Parkour in the spruce fir band

[peakbagger]

A FYI that there is higher than normal amount of blowdowns up in the spruce/fir bands of the whites these days. A few windy events since late last fall means that many trails in this zone have patches of blowdowns. There have been attempts by trail crews and hikers to open up some popular trails but in many cases the size of the trees require cross cuts saws/chainsaws or ax work. The short term solution is that the smaller stuff is getting cleared and the stubs on the larger trees are getting cleared off leaving varying heights obstacles to either crawl under or climb over. In some cases trees were damaged and are still falling down.

I hiked up the Carter Dome trail on Saturday and there are several stretches of intense blowdown with large softwoods that have been sawed open but just above that work there are several that haven't been dealt with and some fresh new ones. We ran into a few folks at Zeta Pass coming down from Middle Carter on the AT (Carter Moriah) trail and they indicated they had to crawl under and over a couple of blowdown patches and Zeta Pass has a few that have been trimmed back. I saw similar patches on my last few hikes including Howker Ridge Trail in Randolph and have heard and read reports by others that its all over the area.

I expect the lesser used trails have had a lot less attention. Definitely worth bringing the hand saw and helping out to reduce the herd paths around obstacles that are already forming.

 

[bignslow]

Thanks Peakbagger - Great reminder this time of year that throwing a small folding saw in your pack can make a huge difference. Something like the item pictured below can make quick work of a tangled mess of blow down branches

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I cut maybe a dozen smaller blowdowns on the Davis Path between Glen Boulder and Isolation (Sunday 6/3). I ran into ScottyP (the maintainer) who was working on water bars and who thanked me for having the folding saw and using it.

Still plenty of bigger trees, leaners, and tangles I did not want to get into with only Gryffin for "help"

Tim

 

[DayTrip]

Several trail reports on Facebook over the weekend indicating that the Kilkenny Ridge past Waumbek is totally trashed and has not seen any maintenance yet. Someone had uploaded a short video. It looked pretty rough.

 

[TCD]

Peakbagger, I'm having difficulty creating a mental video of you doing parkour...

 

[peakbagger]

Definitely a slow motion version