What are those Side trails off A-Z trail?

[Amicus]

"Ted O'Brien Trail"?!?

Does anyone know anything about this trail ? We hiked past Diana's Baths near Moat Mountain last week, and reached a trail junction about one mile in. This trail did not appear on our map? It looked like a new sign.

That's hilarious, if that picture is on the level. (I hope SLB isn't a practical joker.) As many VFTT'ers will remember, Ted is the Boston news TV personality who got lost trying to follow the Attitash Trail from Diana's Baths to Bear Notch Road a couple of years ago and wandered around for a couple of days within a mile or so of trails and searchers. I seem to recall he paid a fine to settle charges of reckless something or other and maybe the Forest Service invested a part of the proceeds in this sign.

 

[David Metsky]

He wasn't charged with reckless hiking, he voluntarily donated a large sum to the search and rescue teams, then went around educating people about hiking risks and being prepared. He took responsibility for a bad situation and learned from it. We should all be that humble.

It does look like an official trail sign, but there are lots of jokers out there and they might have pulled what looks like a great prank. The trail may go nowhere, so be warned.

-dave-

 

[Amicus]

The Ted O'Brien Trail

He wasn't charged with reckless hiking, he voluntarily donated a large sum to the search and rescue teams, then went around educating people about hiking risks and being prepared. He took responsibility for a bad situation and learned from it. We should all be that humble.

It does look like an official trail sign, but there are lots of jokers out there and they might have pulled what looks like a great prank. The trail may go nowhere, so be warned.

-dave-

I intended no disrespect to Ted O'Brien. I'm highly partial to all O'Briens everywhere, in fact - they're the greatest! While his misadventure had elements of the absurd (but only because he emerged unscathed), he has been an eloquent spokesman for trail safety since then.

The Moat/Attitash trails are in my neighborhood and I'll definitely be checking this out soon. The Attitash Trail from the other end, on Bear Notch Road, makes for a nice, short out-and-back hike to Table Mountain, which affords an interesting close-up view of Middle Sister and Chocorua. Of course, they may have left that end the "Attitash," since Ted never got anywhere near there.

 

[F-Face]

that pic looks like a photoshop special to me!

 

[David Metsky]

that pic looks like a photoshop special to me!

Yes, upon closer examination that looks remarkably like a fake.

-dave-

 

[Amicus]

"Ted O'Brien Trail" hoax

Yes, upon closer examination that looks remarkably like a fake.

-dave-

I take your word for it. I trust everybody and don't a camera, let alone a "Photo Shop." I think it's a good idea anyway (although I would retain the original name too on the sign) and intend to petition my Congressman or somebody. Hoaxes can come true.

 

[SAR-EMT40]

that pic looks like a photoshop special to me!

Yes, upon closer examination that looks remarkably like a fake.

-dave-

Abso-freaking-lutely. Virtually no doubt. Not even an especially good fake.

Keith

 

[HuiYeng]

soooo obviously fake. Try to set the feather (in photoshop) to about 5~10, you can get much better result

 

[^MtnMike^]

Have some trail sign fun of your own in photoshop:
http://www.mcschell.com/trailsign.zip

^MtnMike^

 

[Amicus]

Ted O'Brien rates a Trail

After looking for a couple of minutes I found a link to the Ted O'brien "lost hiker" interview.
...Walker
PS I have plenty of time right now since I severely sprained my ankle come off of Tripyramid over the long weekend (Sabbaday Brook Trail). Doc says 5 weeks off the trails. BUMMER

Walker,

If you use your recuperation time to connect with Ted, let him know that several of us would like to make this dream come true. Probably no one has spent as much time as he on the notoriously little-hiked Attitash Trail, for one thing (albeit only on select bits of it ), and his good work to raise awareness of safe hiking practices deserves tangible recognition.

Sorry about your ankle - we did the Tripyramids last week by the less challenging Livermore-Scaur Ridge-Mt. Trip. loop last weekend and that was slippery enough - the Sabbaday Brook Trail would have been hazardous. Recover quickly.

 

[Nate]

The key is not to head for West Field too soon after getting off of the Willey Range (or wait until you get too close to it - originally we were going to come in from the Zealand side but a storm the night before knocked a tree down onto the Zealand Rd.). If you're patient you get into some very open woods along the A-Z trail which makes that part of the trip so much more enjoyable (as long as a tree doesn't fall on you - but I digress).

Eric, thank you for the advice. I finally made an attempt on West Field this past weekend, and due to your sage recommendations it was a successful endeavor. When in the field initially, I didn't understand your instructions about going past the old logging road, and then bushwhacking back to it in order to cross a brook. I wondered why you wouldn't just follow the road in from the A-Z Trail. However, having walked a bit on the road, I found it to be so boggy that it was preferable to bushwhack through the adjacent woods instead. Just overall, I found the best route (when coming from the Willey Range) was not to turn into the woods until they became sufficiently open. Then it's just a matter of diagonally cutting back toward the peak. Following this route, the woods weren't too bad (open to moderately open) until not too far from the final summit cone, when I hit a large section of former clear cut that had since grown in really thickly with spruce, so it was slow going through that stretch. On the way back down I was able to skirt much of it by staying to its south and then to the west.

Just overall, it's a real bushwhack, so I was very happy when I ultimately returned to the trail.