The first KTA trail care of 2013 was held on the Mid State Trail in the State College Region the weekend of April 5 - 7 at Seven Mtns. Scout Camp. We were fortunate to have beautiful weather this year (I guess that was the reward for having run brushcutters through ice and snow in the past) and best of all........no skunk was in attendance this time around. We did, however, also have to make due without our fearless trail care leader and MSTA President, Ed Lawrence this time also.

     Tom Bastian arrived early Saturday morning with a truck load of brushcutters and loppers and a chainsaw or two. We were on the road to the worksites at a respectable    8 AM. Jenn Ulmer, Donna Thompson, and Tony Robbins headed up to Hairy John Picnic Area to chainsaw blow downs and paint blazes between Rt 45 and Woodward Gap Rd.

     Wanda Shirk, Steve Nickerson, Ben Auer, and myself spent the day lopping and brushcutting south from US 322 towards Penn Roosevelt. Opening up the vistas and taking in the views on such a clear spring day was just the icing on the cake for us. John Stevens, Tony Metzger, David Taylor, and Kirk Saylor lopped Rhododendron up through Detweiler Natural Area which is one of most interesting sections of the Mid State through Rothrock State Forest. Joe Clark, Pete Fleszar, Tom Bastian, John Yingling, and Dave Snare with additional assistance on chainsaw by Rothrock Recreational Forester, Jacob Mazzei took on the task of brushcutting, lopping , and clearing blow downs from the section of the Mid State from the junction with Jackson Trail all the way to Deer Path with Jacob chainsawing all the way to Laurel Run Road.

     Sunday morning we were left with seven volunteers so one group headed to Penn Roosevelt to finish up some brushcutting left unfinished last year and the other group drove down to Poe Paddy to scout relocation possibilities around the temporarily closed Poe Paddy Tunnel.

     As usual, I want to thank all those who turned out as well as all those who could not make it but still manage to put in their share of trail care hours on their own time keeping the trail open for hikers