The volunteer adopter for Highwater Trail has been diligently working on relocations over the past few years to keep up with storm damage, but it's going to be a continuing challenge.
This guy has his work cut out for him. An impossible challenge possibly. THU I went up the Highwater Trail from the parking lot. I had done sections of it from around Shelburne ford area up to Black angel intersection but never the whole stretch from Rte 113.
The first maybe 4 miles or so was very straightforward and blazed. A few sidehills and muddy spots but not bad at all. One mildly confusing area had two fluorescent markers that quickly got you back on trail. Then about 3/4 of a mile or so from Shelburne it all goes to $%#^. You hit a spot with an arrow on a tree directing you down to the rivers edge with a good sized brook cutting across (about knee deep, maybe a bit more depending on your height). There is a downed tree blocking the brook but fluorescent markers head to the right so I started following those through bushes and branches. They continue up a small brook, not the actual river, and are pretty spread out which seemed wrong but the flagging continued so I kept going. While consulting Gaia to see where the actual trail is I found myself standing on ground hornet nest and got stung 4-5 times before I realized what was happening and took off running. Thankfully I had my head net on for the bugs so no facial stings. The blazes seemed to dead end so I just bushwhacked across to where the trail should be. I came out in a huge pile of dead trees, sand and debris about 10 feet tall, one of which had a fluorescent tag on it!
. (On my way out the following morning I pretty much followed the riverbed with occasional bushwhacks to the road to check out its condition so I revisited this spot and discovered if you had forded the brook where the arrow directed you down to the blowdown you would have quickly found the trail in the woods on the other side on a short pointy sand bar. A yellow blaze about 50 ft into the woods is visible. So I assume the flagging was for future plans or to avoid the brook crossing and double back.)
At that point I just went out to the river, where I spotted a yellow blaze across the channel and decided to just follow the river bed because the water was so low, the bugs in the trees were fierce and walking out on the rocks was far more enjoyable. At Shelburne ford area (which was a cake rock hop with the water levels so low although the far bank is totally washed out and quite steep and severe for a ways in both directions). It took awhile to locate the opening in the bushes to the actual trail (an arrow sign is set back far into the woods out of view) but I headed up the trail, crossed a small brook and slammed into another giant pile of downed trees with a yellow blaze about 200 ft out taunting me from a tree on the other side of the tree pile and brooks. So I went left around the trees, stayed on the brook and saw a familiar looking spot where I discovered an arrow putting me back on the Highwater Trail. Followed it for awhile until it returned to the river bank. Most of that section has washed away and vanished. I battled with it for awhile until I got to the section near the campground that travels high up the embankment on a washout. Trail appears to be gone there too so rather than climbing the steep bank I just cut across the river and picked up the Wild River Trail.
When there is an actual trail in place this is a very enjoyable route to follow. I love the Wild River and all the viewpoints from the trail are awesome. But realistically, this trail needs to have many locations moved away off the river's edge to higher ground or it is always going to be a mess and a frustrating task for a volunteer to try and keep straight. In high water conditions where just using the streambed is not an option this really is not a viable route in my opinion.
