Baldpate Conditions

Fiddlers creek and Church road are still closed. Pleasant valley road is open but you can see the carnage on both sides of the road and the path that it took. I can only imagine the carnage in Baldpate/Washington’s crossing.
 
michael.su said:
Fiddlers creek and Church road are still closed. Pleasant valley road is open but you can see the carnage on both sides of the road and the path that it took. I can only imagine the carnage in Baldpate/Washington’s crossing.
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I drove up Church on Sunday at 2:00 PM and it was 100% open. That being said, the signs are still up on Church this morning.

Happy to report that Green (Kuser) from Church to the Pleasant Valley lot are now 100% clear. As is Copper East from the lot to the Kuser connector (no horse) and no horse itself. Ridge is clear from the PV lot to the connector to snake and the connector is now clear to the top of snake. ~10 trees cleared this morning.

I personally haven't seen it, but the closer you get to the overlook on Ridge, the worse it gets (expected given the damage along the entrance hill. Reports of multiple trees down on Ridge and reports of trees down at the top of Red where it meets Ridge on the eastern side of the NW loop.

No reports from snake or the backside. The Mercer Trail Stewardship team is doing an assessment this week.
 
I did some running/hiking recon at Bald Pate yesterday. Major devastation in certain areas.
- The Blue trail from the Fiddlers Creek parking lot was closed. Going around the barrier and after climbing over several large downed trees I hit an impasse and turned around.
- The Bald Pate driveway leading from Fiddlers Creek Rd to the top had been cleared of about 25 trees in the bottom third. Another damage to fences up near the top.
- Access to the White Ridge trail from the west side was closed, with several trees down near the end of the driveway.
- The Red trail from the western end of the White trail was completely demolished. After spend a 1/4 mi climbing over large trees, couldn't go anymore.
A friend attempted the Red trail on Sunday, from the opposite end also could not go far
- White Ridge trail from Pleasant Valley parking lot had some downed trees and debris, but was runnable (not sure about MTB yet).
- The Green Kuser trail seemed to sustain relatively minor damage.

Also Washington Crossing part has major trees down on the horse loop, near the air field.
- Red train in WX, near the nature center has major carnage, with many trees down.
 
Ventured down snake and half way down before the little uphill, total carnage. I am going to call the trail on this immediate area a total loss. 36” trees uprooted and 12” snapped halfway up.

went back to ridge and there is a 1/4 mile section that is just destroyed.

park is assessing tomorrow. Priority will
Likely be ridge trail and blur trail. The NW loop is probably 3rd in line. Everything else will likely stay as is for quite some time.
 
MtTrailz said:
I did some running/hiking recon at Bald Pate yesterday. Major devastation in certain areas.
- The Blue trail from the Fiddlers Creek parking lot was closed. Going around the barrier and after climbing over several large downed trees I hit an impasse and turned around.
- The Bald Pate driveway leading from Fiddlers Creek Rd to the top had been cleared of about 25 trees in the bottom third. Another damage to fences up near the top.
- Access to the White Ridge trail from the west side was closed, with several trees down near the end of the driveway.
- The Red trail from the western end of the White trail was completely demolished. After spend a 1/4 mi climbing over large trees, couldn't go anymore.
A friend attempted the Red trail on Sunday, from the opposite end also could not go far
- White Ridge trail from Pleasant Valley parking lot had some downed trees and debris, but was runnable (not sure about MTB yet).
- The Green Kuser trail seemed to sustain relatively minor damage.

Also Washington Crossing part has major trees down on the horse loop, near the air field.
- Red train in WX, near the nature center has major carnage, with many trees down.
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-YETI- Bald Pate still remains closed, due to on going trail clearing. You can enter from Church Rd, using the Green Kuser trail and get to the Pleasant Valley Rd parking lot. Also the White Ridge trail is cleared, for the most part. I have run in the park after working hours to avoid an trail work crews. The Red trail is still demolished, not much work done there yet. It seems anything north of the White Ridge trail has been destroyed. Last I checked, there was progress on the Blue trail from the Fiddlers Creek parking lot. Slow going, since that also sustained large damage.
 
MtTrailz said:
-YETI- Bald Pate still remains closed, due to on going trail clearing. You can enter from Church Rd, using the Green Kuser trail and get to the Pleasant Valley Rd parking lot. Also the White Ridge trail is cleared, for the most part. I have run in the park after working hours to avoid an trail work crews. The Red trail is still demolished, not much work done there yet. It seems anything north of the White Ridge trail has been destroyed. Last I checked, there was progress on the Blue trail from the Fiddlers Creek parking lot. Slow going, since that also sustained large damage.
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@-YETI- as he mentioned, there is no sign at the Church road entrance so no indication it is closed.

I have taken a pause at trail work at Baldpate because of the extensive damage. I will pick back up in the fall.
 
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As expected the backside is still closed. Not that this was from the tornado and not ida. From the intel I have, the red trail would be the next area they will focus on but expect very slow progress.
 
I went and rode Baldpate today. Well, what's left of it... The Kuser (Green) trail is fine, totally clear with only a few trees changing places after Ida (the rock bridge over the creek was redone, but is very unstable). Copper is really washed away. It used to be a bit rough, but now it's basically a descending rock garden that moves. Red is still completely trashed and the trail leading to red and yellow has a bunch of trees across the trail. If I couldn't ride to it from the house, it definitely wouldn't be worth it. Hiking is fine, but riding it right now pretty much blows.
 
AMTRAK968 said:
I went and rode Baldpate today. Well, what's left of it... The Kuser (Green) trail is fine, totally clear with only a few trees changing places after Ida (the rock bridge over the creek was redone, but is very unstable). Copper is really washed away. It used to be a bit rough, but now it's basically a descending rock garden that moves. Red is still completely trashed and the trail leading to red and yellow has a bunch of trees across the trail. If I couldn't ride to it from the house, it definitely wouldn't be worth it. Hiking is fine, but riding it right now pretty much blows.
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Good assessment. I worked on the rock bridge over the creek this morning, don’t see changing it much as it is rideable in both directions.

Will start trimming soon and addressing copper East, which is (as you said) really rough.

The backside won’t be open until the spring.
 
Copy that. I bring a set of clippers with me when hiking with my dog fairly regularly. We did some on Copper West after Ida, but discovered it was unpassable to go up the hill.
 
AMTRAK968 said:
I went and rode Baldpate today. Well, what's left of it... The Kuser (Green) trail is fine, totally clear with only a few trees changing places after Ida (the rock bridge over the creek was redone, but is very unstable). Copper is really washed away. It used to be a bit rough, but now it's basically a descending rock garden that moves. Red is still completely trashed and the trail leading to red and yellow has a bunch of trees across the trail. If I couldn't ride to it from the house, it definitely wouldn't be worth it. Hiking is fine, but riding it right now pretty much blows.
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That descending rock garden that moves is like an escalator. It gave me a PR today!
 
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