We did the Mill Creek Trail at French Creek State Park last weekend. There are 30 miles of trails in the park but only the trail we did was rated difficult. I was interested in seeing how the ratings worked since I had done a trail in NJ that was rated difficult but had no elevation or terrain change. Maybe that one was difficult because it was long? So I wanted to see how a difficult trail in PA would look. This trail is 6 miles long, so that could account for the rating, although I don’t see that length should have anything to do with it since you can always go part of the way and turn back if you feel like it. We actually turned off on an unmarked trail about half way through, which added an extra 1-2 miles. The trail itself was pretty rocky for the most part so you had to watch where you were stepping. There also were some places where the grade was relatively steep – not so steep that you had to use your hands to climb up, but steep enough that I breathing hard on the way up. Then again, I’m out of shape since I haven’t done much this winter. The way I see it, anyone could have done this trail, although they might have wanted to slow down at parts. We ran into a few other people on the trail, all with dogs, and one family with smallish children. I really still couldn’t say how the trail rating system works at this point. I guess it’s relative to the other trails in the area.
I also used this hike as a way of testing out my cold weather layers since I had never hiked in such low temperatures before. I’ve done winter hikes, but always on a warmer day (above 40F). The day we did this hike it was in the 20s. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough on, but I didn’t want to bring too much either. I ended up wearing midweight socks with liners, midweight long underwear bottoms under regular convertible pants, a silkweight turtleneck underneath a heavyweight long underwear hoodie underneath a midweight fleece vest, glove liners, and a fleece hat. I started out with a midweight fleece jacket too, and had a weatherproof shell and fleece gloves in my pack, but they weren’t needed. I even took off my glove liners and hat occasionally, and I was perfectly warm the whole time, despite being one of those people who are always cold. Nothing I was wearing was bulky either so I was very comfortable.