New trail to Hunter’s Rocks is done
Posted by Scott Woods on April 30th, 2008
Thank you to all of the people who came out and volunteered for some hard labor this weekend. More than 30 people from the local climbing community and the Standing Stone Trail Club came out on Saturday. In one day, everyone cut more than 1000 feet of new trail, which was just enough to connect to the Standard American Accent boulder. Sunday was spent closing the old trail.
This is a great accomplishment for a number of reasons:
- The new trail stays entirely in Rothrock State Forest. It’s finally possible to get to the rocks that are on public land without trespassing.
- The old trail was an erosion disaster. The new one drains properly and shouldn’t require much maintenance.
- The new trail is a heck of a lot easier to hike up with a crash pad and cooler.
Finally, a huge thank you to the Standing Stone Trail Club. They’re the ones that handled all of the paperwork involved with building a new trail in Rothrock State Forest, and they provided all of the planning, instruction, and tools.
One last issue: parking. It turns out that it’s faster and easier to park at a small pullout across from the group camp site that’s about 1000ft before the end of the road (the usual parking area). From there you can cross the stream and pick up the new trail after a few feet. If you use this small pullout, please make sure your car is completely off the road. We’re going to check with DCNR to see if climbers are allowed to park at the group camp site during the day.
Here’s a really rough sketch of the new trail and the parking options.