July 25, 2009

Hunkerson Gap to Dominion Towers on GET, 7.4 miles

            This hike was taken on a hot day, and plants were dry, although it rained after the hike was over.  Because of extra growth that we cut back, the hike took 5.3 hours.  Similar to the July 6 hike, the earlier part of the hike (at least on North Mountain was more overgrown, with the final miles quite clear). 

            Some observations:

• No Gypsy Moth damage seen. 
• The Snyder Trail starts and ends as seen on Topographic Maps, but part has been relocated away from private property.  I measured the distance of the trail as 1.3 miles, same as claimed on National Geographic map. 
• The North Mountain Trail is recently built, so is not on the Topographic Maps, or even the 2001 NG map.  It stays fairly close to the state line on the ridge crest. 
• The intersection of Snyder Trail and North Mountain Trail has no signs, and there are no blazes on the North Mountain Trail (they start at a campsite just north of this intersection). 
• The North Mountain Trail south of the Orkney Springs Trail is somewhat to quite overgrown.  It�s not too bad in the heath plants areas (with Mountain Laurel and blueberry plants), but much worse in the rocky grassy areas where there is little tree cover.  There the trail is ingrown with blackberry, black locusts, thistles, and cherry.  In many other places, Striped maple branches reached into the trail.  We cut the maple and locusts back, and tried to mash down blackberry and thistles as much as we could.  This is what took so long. 
• The rocky grassy areas are infested with Mile-a-minute.  I noted three areas that had them, and the southernmost parts were the worst. 
• There was a sign on the south side of a gas line crossing saying that the area had been sprayed with Round-up�in 2004.  I suppose this was for the Mile-a-minute. 
• There was some Garlic Mustard infestation in the northern mile of so of the hike. 
• Also in that northern section of the trail were a lot of Serviceberry Trees, and some were quite big. 
• There were several places in the grassy areas where it was hard to follow where the trail was�we lost it at least three times.  Fortunately, it wasn�t far away. 
• There was no poison ivy in the entire hike.  We also did not get ticks although we had to wade through a lot of grass. 
• The length of this section of North Mountain Trail is 6.1 miles, or 7.4 miles with the Snyder Trail, as measured on the Topographic maps. 
• The part of the North Mountain Trail north of Orkney Springs Trail (2.1 miles) was mostly well-cleared and the tread dug out some.  It looked fairly well-worn, while the rest of the trails were very lightly worn.  Although it looks like horses are largely responsible for the wear on this trail, there were no recent droppings. 

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