HST: Filling The Gap

Well sort of ...

The plan for today was to finish the piece between the downed tree and Warwick County Park. Hiking is like life. Things don't always work out as planned. 

The plan was this: 

Step 1) Park a car at Warwick County Park. DONE. 

Step 2) Drive to French Creek Elementary School to leave the second car. DONE. 

Step 3) Hike East to the downed tree or 2 miles whichever came first. Downed tree is not a thing on the official trail maps so I had to guestimate where it likely was based on our mileage back in Febraury. I guessed it was about 2 miles. At 2 miles we were steps from the right spot. I have to admit I was impressed with myself. LOL. Also, we discovered that a re-route around the downed tree had been created since we were last there. DONE.

Step 4) Turn around and head back to the elementary school. DONE. 

Step 5) Hike West to Warwick County Park. Here is where things went off the rails. Getting to the park required a crossing of French Creek. We hiked the half mile from the school to the Creek and this is what we saw: 

I was going to have to jump in a few places and 
likely was not going to make it. 
Even Dave, who is taller, was going to have trouble. 

I knew there was chance that crossing the creek was not going to be possible but I had to try. I have crossed this spot on French Creek before, but today was not a good day for that. Had the creek not been rushing so high and fast we might have tried it knowing that our feet would get wet. But not being able to seeing clearly what we'd be stepping into it just wasn't safe. No one was going to die if we tried but other injuries were not out of the question. 

So we turned back toward the School. 

Once back to Conventryville Road I could have turned left and followed the road detour to Mt Pleasant round and back to the trail. My heart wasn't into a road section. So I had Dave drive me to the Mt. Pleasant trailhead and I hiked to the car from there. 

I'm counting the whole section done because I have hiked the road section at least three different times and crossed the creek a few as well. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving

-Paula