For quite some the Conservancy has been concerned with the increased erosion at the famous Mike Lynch Overlook. Last fall a work party of Lion Ambassadors installed installing a new stepping system along the right side of the Lynch Overlook. They also laid in a new switchback access trail to the Lynch Overlook.

Today another group of volunteers (Penn State Division of Development and Alumni Relations Summer Interns) completed another key phase of the Conservancy efforts to help minimize erosion at Lynch.

We have now closed the short piece of trail that descended to Lynch as you can see from the below photos. To access the Lynch we encourage all hikers to proceed straight on at the Mike Lynch Overlook Plaque and Memorial Rock. After 50 feet you will find a new right hand turn to take you back to the Overlook.

Hikers will see new signs that indicate that the trail is closed to prevent erosion. Please follow the new signs to reach the Overlook. We appreciate your support of the new trail to allow the old trail to recover.

MNC Vice President Bob Andronici with paint to mark the new trails. Bob where hikers need to go straight on to reach the new switchback.

The sign at the new switchback directs hikers to turn back to the right to access the Lynch Overlook. For hikers that want to keep going around the Mountain, they can continue straight on as well.

Close-up of the direction sign back to the Lynch Overlook.

Looking down the switchback trail to Lynch.

As you look up from the Overlook, you can see another Trail Closed sign as well as limbs and logs that are currently blocking the trail.

Close-up of the Trail Closed to Correct Erosion with the symbol that you should not go straight on.

The two new signs at the top with the original trail down to the Overlook shown blocked.

@PSUDDARInterns from Left to Right: Adam Miller, Morgan Delaware, Christopher Porcelli, Cory Trimm, Gary McMillen, Elizabeth Hellman, and Leslie Dalton.

Off the Mountain, three new Viewing Stations have been installed at locations around the valley, in addition to the existing station at the Bryce Jordan Center, which was recently remodeled. Stations at Mt. Nittany Middle School, the Penn State Arboretum, and inside Lubrano Park now all provide outstanding views of the Mountain. Our thanks go out to the numerous local governing agencies that have worked diligently to make these Stations a reality.

Additional viewing stations are in the works for the Oak Hall Regional Park and Tudek Park. The stations include information on the history and conservation of the Mountain and a photo from that location at the time the station was created.

Each Viewing Station includes:

• brief history of the Lion’s Paw Alumni Association (the group who first worked to protect the Mountain from lumbering and other development threats) and the formation of the MNC
• how Mt. Nittany is used for recreation purposes
• the etymology behind the word Nittany
• pictures and a trail map of Mt. Nittany from the current location of the viewer

Images of the updated Bryce Jordan Center Viewing Station as well as the new Penn State Arboretum and the Lubrano Park Viewing Stations are below.

Earlier this year Ken Reeves was unexpectedly taken from us. Ken’s wife, family and many friends are still in our thoughts.

Ken was an integral part of the founding of the Mount Nittany Conservancy in 1981. He served as our third President and was deeply involved in the organization as a Board member and Emeritus Board member ever since.

Ken’s love for the Mountain, his vision for its preservation and conservation, and his knowledge about all that surrounds it, has been an inspiration for all of us who have the honor of serving the Mountain. It was our privilege to have known and worked with Kenny and his guidance and friendship will be greatly missed.

To help keep his memory alive, the Lions Paw classes of 2007 and 2008 collected donations to the Mt. Nittany Conservancy in memory of Ken. But they also decided to create a geocache on the Mountain for him. The cache includes the following placard about Ken and what he meant to the Mountain.

In addition, since Kenny was all about the weather, a weather instrument is included in the cache. This will allow visitors to record date, year, barometric reading and temperature in the log book. We’re sure that Kenny would find that pretty cool!

To visit the Ken Reeves Memorial Geocache, go here: http://coord.info/GC3JWPM

As of today, three folks have logged their visit to the cache. Here is the first to find entry:

I’m pleased and honored to be FTF on this wonderful memorial cache. Beautifully done–I loved the contents of the cache, so appropriate. This was my first ever FTF, so I did a little happy dance up there on Mt. Nittany 🙂

We encourage anyone who plans to hike the Mountain that Ken loved so much to make this another “must complete” item on their Life List.

In early April, MNC Past President Vince Verbeke notices that Google Maps had added a portion of the White trail to the Mike Lynch Overlook. Using the “Report a problem” option, Vince contacted Google and asked if they could add the remainder of the White and the Blue trails. And so they have!

Here is an image from April 24, 2012. We still need to add the various trail points and a few segments of the trails are slightly off. But we are working to report these to Google and get them updated.

You can also click this link to view the map online: http://g.co/maps/4rqa8