Osceola - road to summit??

[dms]

Bread Tray Trail

PB, Tripoli Road and the telephone lines are both mentioned in the 1928 AMC White Mountain Guide in the description of this trail.

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

From the 1955 AMC White Mtn Guide: (Pg 304-305)

"Breadtray Basin Trail (WMNF) maintenance suspended

This trail leaves Tripoli Road 5.6 m. from it's W end. It starts NE up the hill along a telephone line which it follows rather closely all the way. For a few hundred feet it follows a small brook, crosses the bed of the old Tripoli RR, then follows an old logging road. Eastman Brook is crossed in a little more than a mile (last sure water).
The trail now turns E and soon ascends more steeply, slabbing the S side of the great basin formed by Mts. Osceola and Breadtray, Scar Ridge, and their spurs. In another mile it bends N high above the basin. At a sign R the path climbs along the rough telephone line and soon enters the virgin forest. A short distance below the summit the Mt. Osceola Trail enters R, and the trail ends at the observation tower on the summit.
In descending, follow the telephone line.
Distances. Tripoli Rosd to crossing of stream 1.1 m. (30 min.); entrance of virgin forest 2 1/2 m. (2 hrs.); summit 3 m. (2 hrs. 30 min.)."

 

[Woody]

Interesting thread and thanks for posting the old maps.

It looks like the current Mt. Osceola trail is rerouted west and closer to Breadtray Ridge than it was on the '31/32 USGS quads. I wonder if there are any traces of that old route?

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

I believe the trail/road that comes up to the summit from the south is the original fire wardens road. It's on every AMC map from 1917-1940 but is never named. There was a structure next to a small tributary to Osceola Brook at about 2950' along the trail...perhaps the warden's cabin.

 

[Papa Bear]

PB, Tripoli Road and the telephone lines are both mentioned in the 1928 AMC White Mountain Guide in the description of this trail.

Yes, I see Tripoli road on the linked map - it's shown going west to Rte 3. But it doesn't go through to Waterville Valley (on the map at least). It stops just at the west edge of the piece of the map I posted. From there to the valley it's shown as a dotted line. As for the phone line, I merely meant it's not shown on the map, not that it wasn't there. All the old AMC guides at least up to my 1966 version mention it.

Then there's mention in NH_Mtn_Hiker's quote of the "old Tripoli RR". Now that's a new one. I wonder if that's the dotted line down to Waterville Valley.

I think it's remarkable that the wire is still around and can be found after all these years.

To sum up, it looke like there's two old trails to find, not one.

NH_Mtn_Hiker: you mean 3950', not 2950', no? There's a little black square just above the junction of the 2 quads on that trail.

 

[Woody]

On my 2003 AMC map it looks like there is a dead end road that goes past the Osceola Vista Campground. Could this be the bottom of the old road/trail?

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

NH_Mtn_Hiker: you mean 3950', not 2950', no? There's a little black square just above the junction of the 2 quads on that trail.

On the AMC maps there is a structure at 2950' (roughly)
1931 AMC Waterville Valley map

 

[dms]

Yes, I see Tripoli road on the linked map - it's shown going west to Rte 3. But it doesn't go through to Waterville Valley (on the map at least). It stops just at the west edge of the piece of the map I posted. From there to the valley it's shown as a dotted line. As for the phone line, I merely meant it's not shown on the map, not that it wasn't there. All the old AMC guides at least up to my 1966 version mention it.

Then there's mention in NH_Mtn_Hiker's quote of the "old Tripoli RR". Now that's a new one. I wonder if that's the dotted line down to Waterville Valley.

I think it's remarkable that the wire is still around and can be found after all these years.

To sum up, it looke like there's two old trails to find, not one.

NH_Mtn_Hiker: you mean 3950', not 2950', no? There's a little black square just above the junction of the 2 quads on that trail.

On page 344 of the 1928 Guide; "From Woodstock the Tripoli Road (on the site of an old logging railroad) runs about 6 m. into Thornton Gore, with connecting logging roads it provides a convenient route to Waterville"
The Guide puts the warden's cabin 1/4 m south of the tower.

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

On my 2003 AMC map it looks like there is a dead end road that goes past the Osceola Vista Campground. Could this be the bottom of the old road/trail?

The two roads start at about the same spot, but the one on the 2003 map follows a brook north, where as the older road goes west to start.

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

On page 344 of the 1928 Guide; "From Woodstock the Tripoli Road (on the site of an old logging railroad) runs about 6 m. into Thornton Gore, with connecting logging roads it provides a convenient route to Waterville"
The Guide puts the warden's cabin 1/4 m south of the tower.

So, I wonder what the other structure is half-way down the trail.

...possibly an error.

 

[MichaelJ]

PapaBear - I wasn't implying the map showed it. Just that at one time I did a lot of comparisons of the various maps and descriptions (much as this thread is now) and it seemed to me at the time that at least the upper portion of the trail shown on those old topo maps was the route of the wire.

 

[dms]

So, I wonder what the other structure is half-way down the trail.

...possibly an error.

For whatever it's worth, the Waterville map in the 1928 Guide, shows an X about halfway up the trail, but it gives no explanation as to what it stands for.

 

[dms]

For whatever it's worth, the Waterville map in the Guide, shows an X about halfway up the trail, but it gives no explanation as to what it stands for.

My 1920 Guide indicates that the X represents a logging camp. Mystery solved.

 

[RoySwkr]

Here's a link to 1963? map posted on lost trails web site showing the trail going down that particular shoulder of Osceola shown on NH MT Hiker's Historic Map.

http://www.whitemountainlosttrails.com/Maps/OsceolaBrook1936.jpg

Note that this map shows a slightly different variant of Osceola Brook than described by dms, it leaves near the summit not from the col. The previous note (which I have not bothered to hunt up) explained this.

My 1955 AMC guide narrative indicates there was ruins of a ranger cabin 1/2 mile below summit with a good spring. I'm guessing the cabin and tower would have been served by the power line and provided vehicle or wagon/bridel path access to the summit tower.

Yes, the telephone line would go from the ranger cabin to the summit. There is no reason to think a vehicle could use it, think of Big Spencer or Boundary Bald where the summit trails had ladders.

Here is the trail up the phone line:
http://whitemountainlosttrails.com/ViewTrail1.aspx?id=146
It implies that it isn't a road all the way, doesn't mention the ranger cabin, and doesn't say why it was abandoned.

 

[Zimmer]

The old topo maps (1930's vintage) show what appears to be that telephone line trail heading all the way down to Tripoli Road, even passing a few buildings (little black squares) which are labelled as the "Tripoli Mill".

Roy - is this route what you mean by Osceola Brook?

I've always wanted to try to come down that way, follow whatever remains, look for cellar holes, etc.

The Livermore Tripoli Mill was the Charles B. Henry (J.E. Henry's youngest son) mill off of the south end of the current East Pond Trail, operational around 1910 or so. It wasn't a sawmill, but rather a processing facility for the diatemaceous earth out of East Pond, which was processed into a product used for things like silver polish (and also reportedly for paper production, though no one seems to know exactly what the Livermore Tripoli Company's product was used for). It was believed never to have been financially successful, and was short-lived. Lots of info here, including a link to pictures:

http://www.logginginlincoln.com/LivermoreTripoliCompany.html