6 miles on the road! NCT

[Norb5150]

At again this weekend. Soon I'm gonna be a everyday hiker for a little while probably going to wait until after the spring thaw/melt though. Yesterday 2-27-16 went to pick up on the NCT where I left off a few weeks ago. The maps that I had available showed 12 miles of trail from Jennings Environmental Education Center to Pry Road in Butler PA. The first mile is absolutely awesome. Its a bunch of large rocks formations left over from the glaziers that are well read about. The next 6 miles is a dangerous high speed back country road that we nearly died on several times via cars traveling well over the posted speed limits on blind curves and hills.This portion of the trail come onto this property in a back yard and the owner has goats and chickens to greet you as you travel through his area of the trail.  The following 5.5 are nice new areas of the trail. The NCT committee is working with property owners to be able to expand the trail into the woods and off the road but there is a lot of issues mostly vandalism worries and littering which all along the 6 mile road was evident of litter. One property owner we talked with refuses the trail to go onto his property because he has issues with kids trashing his land with fourwheelers (atvs) and he seemed to be the no way this is my property kind of person. Overall it was a nice balmy day to get out and take a hike. I had on new boots Merrell Moab WP they were ok it was their break in walk so I'll put some more miles on them and get a better idea of how good they are or are not. Had a new pack too Kelty Redwing 50 packed at 18lbs w water trying out for not so long hikes ( been using the kelty redcloud 90 to practice for extended thru hikes). Need to make some adjustments with it.

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Thanks for the report Norb. Hopefully some progress can be made to shorten the roadwalk.