CrossTown Trail - Newcastle, Wildside Trail-De Leo Wall, Highlands Loop - Newcastle & May Creek Trail — Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025

We had a beautiful winter hike from Lake Boren Park today!  After 3+ inches of overnight snow the parking area and lawns were bathed in shimmering snow. All the surface streets to drive there were bare and wet.  It was 32 degrees with blue skies when we started walking.  Many families and kids were sledding down the sloped park before the eventual melt out.  Our 6.4 mile hike went north around Laken Boren and up surface streets to the Crosstown Th opposite Beit Tikvah Temple. There was more snow out in the open at Lake Boren than up in Cougar Mountain and the DeLeo Wall View Point Trail. Thanks to whomever is widening and maintaining the Crosstown Trail, evidence of your work and little pink flags were everywhere.  Bravo!!! As temperatures started rising we kept being pelted by melting snow blobs all through the trees.  By the time we reached DeLeo Wall View Point (no view- clouds moved in from the south) our clothes were soaking up moisture.  After grabbing a short snack we continued south and took a right on the Cougar Access Trail.  It was disheartening to see all the trees tagged with pink construction tape, bulldozers to the north in the woods plus wide swaths of the forest being cleared.  I thought this area was saved by the “Save the DeLeo Wall” movement a few years ago.  Evidently not, it appeared that area was being groomed for large scale development.  With snow cover and new roads being punched through I had to rely on All Trails to get down to the Highland Trail and routes I recognized. Trail traffic was what we expected, solitary.  We only saw one other person out in the woods.  The birds on the other hand were every where. We saw large groups of robins, juncos, sparrows in the underbrush and low canopy.  Crossing over Coal Creek Park way we followed the May Creek and Waterline Trails back to Lake Boren.  Another fantastic day out in the woods.