A little back story. My wife and I formerly maintained the Davis Path from Mt Isolation to the Mt. Davis Spur Path. I originally selected that section because I liked the trail and I thought it would compel us to do more overnights. Unfortunately, that did not come to pass. My first mistake was not telling my wife before I signed up (huge mistake) and the second was not realizing that after doing a full days work on the trail the last thing I wanted to do was get into my sleeping bag all sweaty and smelling like hell.
We did the maintenance for a full year with my wife accompanying me on four visits, while I did two more solo. What I expected to be a fun overnight turned into 14 hour days hiking in very early and hiking out very late. Being 50 and 47 at the time, it took us 5 hours to reach the Mt Davis Spur Trail where we would then work our way back to Mt. Isolation and eventually head back to the trailhead and our car. Since we were less than an hour from our house, my wife wanted a hot shower and a glass of wine after doing maintenance all day, so we never did camp for the night.
During her last maintenance trip, her hip and knee started to bother her and during the winter months she informed me that she could no longer do the hike with me. I notified my Section Leader that although I would fulfill my obligation for the two year commitment (it is now three), I would have to give up the trail once that commitment was completed. However, we still wanted to do trail maintenance, so if they could find us a trail that didn’t require such a long hike in, we would be extremely appreciative.
After several emails back and forth, Ron, my Section Leader, offered to swap trails with me. He and his wife maintained the Webster Cliff Trail from route 302 to the first outlook. They used to maintain the Davis Path section that we had, so they were quit familiar with the trail and had a nice private camp area they used. To this day I cannot thank him enough for the swap. My wife loves the new trail partially because we park the car and start our trail maintenance immediately, and also because this trail is part of the AT and we get to talk with thru-hikers, unlike the Davis Path which aside from Mt Isolation, we never saw a soul.
Through the gracious assistance of Terry Robinson (North Country Volunteer Coordinator) Ron and I made the swap official last year and love every minute we hike the trail.
If someone does decide to maintain this section of the Davis Path (and I hope someone does) keep in mind that it will be a long day if done as a day hike. Therefore, I personally would suggest your do it as an overnight in the following way; start the hike around 4:00pm or 5:00pm and set up camp for the night. Watch the sunset on Mt. Davis and get a good night sleep. The next morning start your maintenance and then at the end of the day hike out. In this way, you do not have to go to bed smelling like hell and you can start the maintenance fresh rather than having hiked in 5 hours.
Even though to this day I miss the old trail, I am old enough and wise enough to know when my body has had enough. This section is for the young or at least someone in better shape than we are.
