The Cohos Trail In-Service Day - May 7, 1999   Coos County Table of Contents "I will be meeting with lots of high school age students and instructors, from Stratford High School, from North Country Trailmaster, from Coos County Community Services and from Americorps. We will meet at the state's parking area at Christine Lake in Stark and then fanning out in three teams to do work in an extensive area in the Percy Peaks-Victor Head-Bald Mt. region of the southern end of the state's Nash Stream Forest." "This will be the first truly major work on the trail. We have to do spot work and trail layout work in lots of places, but this area needs a great deal of effort, and we should get it done that day." "We have a two-man team of professional woodsmen going into several difficult sections with chainsaws to open up areas that were heavily damaged by the 1998 ice storm. These areas are a terrible tangle of limbs and tree tops. And they will be doing work in Gadwah Notch, probably the most troublesome section of trail that was not hit by ice. There a scores of trees down in the notch and all have to be cleared out so that the new trail there can be freed." "There is a boy scout and his dad opening a new summit trail on Sanquinary Mt. in Dixville Notch, as well. So once the work is done on Friday, Gadwah Notch is opened, the two open up the summit trail and we get a big volunteer crew up into the Mt. Muise-Baldhead region to brush out that five miles of trail (not too much work there), we should then have a through trail that will stretch from Jefferson to Stewartstown. And, actually, the trail will stretch all the way to southern Crawford Notch, although we can't put our tiny CT signs on the existing trail systems in the southern White Mountain Forest yet (waiting for the okay). That would make the trail -- with one short gap in the lowlands of Jefferson -- about 100 miles long. That gap will take a bit more doing because of the extensive wetlands in there and the need for careful planning so as not to impact the fragile and unique environment in the Pondicherry Wildlife Preserve." "Remember, The Cohos Trail really is a string of existing trails, abandoned roads and railbeds, old skidder run, old brushed out boundary lines and moose trails strung together with fairly short and some long links of all new trail. In a sense, there always has been a Cohos Trail, but nobody knew it existed except myself, and I only knew it because I liked to bushwhack around in backcountry with maps and compass and I came across so many of these "ways" in the woods." Kim Nilsen President - Cohos Trail Association Any questions or comments should be directed to Kim at wilshy@top.monad.net Back to Table of Contents return to Guide to NH Trails