Martin Hill Wild Area, Buchanan State Forest, PA

The May Trail, which comes out in the middle of a group of hunting cabins at the end of the township road Bear Gap Trail, is now red blazed continuously with Jackson Trail, passing the "green" trail halfway up. The climb from trailhead parking at 1,230' to summit at former Martin Hill firetower site 2,720' seems like it must be one of the biggest hiking climbs in PA. The middle of this trail, especially where it follows along an old dug boundary where private land interposes along the lower part of the ridge between Bear Gap and Wildcat Runs, remains for now choked with old laurel and the occasional oak blowdown.

We walked this again in late fall. It is now yellow blazed through the gap (though not all the way down to the picnic area - the lowermost portion is gated doubletrack starting behind a large brown and white sign, must have been considered obvious. though it does twist and turn a bit through old CCC camp foundations, it would have been better to continue the yellow blazes to the road). The yellow blazing appears to have been accompanied with a bit more clearing work that avoids the crossing/recrossing of the run in the mouth of the gap.

Not sure anyone cares, but had the opportunity to check out a couple more paths way back in the southern portion of Martin Hill Wild Area, the broad south extremity of Tussey Mountain.

From the XC trail/MST, Forestry has replaced the post sign correctly spelling "Somerlot" Trail now. As stated in post #1 there is not much reason to go that way.

From the south/east MST/Morris Trail junction, the former proposed MST relocation marked with flagging tape has now vanished into the brush. (Recently, I heard the bureaucratic reason why that wasn't finished, and now don't expect it to be.) I continued east on Morris Trail. Many of the purple blazes have been blacked out, but some blowdown cuts and evidence of past brushing kept me on the old treadway most of the way. Just as the hillside became steeper, I lost the trail in a band of slightly higher brush, and continued bushwhacking down to the open-woods bench and Gap Trail. There is a sign on a tree from Gap Trail for Morris Trail, but very difficult to spot the correct vector coming that way. From the MST junction to the tree sign is 0.60 miles.

Gap Trail here is marked with widely spaced red blazes, most blowdowns cut except the most recent. 0.15 miles north of Morris Trail junction, and 0.57 miles south of Pond Branch, Gap Trail crosses directly a good spring with flat open woods around, should be a good campsite though no evidence of use.

The Gap Trail crossing of Pond Branch was a nice surprise. Old CCC single track treadway cut into the sides of a narrowing gorge revealed a perennial-looking cascade, concentrating what little water there is on this mountain, into a display of coolness with a welcome cold-air draft on a summer day. This Pond Branch canyon is 0.24 miles south of Johnson Trail junction (the angle of attack is slightly gentler and to the east compared to the topo trace, still steep). A couple of recent large blowdowns fell on Gap Trail just south of Johnson Trail, one a ducker and the other crawl or try to go around and find trail again.

From north/west MST-XC ski/Morris Trail junction, 0.30 miles south on the doubletrack ski trail, then just 0.10 miles on a doubletrack brushhogged but unmarked trail meets MST by an excavated wildlife watering hole. Turn left on MST north, another 0.12 miles to Big Pond itself, then 0.23 easy miles on MST to the south/east Morris Trail junction.

Going south on MST from the wildlife watering hole, then left on Carnes Trail (old MST), then left again on Gap Trail (new post sign) uses somewhat cleared trail, for 1.47 miles around with no scenery at all other than laurel and blueberry, and an extra 200 ft of descent/climb, compared to the MST/unmaintained Morris east route 0.95 miles between these two points.

I also put a version of this in just now as an "outing critique" on the "parent" site. The most recent outing critique in the list on the front page is 4/30/16 - over a year ago. Wondering, is that still being maintained? Does Mike have other admins so it won't just die (perish the thought) like the last place we hung out?

I don't recall any marking whatsoever for reaching the saltpeter cave from Sweet Root trail, so that may be new. The cave is probably 100' if not more higher elevation than the run, and north of the run. The locals' hike every October approaches that feature from the southeast, vaguely braiding up the ridgeline then edging west. There might be an aluminum ladder, though I'm not sure if that feature lives in the woods or not.

The yellow blazed trail does stay in the valley - can't recall when I gave you data for it, as there is a higher woods road that strays onto private property DCNR didn't have WPC buy for them. DCNR put a big routed sign at that junction and if my recollection is correct that's actually where the blazes start, going west/uphill.

I'm sure given the dead timber, there are more blowdowns this year than last year. The local DCNR is highly economical with their blazes, to put it mildly. I thought at one point the trail was to cross and recross but then it seemed maybe not. One judiciously placed blowdown could have put the path in the cross/recross category again, which I believe would be where the fire ring is or was too.

Last summer, Wasson Trail was overgrown with thorny stuff from the MST end, seemingly missed by both the MST mower and the DCNR brush-hog. Perhaps one or the other got there this summer, otherwise you might have walked into a nasty surprise coming down Wasson as you planned. The other trails in that area seem not too bad, but as always, trails don't blaze and clear themselves.

Did you finally get a GPS receiver, then?

Yeah, I must have been close, certainly within 50 feet of the cave and I suspect much closer than that. I'll probably revisit the area, maybe also go to the Loysburg vista we missed, and see if there are any other short treks I can add.

Still no GPS, just can do a lot with Google Earth.

A new outing in the Martin Hill complex. Best single reference map, PA DCNR Buchanan State Forest Martin Hill ATV Trail, current link elibrary.dcnr.pa.gov/GetDocument?docId=3618831&DocName=FD02%20Martin%20Hill%20ATV%20Trail%20Brochure%20%202020.pdf (note ATV season is May to September here)

Started from Blankley Picnic Area, went south up Cabin Trail (it should be noted that Cabin Trail actually starts from the part of Blankley Road that bypasses the picnic area, so a bit of confusion there). The first quarter-mile of Cabin Trail is nominally drivable to a State Forest permit campsite, but it's alternately moss-covered and eroded, not super-deep ruts but not something you'd drive your costly large RV on. Cabin Trail continues, though not blazed and tough to see the treadway in winter low-angle light, starting to switchback more than the quad-map trace says. One of the switchbacks offered a leaf-off partial view - though still about 250' short of summit elevation, could see through the gap in Evitts Mountain to Bedford and beyond. The switchbacks are more eroded than I remembered from maybe 15+ years before, but even the top plateau brush wasn't too bad from the vegetation clearing standpoint.

Came out on the summit road/ATV trail, network point 3 (called on many maps "Evitts Mountain Road"), decided to visit the actual Martin Hill summit. At a quad map spot elevation of 2775' this point has no natural location higher to the Atlantic Ocean for maybe 150 degrees of horizon, and realized recently due to being higher than intervening Pennsylvania and New York county highpoints, plus the entire province of Ontario highpoint, there must be a few degrees between where the nearby Allegheny Front is higher and where the Laurentians obtrude in Quebec, of nothing higher to the Arctic Ocean. It would be interesting to see what the geo-geeks have to say about this. This distinction also makes the summit the highest point in PA DCNR ownership within the Valley and Ridge physiographic province, the zone I've tried to refer to as the Tiltrock Country. However, the LiDAR folks decided the high point on Wills Mountain in SGL 48 6.5 miles almost straight west is slightly higher at 2781', giving it the high point crown of the Pennsylvania Tiltrock. Furthermore, as both locations are within Bedford County as is Blue Knob, neither qualifies as a county highpoint. On reaching the road/trail highpoint, wandered around in the brushy rocks a bit to see if I felt slightly higher. Found what might have been a summit rockshelter, possibly despoiled in the past, but free of any sign, benchmark, or graffiti. It would be an awesome viewpoint if DCNR ever decided to harvest timber on the north side up to the cliffs. (Martin Hill Wild Area here is south of the road/trail.)

Circling back east to network point 4, passing a non-talkative couple walking two dogs, I started descending on Refuge Trail, nearly a straight shot bulldozed into the northeast face of the massif, and also part of the ATV trail system with a black diamond rating. A narrow viewpoint off to the northeast is offered from the curve in Refuge Trail, again about 250' elevation below the summit but still over the top of Tussey Mountain through Sweet Root Gap out to Sideling and Rays Hills on the horizon, perhaps farther to Butler Knob. Refuge Trail's surface is loose and eroded, but as usual in this area DCNR crews actively limit the erosion through maintaining drainage. On an earlier outing I had seen what seemed like a cleared old skid road going west from Martin Hill Road opposite Verbal Trail. Gaia data is somewhat inconsistent this far into the PA backwoods but turned off Refuge Trail onto a skid road it appeared to show. That skid road is grown up in saplings, unmaintained other than buck rubs, and perhaps on that stretch I encountered the tick I found embedded that night. But I did eventually come out opposite Verbal Trail (signed in field, but not shown correctly on the reference map linked above), and took it to its junction with Mid State Trail.

I followed MST up past its junctions with Tarkiln and Sweet Root trails (discussed earlier in this thread), aiming to start circling back on Wasson Trail that I had heard had been cleared in 2020. There was actually some equipment restoration of a waterbar at the Wasson/MST junction, and a new signpost. In about 25 m I encountered another signpost saying "Wasson Spring" with a "< WATER" sign on a tree. Almost under the signpost was a stone lined spring pool, not mentioned in the MST guidebook but shown on old maps. Wasson Trail continued west, more steeply up over an isolated ridge than depicted on the quad, but then aligned with where the quad map said on its way back to Blankley Road. It was cleared to a sit-on equipment width and freshly yellow blazed. Gaia correctly shows the Wasson Trail.

Crossing Blankley Road, continued on an old logging road (shown on the ATV map and Gaia), signed "Stuarts Meadow Trail" on a post I hadn't previously noticed along the road. I then took the left fork. This path is a pleasant sidehill along a spur ridge. The hollow containing an alleged intermittent stream looked dry. One local high point between that side hollow and Shaffer Trail looked like a good potential dry campsite, legal even as it's outside the Sweet Root Natural Area. Gradually the path descended to the Shaffer ATV trail, here deeply incised across the spur ridge, with the only marking at the intersection being a couple of rocks and a No ATV sign, which appeared (perhaps surprisingly) to be respected.

I then followed the ATV trail through the hollows, clearly re-bulldozed on occasion to limit erosion. Crossing the second and third hollows on either side of network point 2, I was surprised to encounter new fiberglass bridges with wood decking, bearing signs from 2020. I bore left on a spur marked "RESTROOM", but was a bit surprised to note that the ATV's are supposed to stop about 100 yards short of the Blankley Picnic Area vault toilets.

Blankley Picnic Area doesn't have designated parking and it does have a dawn to dusk only sign. There is a larger parking area nearby at the bottom of Refuge Trail high/south side of Blankley Road, even featuring an ATV ramp and a hitching rail, probably even big enough to turn short horse trailers around in, offering perhaps a better base for exploring this tract except for the restrooms and water pump (handle removed) over at the picnic area.