Weiser State Forest, PA - Haldeman Tract

ABOUT THE PARK:
Weiser State Forest - Pennsylvania DCNR
Haldeman Tract Brochure - Pennsylvania DCNR

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.535956, -76.783397

Huge parking lot behind field headquarters and next to Rowland Picnic Area.

TRAIL MAPS:
Haldeman Tract Brochure - Pennsylvania DCNR
Weiser State Forest Pubic Use Map - Pennsylvania DCNR

Snapshot of the inset from the huge public use map file.

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HIKE DISTANCE: 10 miles

THE HIKE:

Starting at the gated gravel road at the far end of the parking lot which is ...

... the Iron Mine Trail.  The orange diamond indicates that this is a snowmobile trail.

Right on the Deep Hollow Trail.  We'd be returning via the Iron Mine Trail on the left.

The Deep Hollow Trail ascends steadily.

The creek in Deep Hollow down below can be heard all along the way.

The gravel road makes a horseshoe bend to the right ...

... with the part of the trail we had just been on in the distance and the creek down below.

Getting a little steeper with winter views appearing higher up.

Don't ask me how I see them because I honestly don't know.  I just stop and turn and ...

... there's a balloon.  It's like a balloon 6th sense.  I swear they find me.  This would be #4 of the year, overall #200 since I started keeping track in November 2015.

Getting higher.

I had to keep turning around to see the views behind me.  Might have been better to do this hike in the opposite direction.

At the top a fork ...

... where we turned right on a footpath that led directly to ...

... views at the hang gliding launch site.

Seems there have been a couple of fatalities here.

Continuing on past the gate ...

... to a right on the Rim Trail.

The Rim Trail starts out as a grassy woods road.

A weather station in a field on the left.

Some winter views along the way.

Then there is that chunky gravel that is not so pleasant to walk on.  But I have to say after 1-2 inches of rain the day before on top of snow melt, I was looking for a hike where we would not be wallowing in mud and there was no mud on this hike.

Ahhh, the end of the chunky gravel.

And back to grassy woods road, still never any mud.  I suppose the wet low areas had been filled in the gravel.

After a little over 4 miles of woods road, time to get on a hiking trail; left on the Wolf Pond Trail.

This is a multi-use trail for hikers, mountain bikes and horses.  No snowmobiles allowed.

There are some rocky stretches but they alternate with smooth trail.

We only saw two horses and one other hiker during this hike, all within a short distance on this trail.

A rock hop over Wolf Run.

Crossing over the Matters Trail.

Then we had to cross Wolf Pond Road where vehicles are allowed.

Because of vehicles driving on the snow then the rain of the day before, the entire road was frozen into a sheet of ice.  I almost had to put my spikes on to get across because I kept sliding down the slight incline.  I was finally able to reach a bare spot of gravel in the middle and make it the rest of the way across.  Little did I know I'd have to cross this road two more times.

Leaving Wolf Pond Trail and turning right on Rock's Ridge Trail.

Lots of remaining snow along this trail.

Again something caught my eye off to the side and I unearthed balloon #5 of the year.  Until now I never noticed the striking similarities between Brodie and Mickey Mouse.

Crossing over on solid ice again.

Continuing on the other side of Wolf Pond Road, the red blazes look freshly painted and there were many fresh blazes where there had been hardly any blazes before.

Brodie found us a break spot on the rock ledges.

At the end of Rock's Ridge Trail, left on Shreffler Road ...

... for just a few step to left on Iron Mine Trail.

This chunky gravel isn't so bad after coming off of miles of intermittently rocky footpath.

Crossing icy Wolf Pond Road for the last time but there were some tire tracks where there was no ice so this crossing wasn't as harrowing as the last two.

Where the entire hike had been up high, now it's all the way back down on Iron Mine Trail.

Some views on the descent.

Continuing on Iron Mine where we had turned on Deep Hollow at the beginning of the hike.

We bushwhacked down to the creek to take a look.

Back at the parking lot.

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