Trailwrights

Trailwrights in its efforts to keep NH Trails Day alive gathered to spend a day in Franconia Notch State Park rehabilitating this very heavily used and popular trail.
We have been working on this trail now in our third year,with one or two days per year.
As many know the trail has been neglected for many years and as a result, a lot of erosion has severely damaged the trail. The State Parks have not had the resources to do very much other than keeping it open by removing blowdowns.
Gene Bouley ( A Trailwright himself) volunteered to help out and contacted Trailwrights for help. We agreed to give it a try. The last couple years we did manage to install numerous drainages along the entire length of the trail. Many more are needed but we have made a start,and there is improvement with signs of healing.
Last year additional work was done in the form of rock steps in an area that had gullied.
This year was another day of repairing another section of deteriorating treadway partly caused by hikers cutting a switch back. The goal was to cut a side hill that will avoid that area that was cut. This was a section some 100 feet long with 6 rock steps.Building scree along the down hill side to fill in the cut section. Also in the turn of the switchback, large amounts of rock were moved to the side of a seasonal stream to keep it from overflowing and going down the trail ,along with improving a water bar above the whole section.
After getting that section completed we moved up to another area that had a serious drop that had eroded a goo 2 feet below a large downed tree trunk. We removed the trunk and added 2 lg. rock steps and graded the treadway to it,rock scree and brush were added to keep hikers on the trail.
Meanwhile, Darrell and his crew put in a series of rock steps below us.
Above that a short ways, a rock waterbar was installed to go along with 2 earth water bars.
Totals for the day were 13 rock steps 1 rock water bar, 3 earth water bars and 150 linear feet of side hill construction. A really gratifying and productive day.
Thanks has to be given to Glenn S, Bruce R, Ray J, Gene B, Dave D, Darrell H, Hal and Peg, Motobobo,and Al S. for such hard work and lots of Laughs. 10 Volunteers x 7.5 hrs. = 75 hrs Total.

Sat. the 4th. Six Trailwrights (Hal and Peggy, Ray, Bill, Darrell, and Bruce) and Jason Berard met for a day working on the Dan Doan Trail.
In the past 5 years the Doan family and a few friends have been working hard to maintain this eroded,wet and rocky trail. Trailwrights has been involved the last 4 years and together have installed a good deal of drainage.There is a considerable amount left to do. Unfortunately the family has had trouble finding lodging for this week as the usual location was booked up. Also with graduations and other family members not able to make it we knew we would only be able to do the Level 1 (Basic) adoptor work and knowing that the trail is in bad shape we headed to the top to asses future work first and worked our way down clearing all the smaller trees and limbs and one large birch that we did not get on the way up. We did manage to clear all the waterbars and drainages except for a few ditches on the road portion near the bottom as we ran out of time.
This leads me into commenting on some of the problems that this trail has. Due to the Doan family coming from as far away as N.Y. it becomes clear that a twice a year as an adoptor should do, is very difficult for them and unfortunately the trail needs more than they have time for. Sat. is an example. All we had time for was to maintain what has been installed the last 4 years, which means the reconstruction and repair it needs badly does not get done.
In addition with only one day a year being worked on, it cannot possibly be enough to stabilize this 3 mile trail.
That raises the question who will do it. Also is part of the problem that it does not get a lot of use worth the effort ?.Or does it’s current condition be the reason why it does not get a lot of traffic.
I personally think it is both worth it and a lot can be done to make it a nice trail if we can find the help needed. We may possibly have an adopter for this trail as of this writing, and a possible October crew workday.

Originally posted on Views From the Top.