October 2, 2009

Little Mare Mountain Parking to FDR 125 (Smith Creek Road) (11.5 miles)
 This section is on the proposed reroute of the Great Eastern Trail in Bath County (northern part of three).  It goes on the Little Mare Mountain Trail and the Brushy Ridge Trail.  It is majority foot trail with some forest road.  It was a comfortable day.  With me were my hiking partner David, and my dog Sid. 
 Some observations:
� From the name, you might think this is a horse trail, but at the other end of the access on Brushy Ridge Trail, there is a "No Horses" sign.  There are no such signs at this trailhead, but I saw no horse droppings on this entire trail.  The NG Trails Illustrated maps #788 & #791 claim this is an "Easy" trail, and overall it is, but it does have some steep sections, and near the end has a very steep (about 50% grade) descent to Little Wilson Creek. 
� The trail makes a climb up the ridge of Little Mare Mountain, climbing from 1750' to 3500'.  It nears the highest knob, then drops down rather steeply to a saddle between there and Little Brushy Mountain, then climbs high on the latter ridge.  From there it drops very steeply to Little Wilson Creek, and continues up the next ridge as Brushy Ridge Trail.  The Trails Illustrated maps make it look like there is a contact with the Delafield Road descending from the Homestead Skyline Drive.  There isn't the road we saw was overgrown, and guarded by a sign declaring the area a Nature Preserve, and no one allowed unless they have permission.  It is not an access point for this trail. 
� This is a blue-blazed trail, and is fairly easy to follow, with only a few side trails.  It also has signs at each end, and there is a sign on a post at the intersection with Little Mare Mountain Spur Trail, but it is not in the ground.  It was lying flat when we found it, and we set it up against a tree. 
� The lower part, before the Spur Trail, has been worked over with some machine, having two tracks, but not dug in, as grading was not much needed.  (The first part of the trail follows an old forest road, but soon leaves it.)  The upper part is just a single track path, but it is easy to tell where it goes.  In the center part of the trail there is Gypsy moth damage, and it is grown in some--it could use clipping, but not very bad.  We found in this area some fairly large Chestnut trees, one that was about 50' tall and had a trunk 11" in diameter.  Also there were large patches of Minniebush, almost replacing Blueberries.
� There is no water except at Little Wilson Creek, and no camping sites were seen. I saw no poison ivy along this trail. 
� After Little Wilson Creek, the Little Mare Mountain Trail becomes the Brushy Ridge Trail, with the blue blazes continuing as if there was no name change.  It climbs up to about 3600' elevation, then drops down the side of the ridge by switchbacks, never very steeply, but with a long descent. 
� This trail could use some clipping, but it is not too bad, and the tread is good.  At the 3000' level, there is an intersection with the Salt Pond Ridge Trail, which has signs, but that trail is quite overgrown. 
� What is not shown on the Trails Illustrated map is the Lasso Loop, a new yellow blazed road and trail.  The head of the Lasso Loop is a large turnaround area that is off the Smith Creek Road just west of where the Brushy Ridge Trail comes out on Smith Creek Road.  It goes through a space in a new fence (to limit passage to horses, not vehicles), and it follows the Brushy Ridge Trail across Wilson Creek, then up to a new dirt road.  The Lasso Loop goes both ways on the road, so I think the road makes a circuit, but it also has another access, for we saw a pickup truck driving on it, and the approaches we saw would not allow that.  Anyway, the Brushy Ridge Trail follows the dirt road for about 0.7 mile.  This section is blazed both blue and yellow, but there are not equal amounts of the blazes.  There is a sign barring horses on the Brushy Ridge Trail where it leaves the Lasso Loop to the north. 
� Waterbars are quite rare in this region, but there were some in the trail below the new road.  But they haven't been cleaned out, and many are not doing their job.  I saw no poison ivy along this trail. 

Guidebook for this section

GET Guidebook Contents