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Hiked in 4.4 miles from Upper Works Rd on the Blue DEC trail to Bradley Pond lean-to. Trail is in decent shape up to and past the cairn for the "Santanoni Express" herd path that leads almost directly to the Santanoni summit. One bridge, three planks wide, has no railings and is steeply tilted to the east -- treacherous when wet, but the stream was easily crossed on the rocks. During the last 1 mile or so before lean-to, the trail is in rough shape -- mostly underwater as a result of Hurricane Irene changing the drainage for the worse. One long re-route (marked with ribbon) avoids a large section of the flooding and leads directly to the lean-to, but at this time it is just a marked bushwhack -- there has been no trimming yet to start a trail. Note that if you take this reroute, you will miss the cairn on the main trail that marks the herd path to Times Square (a cairn on top of a large flat boulder that is almost the size of a twin bed). But since the hurricane, the cairn is only somewhat helpful anyway, for the following reason.
The herd path to Times Square, starting right after the cairn on the Blue DEC trail, disappears under a new pond for about 100 feet. There were no longer any logs visible for a log crossing as reported a couple of weeks ago. We were not able to bypass the flooding in the immediate vicinity of the cairn, but heading south a few minutes to where the ribbon-marked reroute joins the Blue trail, we were able to strike west and cross a narrow creek and then turn right (north) to head back toward the herd path. The herd path was found again shortly after passing a large boulder near the edge of the new pond.
The trail up to Time Square was in good shape with only minor blowdown. In Times Square, a fresh blaze was cut a tree with a "C" and an arrow pointing west, implying that the trail to Couchsachraga was straight ahead. This is NOT the case, and someone had piled brush on that herd path to discourage people from taking it. The true herd path to Couchsachraga is marked by a cairn a couple of minutes walk south along the path to Santanoni. The paths from Times Square to Santanoni, Couchsachraga, and Panther were all in pretty good shape, with only minor blowdown that was easy to get around.
The herd path to Times Square, starting right after the cairn on the Blue DEC trail, disappears under a new pond for about 100 feet. There were no longer any logs visible for a log crossing as reported a couple of weeks ago. We were not able to bypass the flooding in the immediate vicinity of the cairn, but heading south a few minutes to where the ribbon-marked reroute joins the Blue trail, we were able to strike west and cross a narrow creek and then turn right (north) to head back toward the herd path. The herd path was found again shortly after passing a large boulder near the edge of the new pond.
The trail up to Time Square was in good shape with only minor blowdown. In Times Square, a fresh blaze was cut a tree with a "C" and an arrow pointing west, implying that the trail to Couchsachraga was straight ahead. This is NOT the case, and someone had piled brush on that herd path to discourage people from taking it. The true herd path to Couchsachraga is marked by a cairn a couple of minutes walk south along the path to Santanoni. The paths from Times Square to Santanoni, Couchsachraga, and Panther were all in pretty good shape, with only minor blowdown that was easy to get around.
