Black Angel Trail 8/20
Wow I was quite surprised with this hike. Given the generally minimal maintenance in Wilderness Areas and the conditions of the Moriah Brook trail last summer I was expected a poorly maintained obscure trail, what we found was a impeccably maintained trail in great shape. It does runs through some nice forest, no views to speak of but a well graded route.
We did have an interesting trail encounter at the junction of Black Angel and the Highwater trail. There was NFS volunteer assigned to count hikers He was a bit odd and new to the whites from the west coast. We were the first hikers he had counted that day. He was not really clear on purpose of the data collection, we speculated that it may be tied with the proposed Moriah Brook trail suspension bridge removal. We left him to his task and crossed the river which is near record low flow. We did stop by the Moriah Brook Bridge and took a look at the east abutment. It looks like it could be undermined in the future but no evidence of it being unsafe now. I am surprised that they want to take the bridge down due to its current state. I expect that it could be stabilized by installing horizontal sheets held in place by anchors drilled horizontally into the banking followed by stone riprapping at the base of the slope. Given the old road corridor is in place and the bridge is outside the Wilderness area, this really looks like they want the bridge down and are justifying it by ignoring the current state of technology. Sure a future Hurricane Irene could further erode this area but they could get many more years out if it.
Wow I was quite surprised with this hike. Given the generally minimal maintenance in Wilderness Areas and the conditions of the Moriah Brook trail last summer I was expected a poorly maintained obscure trail, what we found was a impeccably maintained trail in great shape. It does runs through some nice forest, no views to speak of but a well graded route.
We did have an interesting trail encounter at the junction of Black Angel and the Highwater trail. There was NFS volunteer assigned to count hikers He was a bit odd and new to the whites from the west coast. We were the first hikers he had counted that day. He was not really clear on purpose of the data collection, we speculated that it may be tied with the proposed Moriah Brook trail suspension bridge removal. We left him to his task and crossed the river which is near record low flow. We did stop by the Moriah Brook Bridge and took a look at the east abutment. It looks like it could be undermined in the future but no evidence of it being unsafe now. I am surprised that they want to take the bridge down due to its current state. I expect that it could be stabilized by installing horizontal sheets held in place by anchors drilled horizontally into the banking followed by stone riprapping at the base of the slope. Given the old road corridor is in place and the bridge is outside the Wilderness area, this really looks like they want the bridge down and are justifying it by ignoring the current state of technology. Sure a future Hurricane Irene could further erode this area but they could get many more years out if it.
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