North District bits again

Last Friday, 3/15/13, en route to ATC's southern partnership meeting, I picked up a few shards of trail I lacked.  I finally located the Indian Run Maintenance Hut "service road" and hiked it.  I parked at Compton Gap, walked north on the AT 0.3 miles then took a right at the trail junction for the hut.  No one else had been there before but the snow was hard crust and it was easy walking.  The hut is great (it probably used to be used as a camping hut but no camping now).  En route back to the car, I ran into 5 NPS personnel with two trucks at the trail junction getting ready to do maintnenance work.

Returning to the car, I drove up to Elkwallow and hiked north on the trail 0.9 miles to the Range View Cabin access road and then returned.  The trail had been broken but the snow was still pretty strong so I could walk on top.  One downed tree close to the access road I photographed and sent to PATC.

Then I hiked south from the Elkwallow Picnic area to the Thornton River Trail.  By this time the snow had gotten softer and slipperier.  It was about 10:30 by this time.  The trail ascends steadily to the top of a ridge and then continues level for a while.

A few downed trees (photographed and sent in).  Not much notable on to report that section of AT.  When I got to the Thornton River Trail I looked at the map and decided just to hike down to Skyline Drive and walk back to the car on the road.  A lot less slipping and sliding.

Total mileage for the day:  6.7 of which 3.9 are original new miles and one new trail.  Some corrections have been made to the database.  The latest figures are 403 miles of side trails (including everything list on back of maps in NPS or in PATC SNP guidebook) plus 107.1 miles of AT.  So far I've hiked 454.4 miles and completed 153 trails (out of 172).




The biggest problem with finishing in the short term is the weather and snow which close Skyline Drive and make the hiking difficult.