Mike P.
Well-known member
Date of Hike: 03/04/2014
Trail Conditions: Trail has 4-6 inches of hard snow in most places icy but able to hold large heavy hikers without snowshoes, In Gay City which has more traffic doing the smaller loops with the state park, it's mostly been packed down by dozens or more barebooters with the occasional snowshoe or ski trail. Much different than my 2/2/14 trip. The Shensipsit has less traffic, a few bare booters with evidence of a snowshoer or two and a bike.
Special Equipment Required: snowshoes not needed, while Microspikes were not needed, they were very helpful. Did the bareboot thing from Route 85 to Birch Mountain Road. After crossing the road, I put the spikes on & they were much better, only took them off to cross BMR on the return trip.
Comments: Was here on Groundhog day, quite a difference. One of the joys of going solo is the ability to sneak up on wildlife. Managed to see at least 14 deer with sighting within Gay City and along the Shensipsit connector. (Saw a couple back in Gay City near where I had seen the others, may have been some of the same ones)
Last month I mentioned seeing dog owners ignoring the no dog signs in the watershed area along the Shensipsit trails. Saw no signs of that today or the other time (last week) that I was in the watershed area. Sadly, that was overshadowed by the amount of dog scat that is found in the first 1/2 mile of walking from the winter parking lot to where I left the more commonly used trails. When I got home I had an email from the AMC to call my CT representatives to pass a bill in the house for state park funding. While the state does need to fund our parks more, the users of the parks need to be better stewards of the land they love and use.
Mike P.
[email protected]
Trail Conditions: Trail has 4-6 inches of hard snow in most places icy but able to hold large heavy hikers without snowshoes, In Gay City which has more traffic doing the smaller loops with the state park, it's mostly been packed down by dozens or more barebooters with the occasional snowshoe or ski trail. Much different than my 2/2/14 trip. The Shensipsit has less traffic, a few bare booters with evidence of a snowshoer or two and a bike.
Special Equipment Required: snowshoes not needed, while Microspikes were not needed, they were very helpful. Did the bareboot thing from Route 85 to Birch Mountain Road. After crossing the road, I put the spikes on & they were much better, only took them off to cross BMR on the return trip.
Comments: Was here on Groundhog day, quite a difference. One of the joys of going solo is the ability to sneak up on wildlife. Managed to see at least 14 deer with sighting within Gay City and along the Shensipsit connector. (Saw a couple back in Gay City near where I had seen the others, may have been some of the same ones)
Last month I mentioned seeing dog owners ignoring the no dog signs in the watershed area along the Shensipsit trails. Saw no signs of that today or the other time (last week) that I was in the watershed area. Sadly, that was overshadowed by the amount of dog scat that is found in the first 1/2 mile of walking from the winter parking lot to where I left the more commonly used trails. When I got home I had an email from the AMC to call my CT representatives to pass a bill in the house for state park funding. While the state does need to fund our parks more, the users of the parks need to be better stewards of the land they love and use.
Mike P.
[email protected]
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