With all the recent discussion regarding the appropriateness of the Thoreau Falls Trail bridge, I had an opportunity to do a traverse On Saturday from the end of Zealand Falls road to Lincoln Woods via the Zealand trail, Ethan Pond Trail (the AT) the Thoreau falls trail Wilderness Trail, Cedar Brook Trail and the East Side trail. The weather was wet with patches of rain encountered up to point where we left the trail head. The walk to the Thoreau Falls trail was breezy cold and misty with the clouds lifting enough to see frost of Zeacliff.
Our first challenge was the upper crossing above Thoreau Falls, the rain the night before had made the crossing of the north fork of the Pemi at the normal trail crossing impossible without some very long risky jumps or some very deep fording (waist deep or more) through fast water. In the summer on a warm day, possibly quite pleasant but in 35 degree weather definitely not advisable. We started working our way up the stream looking for places to cross and started to discuss alternatives as the options to cross were not great, generally consisting of “leaps of faith” onto wet boulders over deep channels. After 20 minutes of so we encountered the bridge over the North Branch on the Ethan Pond trail (also the AT) which we both had completely forgotten about. This is an engineered bridge consisting of two glue lam type beams with a creosote coating with an approximate 50 foot span. It’s a pretty standard design used at many locations in the forest including Champney Falls trail and Stony Brook trail. It is not handicapped accessible due to width and the approach and does show some signs of deterioration of the glue lam beam at one end in a non-structural area but that does indicate that this bridge at some point may be subject to the same debate as the Thoreau Falls Bridge.
The existence of this bridge and how well it correlates with the TFT bridge is cloudy and as this section of the Ethan Pond trails is outside the designated Pemi wilderness (thanks to RoySwkr past post http://www.vftt.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-40542.html the boundary is 60 feet south of the trail. Sounds cut and dry that the bridge is not in the Pemi Wilderness rather it is in the Lincoln Woods Scenic Area. A scenic area is another federal designation that is managed to a lower wilderness standard. I found a link in an article by Dave Govatski a long term USFS employee on the conversion of the LWSA to the Pemi http://whitemountainhistory.org/History_of_Scenic_Areas.html which states “This higher level of protection was achieved in 1984 when Congress designated the 45,000-acre Pemigewasset Wilderness, which included most of the former Lincoln Woods Scenic Area. Today only a small remote area remains between Whitewall Mountain and Mount Willey” My speculation is that the lower protection level was kept to allow the AT, the Ethan Pond Shelter and the bridge outside the Pemi wilderness but it would be interesting to research if the administrative rules differ with respect to improvements in place for safety reasons.
After taking a short break at the bridge and encountering some woefully underequipped hikers for the conditions heading west, we elected to cross the river and bushwhack over to the TFT. The south side do the north branch gets decidedly steep as it approaches the crossing so we stayed up hill from the stream. After crossing a wide wet section of slope with plenty of moss and small ephemeral streams, we came out in open softwoods and after few minutes encountered the TFT. It was an easy bushwhack for us as we just needed to head west but for someone northbound it would be a bit more a challenge deciding where to head into woods to hit the bridge.
TFT trail was delightful as usual, the leaves are still at or near peak with little drop. The trail was follow able but in some spots where it diverges off the old rail bed makes it interesting. There is one section of partially washed out trail near a steep banking along the stream. I expect this will get worse. It has been many years since the last visit to this area and I do marvel at the tree growth in spots. We eventually went past the old camp clearing and the unofficial museum of artifacts on the side of the trail before coming out at the much discussed TFT Bridge. Others have commented on the conditions of the bridge so I won’t go into it beyond stating the obvious that the main timbers are deteriorated and have limited lifespan. The one item that was obvious was that the rain that occurred the night before we hiked had swelled the East Branch of the Pemi to the point that it was unsafe to cross with similar conditions as at the upper crossing. My friend had been there recently after a dry spell and he commented that unlike the last visit he didn’t see any options beyond fording. There were no good choices but I expect a waist deep ford downstream from the bridge would be the least bad or many bad options given the conditions which were still cold but at least the sun was out.
While there I looked around a bit and came to the conclusion that there is already a fairly well developed staging area for flying bridge components into the area and that is the former logging camp clearing just a short distance north on TFT. The main carrying beams would need to be set in place directly with a helicopter but the decking, rails, hardware and crew support could all be placed in the former camp clearing with a short distance to the bridge.
On the way out we had plenty of time to discuss the remaining structures in the Pemi and came to the conclusion that the biggest dichotomy in place in the Pemi is the ongoing improvement at Thirteen Falls with hardened tent sites, composting privy, bear box and caretaker. These are all admirable improvements but are far more or a stretch when it comes to exemption of wilderness standard administrative rules. Unlike Guyot, there is not a convenient jog in the wilderness boundary. My opinion is that the FS has effectively handed off the administration and costs associated with this site to the AMC so unlike the TFT bridge it is not a financial and manpower drain on the FS so they conveniently ignore the dichotomy.
The final leg of the trip was via the “road to nowhere” the vastly over engineered and improved East Side truck road whose sole apparent reason is to service the holding tank at the campground at the end of it and possibly as an S&R access point. The cynic in me also speculates that given the road construction is it opens up a nice area to future forest management activities (I.E. Timber harvests). When I look at the resources and costs associated with this and the past post Irene work on the Lincoln Woods trail, I have no doubt that they could have far better spent on the TFT bridge replacement.
One of the FS employees closely associated with the project has reportedly made comments to multiple people that the lack of the TFT bridge is a manageable risk that should be expected by people that enter the wilderness. I beg to differ, one of the management goals of a wilderness area is recreation and recreational access to the area is obtained by a long established trail network. The Thoreau Falls trail is primary means of access to a highly citied natural landmark in the WMNF, Thoreau Falls and thus is going to attract visitors. These visitors may or may not be astute on the potential rapid change in river levels that can occur by highly localized rain events that most likely will increase in frequency given current climate trends. If these visitors feel “trapped” due to the inability to cross the East Branch, they may be tempted to try a crossing and be injured. Thus in my opinion and a previous opinion by a prior WMNF supervisor a reason for a safety exemption for this structure exists and thus should be replaced using methods that minimize the impact to the area.
Our first challenge was the upper crossing above Thoreau Falls, the rain the night before had made the crossing of the north fork of the Pemi at the normal trail crossing impossible without some very long risky jumps or some very deep fording (waist deep or more) through fast water. In the summer on a warm day, possibly quite pleasant but in 35 degree weather definitely not advisable. We started working our way up the stream looking for places to cross and started to discuss alternatives as the options to cross were not great, generally consisting of “leaps of faith” onto wet boulders over deep channels. After 20 minutes of so we encountered the bridge over the North Branch on the Ethan Pond trail (also the AT) which we both had completely forgotten about. This is an engineered bridge consisting of two glue lam type beams with a creosote coating with an approximate 50 foot span. It’s a pretty standard design used at many locations in the forest including Champney Falls trail and Stony Brook trail. It is not handicapped accessible due to width and the approach and does show some signs of deterioration of the glue lam beam at one end in a non-structural area but that does indicate that this bridge at some point may be subject to the same debate as the Thoreau Falls Bridge.
The existence of this bridge and how well it correlates with the TFT bridge is cloudy and as this section of the Ethan Pond trails is outside the designated Pemi wilderness (thanks to RoySwkr past post http://www.vftt.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-40542.html the boundary is 60 feet south of the trail. Sounds cut and dry that the bridge is not in the Pemi Wilderness rather it is in the Lincoln Woods Scenic Area. A scenic area is another federal designation that is managed to a lower wilderness standard. I found a link in an article by Dave Govatski a long term USFS employee on the conversion of the LWSA to the Pemi http://whitemountainhistory.org/History_of_Scenic_Areas.html which states “This higher level of protection was achieved in 1984 when Congress designated the 45,000-acre Pemigewasset Wilderness, which included most of the former Lincoln Woods Scenic Area. Today only a small remote area remains between Whitewall Mountain and Mount Willey” My speculation is that the lower protection level was kept to allow the AT, the Ethan Pond Shelter and the bridge outside the Pemi wilderness but it would be interesting to research if the administrative rules differ with respect to improvements in place for safety reasons.
After taking a short break at the bridge and encountering some woefully underequipped hikers for the conditions heading west, we elected to cross the river and bushwhack over to the TFT. The south side do the north branch gets decidedly steep as it approaches the crossing so we stayed up hill from the stream. After crossing a wide wet section of slope with plenty of moss and small ephemeral streams, we came out in open softwoods and after few minutes encountered the TFT. It was an easy bushwhack for us as we just needed to head west but for someone northbound it would be a bit more a challenge deciding where to head into woods to hit the bridge.
TFT trail was delightful as usual, the leaves are still at or near peak with little drop. The trail was follow able but in some spots where it diverges off the old rail bed makes it interesting. There is one section of partially washed out trail near a steep banking along the stream. I expect this will get worse. It has been many years since the last visit to this area and I do marvel at the tree growth in spots. We eventually went past the old camp clearing and the unofficial museum of artifacts on the side of the trail before coming out at the much discussed TFT Bridge. Others have commented on the conditions of the bridge so I won’t go into it beyond stating the obvious that the main timbers are deteriorated and have limited lifespan. The one item that was obvious was that the rain that occurred the night before we hiked had swelled the East Branch of the Pemi to the point that it was unsafe to cross with similar conditions as at the upper crossing. My friend had been there recently after a dry spell and he commented that unlike the last visit he didn’t see any options beyond fording. There were no good choices but I expect a waist deep ford downstream from the bridge would be the least bad or many bad options given the conditions which were still cold but at least the sun was out.
While there I looked around a bit and came to the conclusion that there is already a fairly well developed staging area for flying bridge components into the area and that is the former logging camp clearing just a short distance north on TFT. The main carrying beams would need to be set in place directly with a helicopter but the decking, rails, hardware and crew support could all be placed in the former camp clearing with a short distance to the bridge.
On the way out we had plenty of time to discuss the remaining structures in the Pemi and came to the conclusion that the biggest dichotomy in place in the Pemi is the ongoing improvement at Thirteen Falls with hardened tent sites, composting privy, bear box and caretaker. These are all admirable improvements but are far more or a stretch when it comes to exemption of wilderness standard administrative rules. Unlike Guyot, there is not a convenient jog in the wilderness boundary. My opinion is that the FS has effectively handed off the administration and costs associated with this site to the AMC so unlike the TFT bridge it is not a financial and manpower drain on the FS so they conveniently ignore the dichotomy.
The final leg of the trip was via the “road to nowhere” the vastly over engineered and improved East Side truck road whose sole apparent reason is to service the holding tank at the campground at the end of it and possibly as an S&R access point. The cynic in me also speculates that given the road construction is it opens up a nice area to future forest management activities (I.E. Timber harvests). When I look at the resources and costs associated with this and the past post Irene work on the Lincoln Woods trail, I have no doubt that they could have far better spent on the TFT bridge replacement.
One of the FS employees closely associated with the project has reportedly made comments to multiple people that the lack of the TFT bridge is a manageable risk that should be expected by people that enter the wilderness. I beg to differ, one of the management goals of a wilderness area is recreation and recreational access to the area is obtained by a long established trail network. The Thoreau Falls trail is primary means of access to a highly citied natural landmark in the WMNF, Thoreau Falls and thus is going to attract visitors. These visitors may or may not be astute on the potential rapid change in river levels that can occur by highly localized rain events that most likely will increase in frequency given current climate trends. If these visitors feel “trapped” due to the inability to cross the East Branch, they may be tempted to try a crossing and be injured. Thus in my opinion and a previous opinion by a prior WMNF supervisor a reason for a safety exemption for this structure exists and thus should be replaced using methods that minimize the impact to the area.
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