Whiskey Still Trail, Boot Trail, Sherwood Trail, Elk Ridge Trail & Holder Knob — Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2016

I did a loop hike, starting up the road from the new parking lot and continuing on the Whiskey Still trail, Boot trail, Sherwood Trail, and on to the Elk Ridge trail, which I hiked down about 3/4 of a mile before turning around. From there I went up the first section of the Hermit trail, then turned left and looped back on the road all the way to Holder Knob. I returned by the Holder Knob trail. It was an 8.7 mile hike with about 1500 feet cumulative elevation gain. The trails were totally snow-free, and the sun was shining through the light cloud cover. But with recent rains, the trails were fairly muddy, especially given the horse traffic on them. Both the Boot Trail and the Elk Ridge Trail had extensive muddy sections. The worst, though, was the upper section of the Holder Knob trail, above the first lookout. I had seen a large work party working on this trail in early January, but it looks as though they didn't get beyond the lower part of the trail, which is in reasonably good shape. The upper section, though, is almost one continuous mud field. Perhaps with drier weather it will improve, but I hope the work party has scheduled a return date for this section of the trail.