Santanoni's via Panther Brook and Old Santanoni Trail, 3/14

It was a busy day at Times Square this Saturday! A bunch conglomerated together, and we had a very social hike up to Bradley Pond and the herd path up Panther Brook to the ridge. The mountains have seen some of last week's rain, and it made for a small layer of ice, that was quickly churned up by the many MSR's. Carried cramp-on's but did not use. However, at least one hiker had microspikes and wore them to Panther then back to Times Square. (Heard he had to switch to snowshoes en route to Couchie.) Tony and I skipped Couchie, said fairwell to the group, then past several other 2 - 3 person parties on our way to Santa. They had come up the Old Santanoni Trail, which they said was harder because of having to break up that slippery ice layer. That trail was not as well packed, and our snowshoes were actually needed at higher elevations on the descent. Talked to a few other people (who did the reverse route) who bushwacked the rest of the way down Panther Brook instead of going around Bradley Pond, they filtered out to the state trail around the same location where the Old Santanoni Trail breaks off. (If you go Santa first, you may be confused by the various tracks down at low elevations.)

Beautiful day, met a bunch of great people! Thanks!