I met my buddy Jeno at 6:00 AM at the May Valley trailhead this morning. We were the first two cars in the parking lot with a light mist falling. One of the two bathrooms is open (the other one has been closed for over a year) and had TP but was very dirty and had graffiti all over the inside (SMH). Jeno opted for raingear as we headed out but I didn't think I'd need it and went without it but the mist was so soaking I changed into mine about 5 minutes up the trail.
You could see some areas suffered some significant damage during the November storm but there was minimal debris down and other than some mud in spots the trails were in great shape. One other thing we noticed the little creeks and streams you cross or pass by were all flowing and very full today.
The Bullitt Gorge trail was not too muddy and it was easy to get up and down that portion of our hike. We then turned onto to the Perimeter trail which first heads to the west and then turns to the north. I was hiking along and thought dang it's light out when I realized a ton of trees on the west side of Perimeter had come down in the storm and cleared things out a bit allowing more light in that area. There is one root ball blowout along that portion of the trail which you have to step down and then climb out of so something to be aware of.
We made it out to the breezy Debbie's View at 7:35 and had just started our snack break when another hiker showed up. We chatted with him for a bit and then he took off and we had the cloudy viewpoint to ourselves.
I was a little ahead of Jeno on our return trip when I ran into 3 hikers, a man and two women. As we chatted I thought I know them from someplace and asked them about it. They said they didn't know me and that's when the always recognizable Jeno showed up and one of the women goes "oh yeah we know him, I guess we have seen you guys up here or at Tiger before." I guess I was right. LOL!
On the way down my eagle-eyed hiking partner spotted a couple of downed trees where someone had counted the rings (Maddy was that you?) which was cool to see. Quite a few people were on the trail and by the time we got back to the parking lot at 9:00 the Steve and Jeno hiker count was 16 total.
Stay safe everyone. See you on the trail. SR
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