recommend this for a long haul like Harpers Ferry to NYC, but just to stick with Amtrak. Harpers Ferry NP has a train directions page that squares with my own search of the schedule: you can get to Penn Station NYC in about five hours with a late morning departure out of Harpers Ferry, roughly an 8pm arrival.
From there, I’d suggest taking a room for the night, having a nice big hiker feed-up in NYC, and then catch the early (8:45am) Short Line bus out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal to Bear Mountain Inn. The ride is really scenic (I’ve taken it the other way) and it will drop you virtually on the trail, directly in front of the Inn itself, by 10:30am. Still a good hiking day left and you’re well rested.
If you really want to put in further south in NY or in NJ, going to NYC is still your best bet. Instead of Short Line, you’ll need the services of New Jersey Transit. There are two good spots to use this for access south of Bear Mountain down to Vernon: 1) along NY17 the Harriman station on the Main/Bergen/Port Jervis line is about 1.3 miles north of the trail and an easy cab ride down to the trailhead (there are cab numbers posted in the station.) 2) on NY17a near Greenwood Lake there is a NJ Transit bus(#196/197) from the Port Authority BT that crosses the trail. It will make a flag stop at Kahn Rd. .2 miles north (where the ice cream stand is.) To get any closer than that to Vernon, you’ll need to take the same bus line (#196/197) on to it’s end at Warwick, NY and get shuttled south from there. There are a number of good shuttlers in that area, and needed too since it’s something of a public transit dead zone between Warwick and Port Jervis.
Hope all this helps you work out the transit issues. If you have any questions just post or drop me an email and I’ll see what I can do to guide you along. I really like to promote public transit to the trail, so I’m more than happy to help with some of the intricacies.
Strategic