Sunday, March 18th 2001

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Sunday, March 18th 2001
Shingletown Gap II
A little mapping and ice climbing

I had hiked up a lesser-known trail in Shingletown Gap the week before, but I really wanted to see how to get to the Roman "rock" Tower on Tussey Ridge.

This time, I found it.

I again took the right side of the run, instead of the more popular left side, and I followed the blue trail up to where I took "the road less traveled" the week before. This time, I stayed on course instead of hanging the right on the blue and white blazed trail.

The trails in this area are really confusing, and I wouldn't recommend hiking around here unless you plan to spend all day, or you have a map and know how to use it. The trails are blazed well enough, but it's hard to tell where they will come out.

The blue trail leads straight up the hill to the rock tower, which is where I wanted to be. See my other hikes for details on the roman tower, as it is marked on the trail.

The ice near the top of the hill was nearly impassable, and even with my trekking poles, it took a long time to go a short distance. Naturally, I was concerned about getting back down.

Since I knew this trail was bad, I decided to hike Tussey Ridge on the skyline trail, past the Happy Valley Vista, and descend on the "1-2" link trail. I had seen this on maps, and knew it pretty much went where I wanted to go.

The trek down the hill wasn't too bad, since I could sink my heels into the snow quite a bit. After a fashion, the trail links up with a read and white blazed trail that leads further to the northeast, but also to the southwest, which is where I wanted to go.

The red and white trail "links" the blue trails together, so I guess that's where it gets its name from. After a fashion, I was back to the blue trail, but I had to descend an old grade of solid ice. It took nearly 45 minutes to get down 50 yards. This is not the way I came up. Like I said, the trails are confusing! I have good GPS data, though, so I will post that to HikePA.com at some point, when I have completed surveying the blazed trails there.