Creag Nan Drochaid
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2009
- Messages
- 342
- Reaction score
- 42
AMC: close Hurricane Gap Trail. Public: comment until January 23 2015
Good evening, fellow hikers.
First, read the press release: nhstateparks.org, what's happening, press releases, proposed trail changes at Cardigan. We have a month to comment on this proposal, and the more who do, the more valid the process. I hope you post your comments on this thread as well. There are larger questions here which I do not address because I wanted to address the specifics of the AMC proposal as the state officials requested.
Dec 19 at 11:08 AM
The AMC makes two claims here. I offer my findings and recommendations:
1) Most users are AMC's paying guests from High Cabin. If this is true, the AMC has offered no traffic survey as proof. More important, even if true, their claim in no way invalidates the right of other hikers to walk this public trail as they go about their lawful business.
Those hikes are a matter of public record. Go to newenglandtrailconditions.com, search Hurricane Gap Trail, and find 35 trips over that trail recorded since Jan 9 2010. Furthermore:
- Most hikers do not post on netc.com. I use that trail to travel over that ridge regularly. It is sheltered from the wind, less icy, and less steep than the open ledges on Clark Trail. It provides the easiest access to High Cabin from both ends, making it vital for use by emergency personnel, especially compared to the AMC's proposed spur (see below). It is a pretty hike in its own right as it traverses a zone of small fir, spruce, and birch trees amid luxuriously deep green moss.
- This trail is on thousands of maps and guidebooks. It is convenient for countless hikers since 1931. To close it effectively means spending much time re-arranging the landscape to obliterate the trail, which is kept open by AMC volunteers.
2) The trail is so eroded that it is not feasible to fix it where it is, so it should be closed. I say it can be fixed, so need not be closed, and benefits the public where it is now. How to fix it?
Short version: once I heard of the AMC's plans, I went to the trail before snow fell. I looked at their proposed replacement spur, and at the east end of the trail where the deepest gully is, just uphill from PJ Ledge. I considered four possible fixes:
- SE bypass: A relocation around the gully to the south involves deep moss on gentle slopes, and would require a long stretch of trail hardening and drainage before it could be used.
- Fix it where it is: widen the gully, more steps, and better waterbars, including one at the mouth of the gully to send water out into the woods away from PJ Ledge and Clark Trail.
- NE connector: If you look at the map, you see that Clark Trail runs parallel to HG Trail just uphill of it until it turns right to climb up open ledge. I scouted between the two trails and discovered they are about 30 yards apart at the closest point, just uphill of the top of the gully on HG. That means that the AMC can helicopter two dozen of their 3x8x8' tamarack for bog bridges to the open ledge, and the bridges can keep the hikers above the fragile moss on that route. HG Tr downhill of there can be only a drainage ditch, but still with the new waterbar at the mouth of the gully. Uphill of there to the High Cabin, the trail needs only 3 waterbars and about 8 rock steps in gullies to be easily hikeable as well as stable. Uphill of High Cabin, there are a few more places where waterbars and steps would help. This is the kind of work that a volunteer crew of 6 or more and a chainsaw operator can do in a weekend by staying at the High Cabin. That would mean the AMC got no rent from the place for a weekend.
- Private spur from N: The AMC's plan to build a spur trail from Clark Trail down to the cabin means they have to build the trail over a granite escarpment about 20' high, using a slot in the ledge that looks to me like a 30-35 degree angle. That means jackhammering many steps from the rock ledge, or tearing up the woods to find rocks enough for the staircase. It also means that tired guests with large packs must climb onto an icy and windy ledge, find the spur, and make their way down it and across the headwaters of Bailey Brook on stone steps or a small bridge, then there is over 100' of woods to have to harden into a durable trail so they don't erode it like the present trail is.
I favor the NE Connector. It stabilizes the present trail, preserves a popular and ancient public trail, and doesn't require specialized skills to build or tend. The AMC's paid seasonal professional crew has many jobs elsewhere on popular trails much more eroded than this one.
I believe the AMC's claims are on soft ground. Let us see what others think.
Good evening, fellow hikers.
First, read the press release: nhstateparks.org, what's happening, press releases, proposed trail changes at Cardigan. We have a month to comment on this proposal, and the more who do, the more valid the process. I hope you post your comments on this thread as well. There are larger questions here which I do not address because I wanted to address the specifics of the AMC proposal as the state officials requested.
Dec 19 at 11:08 AM
The AMC makes two claims here. I offer my findings and recommendations:
1) Most users are AMC's paying guests from High Cabin. If this is true, the AMC has offered no traffic survey as proof. More important, even if true, their claim in no way invalidates the right of other hikers to walk this public trail as they go about their lawful business.
Those hikes are a matter of public record. Go to newenglandtrailconditions.com, search Hurricane Gap Trail, and find 35 trips over that trail recorded since Jan 9 2010. Furthermore:
- Most hikers do not post on netc.com. I use that trail to travel over that ridge regularly. It is sheltered from the wind, less icy, and less steep than the open ledges on Clark Trail. It provides the easiest access to High Cabin from both ends, making it vital for use by emergency personnel, especially compared to the AMC's proposed spur (see below). It is a pretty hike in its own right as it traverses a zone of small fir, spruce, and birch trees amid luxuriously deep green moss.
- This trail is on thousands of maps and guidebooks. It is convenient for countless hikers since 1931. To close it effectively means spending much time re-arranging the landscape to obliterate the trail, which is kept open by AMC volunteers.
2) The trail is so eroded that it is not feasible to fix it where it is, so it should be closed. I say it can be fixed, so need not be closed, and benefits the public where it is now. How to fix it?
Short version: once I heard of the AMC's plans, I went to the trail before snow fell. I looked at their proposed replacement spur, and at the east end of the trail where the deepest gully is, just uphill from PJ Ledge. I considered four possible fixes:
- SE bypass: A relocation around the gully to the south involves deep moss on gentle slopes, and would require a long stretch of trail hardening and drainage before it could be used.
- Fix it where it is: widen the gully, more steps, and better waterbars, including one at the mouth of the gully to send water out into the woods away from PJ Ledge and Clark Trail.
- NE connector: If you look at the map, you see that Clark Trail runs parallel to HG Trail just uphill of it until it turns right to climb up open ledge. I scouted between the two trails and discovered they are about 30 yards apart at the closest point, just uphill of the top of the gully on HG. That means that the AMC can helicopter two dozen of their 3x8x8' tamarack for bog bridges to the open ledge, and the bridges can keep the hikers above the fragile moss on that route. HG Tr downhill of there can be only a drainage ditch, but still with the new waterbar at the mouth of the gully. Uphill of there to the High Cabin, the trail needs only 3 waterbars and about 8 rock steps in gullies to be easily hikeable as well as stable. Uphill of High Cabin, there are a few more places where waterbars and steps would help. This is the kind of work that a volunteer crew of 6 or more and a chainsaw operator can do in a weekend by staying at the High Cabin. That would mean the AMC got no rent from the place for a weekend.
- Private spur from N: The AMC's plan to build a spur trail from Clark Trail down to the cabin means they have to build the trail over a granite escarpment about 20' high, using a slot in the ledge that looks to me like a 30-35 degree angle. That means jackhammering many steps from the rock ledge, or tearing up the woods to find rocks enough for the staircase. It also means that tired guests with large packs must climb onto an icy and windy ledge, find the spur, and make their way down it and across the headwaters of Bailey Brook on stone steps or a small bridge, then there is over 100' of woods to have to harden into a durable trail so they don't erode it like the present trail is.
I favor the NE Connector. It stabilizes the present trail, preserves a popular and ancient public trail, and doesn't require specialized skills to build or tend. The AMC's paid seasonal professional crew has many jobs elsewhere on popular trails much more eroded than this one.
I believe the AMC's claims are on soft ground. Let us see what others think.