February 20 2016, Saturday, started out to hike the Mill Creek Fall Loop outside of Hillsgrove PA. .  It sounded like a a great trail 5.2 miles with a skill level as moderate with a elevation change at 800 feet.  Just the length I need for our next adventure.  Little did we know what an adventure it would be. The trail head is located along Mill Creek Road which is dirt leading up the mountain.  All was good at the start then the road stated to see ice patches in sports but nothing too major.  The higher we went the more ice covered the road became until it was nothing but ice and snow covered with a major drop off on the drivers side.  We crept along until found the trail head.  At that point the only tracks on the ice looked to be logging trucks that were using chains.  We crept to a stop looked at the trail map again a relived that a good portion of the trail came back out to the road and we would have to travel back up the ice covered road to the car.  Not having crampons I was not will to walk that far on ice and chance twisting a knee or falling.  So do we turn around or continue on hoping that the road came out to a paved or less ice covered road. We went on for another mile or so and the road seemed to get more snow covered and more desolate.  We decided to turn around and go back down the mountain the way we came up.  We made it with no problem, thank God!  We would learn later in the day after looking a a more detailed map that we made the decision turning around.  Had we not the road was twice as long as we traveled going up the mountain.  I suppose looking back I should of taken a photo of the road conditions.  I could honestly say that was the last thing on my mind a we traveled over the ice covered roads.  We will come back to this trail in a month or so, maybe 2.
So plan B, we decided to stop at Ricketts Glen St Park on Rt 118 and see what was going on there.  We knew that the Falls Trial would still be closed to hikes with out the proper gear.  But the Old Bulldozer Trail was open.  We have hiked the Falls Trail many times but have never done the OBT and we did not have a map of the trail with us.  I added a bit of weight to my pack this week carrying about 13.5 lbs.  Word to the wise....it is steep and difficult and oh did I mention steep and difficult.  We had planned to hike to the dry lake but not knowing the difficultly and time was not on our side (getting a late start)  we only  made it to the top at about 2000 feet and .9 of a mile in about a hour and a half.  Did another .3 and decided to head back to the car.  I was a bit discouraged not having completed what we set out to do, but it is what is is.   I look at it this was we got a great cardio workout.