U
Unregistered
Guest
Parking lot accessible with 2 wheel drive. I had 4 wheel but didn't use. Jim had van and was fine.
The dirt road from trail head to turn onto State Trail in very good shape. Packed powder.
State Trail to Bradley pond in very good shape. Some areas were thin with rocks poking up but still fine.
Herdpath from Bradley pond to Times Square and to Panther were well defined and in good shape with packed powder. A small amount of rock to skirt around near Panther summit but no problem really. Five of us went to Panther.
Couch had a lot of dead ends and other tracks that may still be visible. We stayed to the right at most decision points on the way in and did fine. After the bump just before the wetland we went left and followed a bushwhack which got tight in a couple of spots. We came back out the traditional herdpath (this will be a right turn going in so keep with what I said before about right turns work best). Four of us went to Couch.
Times Square to Santanoni had some turns to the left and right so it is hard to say stay left or stay right. I used my GPS and we left the other tracks and just stayed on the established herdpath I had in my gps trip computer. A couple of times we got off track due to the amount of snow on the trees making it hard to find the herdpath and had to bushwhack back to it. I would say 85 to 90 percent of the time we were on the herdpath. Those 10 to 15 percents were tough because of the amount of snow on the trees. Three of us went to Santanoni.
Took the new path from Santanoni to State Trail. Very steep if you have never been on it before. Saved about an hour from the day. It is on the second false peak from Santanoni. Trail was easy to follow once we got into the trees. There were no deadends that I recall. Above the dense trees the previous tracks had blown in. If you have never been on the new path it is hard to spot from the false peak and it is not marked. We saw a couple of "pruned" branches but that was it.
It was warm that day about 30 to 40 degrees and we got soaked from the snow dumping off the trees. A lot of snow on the trees going to Santanoni. The snow also was sticking to our snowshoes so we had an extra few pounds on each foot.
Unless they get more snow up there our tracks should not get blown in because the snow got soft and heavy. With colder temps it should be nice and hard. The snow should consolidate nicely.
No real spruce traps problems even when we got off track. A couple but nothing serious.
The dirt road from trail head to turn onto State Trail in very good shape. Packed powder.
State Trail to Bradley pond in very good shape. Some areas were thin with rocks poking up but still fine.
Herdpath from Bradley pond to Times Square and to Panther were well defined and in good shape with packed powder. A small amount of rock to skirt around near Panther summit but no problem really. Five of us went to Panther.
Couch had a lot of dead ends and other tracks that may still be visible. We stayed to the right at most decision points on the way in and did fine. After the bump just before the wetland we went left and followed a bushwhack which got tight in a couple of spots. We came back out the traditional herdpath (this will be a right turn going in so keep with what I said before about right turns work best). Four of us went to Couch.
Times Square to Santanoni had some turns to the left and right so it is hard to say stay left or stay right. I used my GPS and we left the other tracks and just stayed on the established herdpath I had in my gps trip computer. A couple of times we got off track due to the amount of snow on the trees making it hard to find the herdpath and had to bushwhack back to it. I would say 85 to 90 percent of the time we were on the herdpath. Those 10 to 15 percents were tough because of the amount of snow on the trees. Three of us went to Santanoni.
Took the new path from Santanoni to State Trail. Very steep if you have never been on it before. Saved about an hour from the day. It is on the second false peak from Santanoni. Trail was easy to follow once we got into the trees. There were no deadends that I recall. Above the dense trees the previous tracks had blown in. If you have never been on the new path it is hard to spot from the false peak and it is not marked. We saw a couple of "pruned" branches but that was it.
It was warm that day about 30 to 40 degrees and we got soaked from the snow dumping off the trees. A lot of snow on the trees going to Santanoni. The snow also was sticking to our snowshoes so we had an extra few pounds on each foot.
Unless they get more snow up there our tracks should not get blown in because the snow got soft and heavy. With colder temps it should be nice and hard. The snow should consolidate nicely.
No real spruce traps problems even when we got off track. A couple but nothing serious.
