Boal Gap Crap

We started off with Vince showing me some stuff he recently found in the Boal Gap area. The first is a nice fragment, complete with ties, in a small cut at the first sharp left turn on Bear Meadows Rd when entering through Galbraith Gap. This is just upstream from the road bridge. This is certainly the most accessible fragment for those who doubt the validity of our findings!

The next was the tail track for the first switchback, which goes off behind a camp where Laurel Run Rd departs Bear Meadows Rd.

The third was a possible location of a connecting track up to the Lonberger Path, although the grade required in this area makes this a bit uncertain. There does seem to be some ballasting along a driveway up to a camp, but then things get very steep.

We then headed up LRR to the top of Little Flat Mountain, where I noticed a curious lead veering off the north side of the road. We followed it out to where it seems to go underneath our previously surveyed “big curve” of RoW (part of Mid State Trail) at the very crest of LRR on LFM. Perhaps an earlier route? This area is a bit baffling!

We then went down Laurel Run Rd to the first sharp curve to the right. This location is perhaps known as “Cool Springs”–it is the start of Fleet Foot Trail and Cool Springs Trail (aka New Laurel Run Trail?). We explored in this area and found what seems a pretty certain RoW fragment, but it seems to go nowhere significant. The hollow becomes steep pretty quickly, so it’s doubtful that track continued along the Cool Springs Tr route. I kind of think I found a portion curving parallel to the road’s horseshoe which could be the big horseshoe shown on Kline’s Linden Hall Lumber Co. map, but it requires some squinting…

We explored a ways down LRR, including a trip up over Bear Gap Rd, but that route seems way too steep to have been the switchbacks into Bear Meadows.

Rain forced an early termination to the day’s activities. Other than Vince’s earlier discoveries, the day was a disappointment.