The President’s Message to All of You!

Greetings fellow outdoor enthusiasts;

Now that winter has left and spring has arrived, it is time for the Cohos Trail Association to kick off the 2012 hiking/trail work season. We are going to start the season on April 14, which is when TCTA will have its first board meeting of 2012. It is during this meeting that we will discuss our priorities for trail maintenance/construction projects and we will begin to set up volunteer work-weekend dates. Once we have some things formalized, we will spread the word via the e-newsletter ~ The Cohos Trekker ~ and on our “Friends of the Cohos Trail” facebook page for those of you familiar with facebook, as well as our website at www.cohostrail.org. Please stay tuned for this information.

It is likely that there will be at least two volunteer work-weekends on the Cohos Trail this year. The dates will be announced later, of course. One weekend will be to haul/assemble the new Old Hermit Shelter and its companions - a composting latrine and a two-post kiosk, on the Arm of Sugarloaf Trail in Nash Stream State Forest. Another volunteer work-weekend will consist of annual trail maintenance along chosen sections of trail. Again, more information will follow in our next newsletter.

Have you volunteered on the Cohos Trail during such an event? If so, I would imagine you had a blast, like all of us at The Cohos Trail Association have. If you have not had the chance to volunteer on the trail, well there is ample opportunity to do so. We’ll get you the information you need; complete with what to bring, directions to work sites, as well as directions to overnight accommodations. We can promise that you will have fun while accomplishing great things on the trail. I encourage all of you to come on out and be a part of the camaraderie of a small trail organization with a big heart! You will find your niche and you will want to help out in other ways in the future. That is how all of us got associated with the trail and is now the reason we all have a blast getting dirty while playing in the mud or putting structures together or both!

May all of you have a wonderful and safe 2012 hiking season! I hope to see you out on the Cohos Trail.

With warm regards,

Chad Pepau, President

The Cohos Trail Association

Kim Robert Nilsen - Online

A LEAN-TO SHELTER FOR MT. GLORIETTE

A verbal okay has been received from the new owners of the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel and surrounding property to site a new lean-to shelter near the top of Balsams Wilderness Ski Resort on Mt. Gloriette in Dixville perhaps has early as 2013.

The site we envision for the lean-to would be in the woods along the trail just 250 feet from the topmost and westerly-most ski lift tower at the ski area. Tucked out into the trees out of the north and west wind, the shelter would provide ample sleeping quarters for six people, eight in a pinch. It would be on the scale of the present Panorama Shelter on North Sanguinary Ridge and the new Old Hermit Shelter to be built on Sugarloaf Arm in 2012.

Hikers who overnight at the lean-to on Mt. Gloriette would have only to walk a minute or two to obtain a superlative view to the west and north from the top of the ski slopes. A source of water is not close by, however. A quarter mile walk will be necessary to reach a developed seep to the south. This summer, we will try to find a closer water source in the woods west of the trail.

If we can get the new Mt. Gloriette Shelter built, it will the fourth in a string of shelters. Hiking northbound in 2013, it might be possible to overnight at the Percy Loop Camp tent platform on North Percy Peak, then reach Old Hermit Shelter the next day, Baldhead Shelter the day after that, Mt. Gloriette Shelter on the fourth day, and Panorama Shelter on the fifth day.

We'd be well on our way to creating an eight or nine shelter system on the Cohos Trail. Eventually we hope to retrofit the Percy Loop tent platform with a simple roof and siding. To the north, we envision a shelter in Stewartstown, Clarksville, and perhaps two in Pittsburg. Well into the future, we might even think of locating one in Jefferson not too far from the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge.

And, by the way, each shelter will be accompanied by a composting latrine.

GOODBYE RESOLUTION

Speaking of shelters, old friend Resolution Shelter was torn down in November by the Forest Service and the Appalachian Mountain Club. Located in the Dry River Wilderness, it had been slated for removal once it had reached the end of its useful life. After nearly 80 years of service, the time came to dismantle the old log structure.

Resolution Shelter, on the Montalban Ridge between Mt. Crawford and Stairs Mountain, was the first overnight stop for northbounders on the Cohos Trail. No other shelter is close by. The nearest lean-to to the Cohos Trail is now Dry River Shelter, about a mile north of where the Cohos Trail crosses the Dry River Trail in the vicinity of the Dry River crossing east of Mt. Eisenhower. One could reach Dry River Shelter in a single day after leaving the Davis Path trailhead parking lot at Route 302, but it would be one very long day to reach the lean-to.

Dry River Shelter is also slated to be removed once it becomes unsafe.

50 HIKES NORTH OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS

A new guidebook from Countryman Press, 50 Hikes North of the White Mountains by Kim R. Nilsen, will be out in bookstores in June. It features the Cohos Trail prominently, both as a thru-trail and has a highlight in a number of individual day hikes spelled out in the tome.

OLD HERMIT SHELTER

Keep the month of June open for a Cohos Trail get-together. We’ll be building the Old Hermit Shelter on Sugarloaf Arm a mile uphill from the Nash Stream Road at the Sugarloaf Mt. Trail trailhead.

We’ll call for a work weekend. Anyone and everyone is welcome who would like to pitch in to help build the lean-to on the mountainside. In the evenings, we’ll retire to Kamp Kirk not too far away, where folks can cook and sit around listening to acoustic music and tall tales about the deep dark Coos backcountry.

RESTORING THE DEER MT. TRAIL

One of the most significant projects that the association will undertake in 2012 is the restoration of the historic but long obliterated Deer Mt. Trail to the remains of the old firetower on the north summit not too far from the Canadian border.

Since the inception of the Cohos Trail Association, this restoration project has been in the plans. Now we have a chance to do the job. We need volunteers, particularly from the Colebrook-Pittsburg area to help us with the task.

If you would like to help with the restoration sometime this summer, please call Lainie Castine at 603.246.7784 or email

ADOPT-A-TRAIL

Plenty of trail segments within the Cohos Trail system need to be adopted and cared for one day a year (or more, if you’d like).

South of Rt. 26 Dixville Notch

To adopt one of the following, contact: Chad @ Southern Trail Adoption

• Old Summer Club Tr. 3.0 miles
• Percy Peaks Trail 2.4 miles
• South Percy Peak Trail 0.5 miles
• Gadwah Notch Tr. 5.0 miles

North of Rt. 26 Dixville Notch

To adopt one of the following, contact: Lainie @ Northern Trail Adoption

• Sanguinary Summit Tr. 4.0 miles
• Three Brothers Tr. 2.5 miles
• Sanguinary Ridge Tr. 1.2 miles
• Covell Mountain Trail 4.4 miles
• Round Pond Brook Trail 1.7 miles
• Camp Otter Trail 3.5 miles
• The Falls in the River Trail 2.0 miles
• Black Cat Trail 3.5 miles
• Deer Mountain Trail 2.5 miles

NEW POTTY FOR PANORAMA

Panorama Shelter on North Sanguinary Ridge will get a new sanitation facility this year. The old plastic barrel potty will be pulled up and removed. In its place will be built a new composting latrine, expertly crafted by Jack and Chad Pepau, who have fabricated a number of our moldering privies over the years.

The Cohos Trail Association is a 501 (C) 3 nonprofit organization. Gifts are tax deductible.

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