RoySwkr
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- Sep 4, 2003
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The Lafayette loop via Old Bridle Path and Falling Waters Trail is undoubtedly one of the most scenic in the White Mountains, but is not one of my favorites due to overcrowding and eroded approach trails. But I was looking for a hike with some physical difficulty but little thinking required for the hiking and driving, and this seemed about right. Weather was some of the best I have seen in the Whites and I had a fine hike.
The first thing I noticed was a pay phone at the trailhead, presumably placed after the accident last year when nobody knew to go under the underpass to the phone at the campground. Given that pay phones are now an endangered species, it must have taken some clout or some $$ to get it there.
The state and feds still aren't doing well on handling trails that cross their boundaries. On the map board at the kiosk, the Old Bridle Path WMNF no-camping area is shown as extending all the way to the trailhead which would seem to imply that you can camp in that area as long as you are far enough from the trail - actually no camping is allowed anywhere in the state park except at the campground. The actual signing along the trail
is different and even worse - the sign at the Forest boundary says the restricted area ends but there is no sign for the state park restrictions.
The upper part of Old Bridle Path is heavily overgrown to where you are often rubbing on branches - the corridor is often only 18" wide instead of the designated 48". This is unreasonable on such a heavily-used trail and if the adopters can't handle it then the paid crew needs to be sent. At one time, a club I used to belong to were the adopters there and I was sent out by myself to do pruning while everybody else dug waterbars. In some areas the brush was too thick to dispose of cut branches, but it was windy enough that I just tossed them in the air and let the wind take them to one side.
On the way up I was passed by several clusters of young men in white polo shirts and long khaki pants, maybe 40 in all, who seemed too old and too well dressed for the typical camp group. They turned out to be from a seminary in CT and one of them even gave me a blessing.
Just beyond N Lincoln I was passed by 3 trailrunners doing the Pemi loop, although they had been out twice as long and covered 5 times my distance they still looked a lot fresher than I did. Right after I met an elderly couple who had come up Falling Waters Trail and were beat, they were concerned about making the hut for official dinner. So there were all
kinds out there.
After the intense trailwork on the ridge, Falling Waters is a disgrace with loose rocks then large rocks in the footway. The worst section is between the 2nd and 3rd crossings downhill (3rd and 4th uphill) where a side channel has pretty much taken over the trail. A relocation to avoid the double crossing would be both safer and more environmentally sound
not to mention easier for hikers.
The first thing I noticed was a pay phone at the trailhead, presumably placed after the accident last year when nobody knew to go under the underpass to the phone at the campground. Given that pay phones are now an endangered species, it must have taken some clout or some $$ to get it there.
The state and feds still aren't doing well on handling trails that cross their boundaries. On the map board at the kiosk, the Old Bridle Path WMNF no-camping area is shown as extending all the way to the trailhead which would seem to imply that you can camp in that area as long as you are far enough from the trail - actually no camping is allowed anywhere in the state park except at the campground. The actual signing along the trail
is different and even worse - the sign at the Forest boundary says the restricted area ends but there is no sign for the state park restrictions.
The upper part of Old Bridle Path is heavily overgrown to where you are often rubbing on branches - the corridor is often only 18" wide instead of the designated 48". This is unreasonable on such a heavily-used trail and if the adopters can't handle it then the paid crew needs to be sent. At one time, a club I used to belong to were the adopters there and I was sent out by myself to do pruning while everybody else dug waterbars. In some areas the brush was too thick to dispose of cut branches, but it was windy enough that I just tossed them in the air and let the wind take them to one side.
On the way up I was passed by several clusters of young men in white polo shirts and long khaki pants, maybe 40 in all, who seemed too old and too well dressed for the typical camp group. They turned out to be from a seminary in CT and one of them even gave me a blessing.
Just beyond N Lincoln I was passed by 3 trailrunners doing the Pemi loop, although they had been out twice as long and covered 5 times my distance they still looked a lot fresher than I did. Right after I met an elderly couple who had come up Falling Waters Trail and were beat, they were concerned about making the hut for official dinner. So there were all
kinds out there.
After the intense trailwork on the ridge, Falling Waters is a disgrace with loose rocks then large rocks in the footway. The worst section is between the 2nd and 3rd crossings downhill (3rd and 4th uphill) where a side channel has pretty much taken over the trail. A relocation to avoid the double crossing would be both safer and more environmentally sound
not to mention easier for hikers.
I managed to straddle them and rolled a few times with no real damage.
