Zero cars at the trailhead at 0800. This looked promising. The sun was out and it would soon warm up.
At the 1st fork we went right to see where the trestle had originally been and son thereafter we were met with the first tree crossing the trail. Although it took some muscle, the 3 of us were able to push it to the edge of the trail and get by. There is a great plaque at the end explaining the continuation of the cross county train history (as there is across the road at Iron Goat).
After a quick look we backtracked and headed down the trial to cross the river to continue. The bridges on this trail are in great shape.
Unfortunately, soon after the 1st bridge the downed trees start. And there are MANY. We did the over/under/around at least 20. No problem, we kept going as the trail was actually well maintained aside from all the blowdowns, however, I can see that once everything is in full bloom the devils club hanging over the trail could be an issue.
At about the 2 mile mark the snow wasn't just scattered but pretty consistent across the trail, making navigating more difficult, and the risk of slipping and shooting over the edge to the 'creek" (looked like a river to us) a real concern. We went a bit farther using other sign to keep on the trail but gave up before the 3 mile mark as we were post-holing up to the hips at some points.
It was a beautiful hike. Zero road noise, tall trees, nice under growth, and a bit of history (we could still see some old railroad tracks coming from the dirt).
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