The Cohos Trekker Newsletter

Snow is melting fast here in the north country. There is a strong possibility that we will be able to begin trail work as early as sometime in April this year. We are expecting a lot of blowdowns and debris to clean up this year due to some of the wind storms we had. Anyone anxious to help, just pick a trail and see what it needs. If there is anything you can not handle, just get in touch with us and we will get a crew out there.

The Maine Chapter of the AMC and the Maine Audobon Society are hosting a talk by Carie Kish entitled "Hiking Canada's Sentiers Frontaliers. It will be held at 7 PM on March 30th in Falmouth, Me.

We are still looking for trail adopters. If anyone would like to adopt a trail, please get in touch with us sometime over the winter and we will set you up. There are many trails available, especially here in the north country.

Donations are slow in coming this year. Without your support, it becomes very hard to accomplish what needs to be done. Just think, if everyone on this mailing list gave $10.00, that would equal over $10,000. That would go along ways in meeting our goals.

See you on the Trail

Pete Castine

President

The Cohos Trail Association

THE COHOS TREKKER - by K. R. Nilsen

HELLO FROM THE COHOS TRAIL

2010: THE BIG PUSH

After a dozen years of work developing the Cohos Trail, the association may actually be able to complete the trail in 2010, or at least the vast majority of it and make some substantial improvements to infrastructure along the 162-mile route.

This spring, work will begin on a whole host of new trails that were laid out last year in the community of Pittsburg. With luck, we hope to be able to develop nearly fifteen miles of new foot trail.

The proposed trails include: all two miles of the new Prospect Mountain Trail (much of it complete already); the three-plus mile Covell Mountain Trail to a terrific low summit with views and Round Pond; the two-mile Round Pond Brook Trail from that body of water through fine open woodlands along the brook down to Route 3; the already fairly well developed three-mile Camp Otter Trail near the north shore of First Connecticut Lake; the final touches on the Moose Alley Trail that was cut last year and the two-mile Little Falls in the River Trail to a falls and flume.

These trails, once completed, will form a seemless route from Mountain Bungalow hut on Prospect Mountain (not too far from Young's Store at Happy Corner), all the way to Deer Mountain Campground not far south of the international border. Most all the road walking required to make the trek now will be eliminated.

These miles will feature some fine natural features and a number of campgrounds (private and public) and cabins. Two low but rather dramatic summits stand about three miles apart. Views from each will make the short trek between the two more than worth the effort. One of the pathways reaches a boisterous flume in the wild Connecticut River and a wild step falls just above it. The Moose Alley Trail is in prime moose habitat, and creatures utilize the trail often. The route also reaches a few vantage points onto the big Connecticut Lakes and the boat launch at Second Connecticut Lake, with its beautiful view of the boundary peaks and Rump Mountain in Maine.

To get the job done, we are seeking a few hours or a few days of volunteer work for anyone who would like to lend a hand by wielding a branch lopper, a bow saw, and ax, or a hammer. We have twigs to clip, blowdowns to throw off the trail, weeds to whack, downed logs to cut apart, bog bridge planks to nail in place, signs to put up, blazes to paint, a few sign kiosks to put in place, and the like.

Those who would like to partake of the effort may stay at Mountain Bungalow or Bearl Ledge Campground on Prospect Mountain for the duration of time spent helping out. Donations would be greatly appreciated to help cover costs. All you have to do to have a free working vacation (you pick the number of hours or days) is call 603-538-6777. Bring a friend or friends. The Bungalow sleeps five right now (more soon).

Work on the new Cohos Trial pathways will be underwritten by the association and by a series of up to five grants that we hope to land. As the trails come on line, we will post there completion on the website. So have a look at Cohos Trail periodically during the spring and summer for updates regarding new trails opening in the system.

THE BIG HUFF AND PUFF

This summer several off our structures on the Cohos Trail will get quite a bit of attention, and you can help with their improvement, if you so desire.

We would very much like to expand Mountain Bungalow. We should have the materials enough to do much of the work, but we could use a few able bodied citizens to saw lumber, hammer nails and perhaps throw around a little paint.

The Bungalow won't get much bigger, but it will get more bunk space, as a part of the downstairs shop will be converted into square footage to house up to four double bunks. That would increase capacity to thirteen people, enough to house a small outdoor adventure camp group.

We are seeking $1,200 in donations to help underwrite a modest amount of materials and labor. If you would like to donate items such as a couple of windows, a door or two, dimension lumber, sheetrock, boards or planks for flooring, a couple of smoke alarms, or a few bucks, that would be most welcome. Call 603-538-6777 in the North Country or 603-363-8902 in southern NH if you would like to contribute to the cause. And if, by chance, you have just don't want that composting toilet of yours and want to get rid of it, give us a shout. We love composting toilets.

Many days hike to the south is Kamp Kirk in the Nash Stream Forest. We are still awaiting word from the state to see if we can go ahead with work on the free-to-the-public overnight hut (once a work camp for a dam construction crew). Kamp Kirk is a two-story building with lots of potential. We have a gift of $600 for materials, and we have been given numerous new windows, a door, and some 4x7-inch timbers for future renovation work.

Plans are still evolving for Kamp Kirk, but here's a look at the work we'd like to do. We were talking about replacing a big dilapidated shed with a new shed/lean-to. But that would divert resources away from the main building.

Instead, we could replace just the carrying timbers on the shed, run purlins, and slap down eight panels of metal roofing (we have five), and call it quits. Total cost: $125.00.

Then we could turn the majority of our attention and resources to the main building. The old worn out kitchen has to come down and be removed. Under the west wall of the main building where the kitchen was attached, we'd prop up the structure with timbers, put in place four substantial concrete piers, run a 20-foot sill, and tie the main building studs to the sill. That would stabilize the building and make it much safer.

While that is going on, four other concrete piers would be set ten feet to the west of the main building. Once the sill is complete and all the piers put in place, the remaining materials could be used to rough frame out the new kitchen addition and ceiling planks and metal roofing could be installed to shed rain. Total cost for concrete, sonatubes, dimension lumber, underlayment and floor planking, ceiling boards, nails and screws, and metal roofing: about $1,000 in materials.

Voila, the kitchen addition would then be the lean-to for a year or two until we are able to do more work on the structure. It could sleep eight people easily. We could even install our donated windows and doors right away and trim out tarpaulin material for the exterior walls to keep out the weather for a year or two until we could do more.

Since we have a $600 gift, all we would need to do is match it, and we'd have the materials enough to roof the old shed and rough out the new kitchen area (lean-to) on the main building. Double that gift and matching funds, and we could pay two people for a week to complete the effort.

Failing that, if we pulled together twelve able men and women on site for a few days, we'd get the job done in a long weekend. We'd buy the food, the refreshments, and provide musical entertainment. We'd even cook. Who could resist that, huh, in this age of Wall Street hucksterism?

MOVE YOUR LAZY BOTTOM!

In 2010, we could, if you help us, complete the Cohos Trail and get a good deal of work done on two of the trail's first hiker huts (huts for anybody and everybody, really).

We're talking big things for small money, real improvements for the cost of a cup of coffee. Who does that in this day and age? So move your derriere. Get involved. Be a part of something big in the big county called Coos.

Best of all, you get to stay free. It will cost you nothing to get some Z's overnight, if you pitch in. Stay a few nights, we're not fussy. (Now I sound like a huckster, but at least if not selling junk you don't need.)

HIKING THE CT THIS YEAR?

Be sure to check with the website -Cohos Trail- before you strike out hiking on the Cohos Trail this year. Big changes are afoot, as we noted above, but there are or other things you will need to know. Here are a few of them. Jot these down or print these out.

Owls Head Trail Reroute

The Owls Head Trail is closed from Route 115 south to the White Mountain National Forest boundary. A landowner requested that the trail be closed, and so it is. In order get around this substantial problem, there is a viable alternative route. It is not an ideal solution, but it will get us where we need to go, and not necessarily eliminate the two peaks in the vicinity. Here's what we'd have to do.

Move along the Cherry Mountain Trail from the south (from the Cherry Mountain Road) three miles and approach the summit of Mt. Martha. Just before the summit, the Cherry Mountain Trail cuts west downhill, fairly steeply in one or two sections. Hikers could go to the summit and even pick up Martha's Mile to the Owls Head ledges 4/5ths of a mile away.

But in order to move north on the Cohos Trail system, the tramper will have to dodge down the Cherry Mountain Trail to the west and descend down to Route 115 in Twin Mountain. At the parking area, move to the highway and cross it directly to Lennon Road. Move down Lennon Road for about a quarter mile to a junction. Turn right on that little used rural road (don't know the name of it right this minute) and walk about two miles until the road ends at a long abandoned railroad bed. Turn right (northeast) and walk about a mile on the railbed to Airport Road. Cross directly over Airport Road and into the parking lot for the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge. Make the trek from the lot out to Cherry Pond (about a mile) and you are back on the route of the Cohos Trail in the vicinity of Waumbek Junction (the observation deck in the area is to the right about 300 feet).

The trek out to Owls Head, then, becomes a spur trail off the Cherry Mountain Trail. The path between Mt. Martha and Owls Head - Martha's Mile -- is delightful and, on a good day, the views from Owls Head are the very best that can be had of the western wall of the Presidential Range. So an hour side trip is very much worth the effort, and the Cohos Trail retains the Mt. Martha and Owls Head summits in its inventory.

This sets up a bit more road walk, but we have a road walk now bypassing the closed Slide Brook Trail. That trail has no connector potential any longer, so opening it with a big puncheon bridge span makes little sense now.

This spring, I'll walk the route and get more particulars. I haven't been up the Cherry Mountain Trail from the west in 30 years. And I have no idea what is down that little backcountry road. But I have walked down the old railbed in the area. It is used a lot in the winter by snowmobilers, of course. Like most all old railbeds, they are usually quite pleasant to walk. In remote areas, animals use them quite a bit to get around, and I have seen moose and black bear on them often enough, fox too.

So, this spring, a few signs and a few yellow topped posts, and we are back in business, I think. We'll post the info on the web and caution people to download the material for their maps and guidebooks so they get make the trek. Of course, reverse directions if southbound on the CT.

Mt. Cabot Cabin

The Mount Cabot Cabin near the summit of the 4,160-foot peak in the Kilkenny sleeps eight people. This year, the Forest Service is charging for its overnight use. Contact the Androscoggin Ranger District of the White Mountain National Forest for information regarding reserving a bunk in the cabin. Or go to the WMNF website and search for the Mt. Cabot cabin.

Percy Loop Camp

If you overnight at Percy Loop Camp, please disregard the red flagging to the north, leading away from the campsite. That flagging is for a proposed trail route. It will eventually be taken down if the trail is built or not. Please do not remove it.

Kamp Kirk

If we are able to make some improvements to Kamp Kirk and you are able to stay on the site (but not in the old portion of the main building), you may reach the camp easily from the Cohos Trail. The camp is about half a mile away to the north from the big stringer bridge over Nash Stream at Mile 8 and the trailhead of the Sugarloaf Mt. Trail.

On the Nash Stream Road, turn uphill, north, and walk the road uphill until it levels out. Stay on the level a short distance and begin a very gradual descent. Near the bottom of the descent the road will turn to the left. Just before the turn, there is an indistinct drive on the left that punches into the woods on a slight incline. Walk in there. The camp is 200 feet ahead to the west uphill. If you walk too far on the road, a structured called Broken Dam Camp will show up on your right. Turn around and look on the right now for the drive 50 feet away or so.

If we do open Kamp Kirk lean-to this year, you may stay there for free. In fact, if or when the building is refurbished it will always be free to the public. Donations will be welcome to help support its upkeep. Remember, check the website for the latest on this.

Dixville Peak

Check in to see what the status of moving over Dixville Peak will be this summer. There may be construction work in the area as work should begin on a number of large wind turbines that are slated for the peak and other uplands to the south.

Mountain Bungalow

You may reserve a bunk at Mountain Bungalow hut on Prospect Mountain by calling 603-538-6777. This summer, the facility will be available on a donation-only basis. There is no set fee for its use now. Donations are welcome to help with the upkeep and to permit us to buy materials for the expansion of the bunk capacity.

New Trails in Pittsburg and Clarksville

Please be sure to check in frequently late this spring and summer about what new trails are open and how to access them. Go to Cohos Trail. Don't forget, like I always do.

Crossing the Border to Access the Sentiers Frontaliers Trail System

Our sister trail system north of the international border is complete from just beyond the Canadian Port of Entry far into the heart of the Eastern Townships of Quebec. You must now have a passport or a passport card on your person. Getting back in the United States can now be difficult without such documents.

The Sentiers Frontaliers new link trail is just a few feet north of the border. Walk north until the terrific view opens up over Magnetic Hill. On the right is a park. Walk into the park. You will see a large ornate cross and a sign kiosk. The link trail begins just beyond the kiosk and eventually climbs into the high country of Mont Saumon (Mt. Salmon) and Mont D'Urban (Mt. D'Urban) and continues west and north for more than 50 miles.

THOSE WHO MAKE IT POSSIBLE

A special thanks is in order for special folks in the Headwaters Region of the Connecticut River for helping us make it possible to create new trails in the area. Headwaters forest manager Sandy Young has been a champion of our efforts and has been extremely helpful every step of the way. Bob Ward of TransCanada has also been a strong advocate of our efforts to design routes not terribly far from the beautiful Connecticut Lakes. Joe Daly of LandVest Corp. has been instrumental in our efforts to route two wonderful new pathways in the Covell Mountain and Round Pond area. Without the support of these gentlemen, our work would be impossible.

It is remarkable how things have changed in a dozen years. Multiple use forests are a reality today, much to the benefit of all, be it the timber harvester or the snowmobiler, to the trekker on foot, or the angler with fishing rod in hand.

THE LAST WORD

In the summer of 1995, I was sitting on the floor of a summer rental in Wells, Maine passing the time because it was raining. I had maps laid out all over the floor, topos and the Delorme atlas of New Hampshire. On those maps I scribbled pencil lines, trying to figure out in my mind just where a long-distance foot trail might be routed from the southern tip of Coos County to the Canadian border.

I knew something about Coos that few people knew. Because I liked to tramp around in the woods and on peaks where there were no people and therefore no trails, I discovered that between the Connecticut River to the west and the Androscoggin and Magalloway Rivers to the east, there was a narrow elevated spine that ran the entire length of the county. That spine began in Bartlett, really, just over the Coos southern line in low peaks there. It was divided from the Whites to the south by the big bend in the Saco River. The Saco divided the region in two east to west there. On the north side, in the higher terrain was the southern boundary of Coos.

There were uplands in there few people bothered to tramp, Cave, Langdon, Parker. A little to the north there was bowler-shaped Resolution. Most of these had fine views in all sorts of directions, and always to the north was the summit cone of Mt. Washington poking up into the clouds. Just to the west of Resolution stood Mt. Crawford, a little mountain with a mammoth view. Whew. What a spot. Nearby lay Resolution Shelter just off the Davis Path.

Looking at the maps, and remembering these places, I got all juiced up - excited. Imagine trekking from here to Canada, crossing the Appalachian Trail instead of running over it. Wouldn't that be something? A decade earlier, the Forest Service had cut the then new Kilkenny Ridge Trail from the summit of Mt. Waumbek all the way to South Pond in Stark.

So there was a route through that twenty-five miles of rugged country. The Horn stood in there somewhere, lonely and isolated. But what a terrific summit that was, and only an hour's walk from the Mt. Cabot cabin, that once served as respite for the fire tower warden when the tower still stood just below the summit of that 4,000 footer.

In the timber country to the north, across Route 110 and the Upper Ammonoosuc River, there were a whole jumble of odd peaks, particularly hideously steep North Percy Peak, a killer whose original trail had be closed down. Too dangerous. Boy, I loved North Percy. Still do. It's my favorite, particularly in August when the blueberries carpet an acre or two of the board naked summit.

Above that yet was Sugarloaf, with its graceful form. I knew it when the fire watch cabin was bolted to the bald summit ledge. I had lunch up there with the warden. He showed me my first moose through binoculars. It was a dot in a pond a thousand vertical feet below. But I could make it out. Got to meet the porcupine who lived under the cabin, too. Wouldn't let me pass on the trail going down of the summit ledge. I had to skirt around the quill pig.

I followed the logging skiways into the Gadwah country, bushwhacked about in the Northwest Peaks and over into Phillips Brook valley, and went over Dixville Peak in winter when nobody did that sort of thing. Grand view, there, on the south flank of Dixville Peak.

I came late to Dixville Notch. The first hotel guests stayed at the foot of that rock maw about the time hostilities ended between the North and the South. I fell to pieces in the notch. I like it more than just about any real estate in the East. I think of it as my own. Imagine a long-distance trail could reach Dixville from the south through the Nash Stream Forest region and run off the 700-foot cliff that is Table Rock. Now that would be something.

My trail dreams could have ended right there, but I had a chance to spend a night at a remote outpost on a pond at the foot of the boundary peak know as Mt. Salmon. Had steak, whiskey and a cigar there among Yankees who were damn near the real thing.

That's why the Cohos Trail goes right to the border. The boundary country had a persona altogether different from the world below. Had a conversation once with a U.S. border guard on the ninth of October. I'd come up early in the morning to hike into Fourth Connecticut Lake in heavy wet snow and fog. Had to follow a moose in the road for a mile before I got to the border station.

The fellow was on short duty from Alabama. He was amused by the snowstorm in early October. We had a cup of coffee together and chatted some. Friendly fellow. He thought I was nuts, hiking up into the black spruce in pancake flakes. But I reached Fourth Connecticut Lake soon enough and walked all around it. Had the place to myself, except for one Canada jay.

My heart really resides in these remote Coos places where the humans aren't, where it's oh so quiet, where the moose rule with their antlers held high, a pine marten stares at you at eye level from the trunk of the tree, the black bear explodes away from you as fast as a horse, and the barred owl asks over and over, "who cooks for you, who cooks for you, all."

I ramble on, don't I? Time to shut up! One more thing, though: The Cohos Trail may actually be completed soon, thanks to hundreds of volunteers who have come out on the trail over the years to open country that only loggers once move about in with axes over their shoulders. I owe every one of those volunteers a lifetime of thank yous. I'm grateful that, with their help, we were able to forge something from scratch that people everywhere can enjoy just by strapping foots to their feet and a pack to their back.

percy peaks

See you on the trail.

Kim R. Nilsen, board chair

The Cohos Trail Association