North Brother

[Wayne]

They are logging on Grand Lake Rd so we were able to park about two miles in. Snow a bit thin on way in. New bunkhouse at Nesowadenunk didn't look ready for occupancy. Tote Rd was skiable with occasional thin areas. Marston was spikable up to the intersection. From there on it was snowshoe territory. The snow was about eight inches deep and just kept increasing. From about the pond on up was a nightmare of increasingly loose, deep snow and snow covered spruce bent across the trail. Gaps of open trail more than fifty feet long were rare. Most of this section we were up to our knees with occasional areas up to our waists, especially up through the eroded section just below the summit. I've never seen so much trail blockage. We finally broke out of the trees and into the wind. With wind chills around thirty below we didn't linger at the summit. The descent was relatively easy but still time consuming. In all it took us about eight hours roundtrip to the trailhead. Great sunset colors! We quickly switched to our ski gear for the ten miles out under a beautiful gibbous moon. Another foot was forecast for today so our work opening the trail is probably gone. Saw no one all day. Thanks to Steve for a great if challenging day in Baxter!

 

[Kyle D]

Thanks for the report. I was on North Brother in August and couldn't believe the state of the trail in the 1 mile section from the junction to the summit. Overgrown and eroded. A ranger told me the trail is no longer being maintained. Does anyone know anything else about the plans? Reroute or abandon altogether? Good for you for getting up there! I'd love to do it in winter but imagine it would be an extremely gnarly undertaking with deep snow and snow laden trees in that section.

 

[JoeCedar]

One helluva effort, guys. North Brother is always challenging but this time is over the top.

The bent-over trees are a real pain.

 

[Wayne]

I think the "wet, heavy snow" of Nov 30th stuck like glue to cause all the bendovers. It looked like some crazy Hollywood set crew had gone nuts with styrofoam guns. It did not knock off easily. We were the first to sign in for the last three weeks so I would assume the whole area (S Bro, Coe, etc) is going to take similar effort to break out.

 

[peakbagger]

With respect to the conditions of the trail to the summit of North Brother up the summit cone, its an example of now not to build a trail. Given its current condition the park is far better off building a new trail designed to current standards like they did on Abol. Unfortunately I expect its going to a take back door to the Dudley reconstruction which is going to be an even more massive effort.

 

[BobC]

Thanks for the report. I was on North Brother in August and couldn't believe the state of the trail in the 1 mile section from the junction to the summit. Overgrown and eroded. A ranger told me the trail is no longer being maintained. Does anyone know anything else about the plans? Reroute or abandon altogether? Good for you for getting up there! I'd love to do it in winter but imagine it would be an extremely gnarly undertaking with deep snow and snow laden trees in that section.

I was there this August too, did the Coe/Brothers loop, and also couldn't believe the condition of that last section up to North Brother. We heard that this section of trail is going to be re-routed, but I don't know what the timetable is (nor do I know how reliable that info is about a re-route).