Erica “Spitfire” Notini
“Usually somewhere in NH”
Erica “Spitfire” Notini
Erica completed a SOBO thru hike of the Cohos Trail after first completing a NOBO thru hike of Vermont’s Long Trail in September of 2019. She has lived in NH for most of her life and grew up hiking the Whites. Despite this, she had never ventured no [READ MORE…]
A major seven-mile trail relocation initiative between Coleman State Park and Lake Francis has been stalled now for most of 2019, and there is no telling at this writing when the project may gain traction.
The new, so-called Nilsen’s Leg path is planned to run directly north out of Coleman State Park campground and thread its way through the Deadwater hillocks in Stewartstown and around and just east of big Whipple Ridge to eventually cross the Cedar Stream Road and [READ MORE…]
In an effort to attract equity partners, the owners of the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel and thousands of acres of surrounding land in Dixville Notch have listed the property for sale through the global commercial real estate and investment business CBRE, the firm that completed a marketing feasibility study surrounding the Balsams redevelopment project two years ago.
A parcel of land just off Route 110 and immediately north of the Upper Ammonoosuc River sold recently to a Texas-based investment firm. That parcel, just west of the Bell Hill Road, between the river and the railroad tracks, was long viewed as a potential parcel of land to be purchased in the future, should the Cohos Trail Association ever move to create a headquarters and overnight bunking facility in the town of Stark.
The Deer Mountain Firetower Trail has been fully restored now for a few years. In far-flung country about four miles from the Canadian border and reaching the old fire lookout tower infrastructure on the north summit, the reworked trail is a very pleasant two-mile climb in mixed and boreal forest to the tower. But, alas, it’s a one way trip. The Cohos Trail Association would like to change that, and create an extension that would create a loop hike and a thru-trek for a [READ MORE…]
The single most troublesome bit of infrastructure on the Cohos Trail, an abandoned snowmobile span known as Coon Brook Bridge, received a much-needed overhaul this past fall thanks to an all-volunteer crew. Now instead of the deck being a hazard, the structure in the middle of the Bog Bridge Trail in Pittsburg township is safe and a cakewalk to navigate.
The association made this bridge project the highest priority and scheduled a work day in northern Pittsburg. The [READ MORE…]
Every trail system in terrain that receives 30 inches or more of rain a year has as similar, persistent problem. Trails over wet ground require bog bridges (puncheon spans) that keep hikers off moist soils. No puncheons and the path soon becomes a waterlogged trench. Such structures are simple enough, but they take some real work to put in place, only to have them deteriorate rapidly in little more than a decade.
The Cohos Trail has a substantial share of bog bridges [READ MORE…]
It’s not every day that a twenty-year-old latrine makes news. But our oldest outhouse on the trail, the one on Baldhead Mountain close to Baldhead Shelter, has come up in the world and is worthy of reams of front-page copy.
After many years of use and weathering at 3,000 feet of elevation, it was decided that in 2019 the Baldhead latrine would be refurbished and turned into a true, simple composting privy like all our other units in Coos County. The Baldhead creation [READ MORE…]
Recently, Kris Pieper sent photographs from the winter-encased summit of Mt. Eisenhower. He took a selfie, too, of a smiling face encrusted in ice crystals. The new president of The Cohos Trail Association is currently embarked on a winter climbing frenzy of the 4,000 footers in a bid to raise dollars for the association.
Now that alone says something about Kris.
The first edition of the Cohos Trail Map came out on 11″x17″ paper and was printed on a copy machine, just a year after trail cutting started. It was the early years for the trail, and the founder, Kim Nilsen, was working hard to connect trail pieces together. As sections came together, it quickly became apparent that hikers needed assistance following the newly established and often-changing route.
It was pretty rough out there in the early 2000’s and, jokingly, Ki [READ MORE…]