The COHOS TRAIL ASSOCIATION

Nathan Pond Trail
This trail is on Wagner land. We should think about tackling problems in here in 2008 and 2009, or continue the policy we have now of sending people down the short cut to keep them away from the loop around Nathan Pond when conditions are not good.
The way down toward Nathan Pond Valley is a tote road that can be greasy with mud. Hikers usually walk to one side in wet weather. It reaches an alder thicket of some size. In wet weather, the trail can be underwater in many places. It's unsuitable as a hiking trail when that is the case. This area needs bog bridging, a lot of it, as much as 100 feet of it or more, or it needs the area scouted to the south to get the trail up out of the lowest points in the valley. (Trouble is, we can use existing ways, but we probably can't cut a new trail in here.)
Reach a junction. Turn uphill to the left. Ensure that signage and blazing is very visible in here as a wrong turn can spell big trouble for hikers. At Nathan Pond, the trail runs on the east side of the small lake. In one area, the lowest spot, the trail is a disaster. The mud wallow has to be bypassed 50 feet to the east. There is no other way around this mess, created by ATV machines and big 4X4 trucks.
Reach a spur junction and turn left. Repaint blazing. Drop downhill a few feet and reach another junction. Turn left again and be sure the blazing is in good shape. Walk over a hill in tall timber then reach an open tote way that fills in with tall grasses each summer. This region really should have someone come in with a weed whacker in mid-June and trim a path through the growing grasses. There are several eroded channels in the grass that could turn an ankle if someone is not watching their step
Touch up blazing all the way on the north side of the pond to the far junction. Check signage and blazing in the junction, then turn uphill and north, checking blazing in the wide ways. Cross over Tumble Dick Notch and descend toward Coleman State Park, checking blazing all the way. These trails are all snowmobile trails, so there is usually not much in the way of clipping or blowdown problems.
We could erect Short Cut signs at both ends of this bypass of the loop.
Where the trail reaches Coleman State Park, a new sign could be put in place telling folks where the trail leaves the park. Blazing was touched up last year by E.H. Roy.