Midstate trail, Redemption Rock to Crow Hill 15 Mar

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Remember the ice storm?? The Redemption Rock area is in white pines and completely covered with twig litter. Yeoman's work has been done with chain saws to make it smooth sailing from Redemption Rock along the outcroppings and ridges till the stone wall. Isolated patches of snow were disappearing quickly in that section. The stone wall section is north facing and a few inches of packed granular snow remain -- and numerous fallen trees. The fallen trees can be bypassed. Fallen branches are slowly emerging from the snow & we removed them as we could.

From the stone wall down to the stream and then up to Crow Hill there are again several fallen trees, which are harder to bypass and in some cases the marker trees are down too, so you need to keep a sharp eye out for the path. Some granular snow and couple of big puddles in this section; the stream is fast but still passable on stepping stones. The Midstate ascent of Crow Hill is clear, but the downed trees start again just north of the southeast overlook so we turned around there rather than walking the Crow Hill ridge. Whether due to the viewing angles or the clearing we had done ourselves, fallen trees on the return seemed more manageable.

Equipment: bare boots, didn't use microspikes. Your favorite cutting tools, plus work gloves for the sappy pine branches. Plan on lending a hand with clearing, for the next month or two.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day with lots of views, shirtsleeves, no bugs. And an unanticipated full-body workout (-:

Misty, Stormy and friends
 
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