Marcy Dam bridge washed out

[Scotzman]

I think that poorly designed (ie. not designed at all) trails are the culprit not the 46er peakbagging phenom.

Who knows, maybe this represents an opportunity to lay out and cut trails that will endure rather than erode. Perhaps trails that require significantly less maintenance and which provide for a more pleasant hiking experience.

Just wondering out loud here, it's probably too early to say but could this event be of greater impact than Floyd?

Second this ^

 

[Mike P.]

We were just at a bunch of these places just a couple of weeks ago.

(Didn't hit any 4K peaks but I'm either a peakbagger or view junkie.) The log bridges over the beaver activity between the HPIC & Marcy dam survived or just that no one has gone up the truck road or South Meadows & headed towards the Loj?

The bridge over the Hudson at Upper works was being worked on, I wonder how it fared.

Have to think the parts of the trail along JBL got hit too. Did I read that report right that there are many new slides? Sounds like the approach to Panther, Sant & Couch just changed some too.

Anyone planning trips in any Northeast mountain area are going to have to make some changes, (longer detours, different hikes, maybe cancel if you had reservations at the Loj)

My next planned trip was for early November & likely was going to be outside the High Peaks, maybe Blue & Goodenow depending on snow cover.

I'm for people hiking & if peakbagging gets people into the woods, thats a good thing. if we weren't spending leisure time there, you might be looking at a clear cut forest or more mining.

(More the logging as mining become more profitable for bigger companies elsewhere although environemntal cost for responsible techniques was one of those increased costs here & IMO only fair they are responsible. I can't claim the apparent oxymoron, Clear cut forest as my own, it was part of a packet I got from a company doing business in the east that tried to explain that a clear cut forest is a healthy forest. - I thought it was a field of stumps after being clear cut)

 

[BlackSpruce]

Appears so far to be a totally different kind of impact. Floyd took trees down and created new slides, this time it is mostly water damage, one can cut/clear trees to re-open a path but cannot reroute a brook or fill a trail that has become a gully. It's the smaller drainages that did the most damage, they could not handle the flow of water (7 inches of rain in 5 hours for a total of 8.25) and took-off wherever they could. Maybe this time there is less damage at higher altitude.

 

[BlackSpruce]

Good news, just talked to a friend who climbed Cascade this morning, he reported only one major blockage and a few small debris here and there but nothing unusual. He added that trail was in good shape and seemed not to have suffered from Irene. Another 20 or so parties were on the mountain at the same time.

 

[Peakbagr]

Likely that trails will be repaired or with slight detours. DEC doesn't have the money, resources or inclination to lay out and cut new trails and the ADK and 46er trail crews will have their hands full for quite some time fixing the major areas of damage.

 

[Puma concolor]

Appears so far to be a totally different kind of impact. Floyd took trees down and created new slides, this time it is mostly water damage, one can cut/clear trees to re-open a path but cannot reroute a brook or fill a trail that has become a gully. It's the smaller drainages that did the most damage, they could not handle the flow of water (7 inches of rain in 5 hours for a total of 8.25) and took-off wherever they could. Maybe this time there is less damage at higher altitude.

Hard to say, but that 8.25 inches of rain in the valley could easily have been double that at higher altitude. Just looking at the general rainfall distributions from the storm throughout the Northeast strongly suggests that there was a proportional increase in rain as you gained altitude. Small amounts of rain along most of the coast, for example, but something like 13 inches in Hunter in the Catskills. Probably stiffer winds on the more exposed summits as well. Given the number of new Adirondack slides being reported by the DEC, it will be interesting to see what kinds of damage occurred above 4K feet. Not pretty for sure.

I also agree that it will be a huge job just to reroute and reconstruct existing trails ... gotta work with what you have so to speak.

 

[Adk_dib]

are they going to be needing volunteer trail crews?

 

[Tom Rankin]

are they going to be needing volunteer trail crews?

Absolutely! You could start with ADK, the 46Rs, DEC, and ask when they will be ready to start working. (It may be a while before roads and power, etc. are restored up there)