TRAIL NOTES:
The Trio Trail is now 99 percent complete, signed, blazed, and very easy to follow. A few logs have to be cut out of the trail as yet, and some minor tweaking needs to be carried out in several spots, but the pathway is easy to navigate and is a great pleasure to be out on now. The views out to big Sugarloaf and its neighboring peaks are a delight.
Several folks were thru-hiking it while we were working on it today. Because the treadway is so distinct and the blazing and signage so good, there is no possiblity of getting lost.
The Percy Loop Trail has been reblazed in red. The lower half of the trail, from the Trio Trail junction is blazed solidly in bright red. Above the junction and uphill to the Percy Peaks Trail junction, the Percy Loop now carries two blazes, one yellow (Cohos Trail color) and one red, because the upper section is a part of the Cohos Trail. The lower section is no longer part of the CT route. But to avoid confusion over the upper and lower sections, we added the red color.
There are reports from numerous folks about the severe tornado-like storm that hit the region north of Dixville Notch last week. (See Pete Castine’s report on this FOTCT page.) On the Lake Francis Trail in particular there are a good deal of fallen trees that need some work getting around. Be aware of it. It will take more time to get through the area until folks can get in to clean it up.
The Pond Brook Falls Trail now has a heavy temporary bridge in place over Pond Brook, thanks to a donation of big squared timbers from Dana Southworth at the Garland Mill in Lancaster. A crew of six installed the heavy timbers and chained them to a tree. the surface was covered with chicken wire to ensure a sure nonskid footing. Each fall the timbers will be pulled back from the stream. Late each spring they will be reinstalled. This trail also has a bog bridge over one wet spot a bit downhill from the bridge.
We had 15 volunteers (and one dog) on hand for the work day, ranging from eleven years of age to nearly 70 years. Great crew. Great day out there. Rain held off for most of the day, and what rain did come down was brief and not enough to soak clothing.
We are working to see if we can get the new bypass on the Sanguinary Summit Trail put in this fall, so we can eliminate one of our toughest problem sections in the entire CT and pick up the open summit of Mt. Sanguinary for the first time.
Last week in the Clarksville area south of Lake Francis and after the storm, the ground in a number of places was covered with leaves that had been blazed off trees by a heavy barrage of hail.
Still dry out there, but a bit of rain overnight got some rivulets running again, so water is easier to come by in some places.
