Cohos Trail to Close

[Vermonster]

The following article ran in the Colebrook Sentinel this week. Does anyone know more? There is contact information for Kim Nilsen at the end of the article, but I have not contacted him (yet?).

Lacking Funds for Maintenance, 162-Mile Cohos Trail to Close

The Cohos Trail Association, which developed and maintains the long-distance foot trail that stretches the length of Coös County, has decided to close most of the trail system.


President Kim Nilsen said the small association does not generate enough income to maintain most of the trail and its structures in 2007. In order to protect the hiking pubic and the landowner and land manager properties where the trail runs, it was thought best to shut down the foot trail and disband the association in its present form.
<snip>
To facilitate the closing of the trail, the Cohos Trail Web site will soon post that the trail is closed. Laminated signs on grade posts will be set at trailheads indicating the footways are no longer passable. The guidebook and maps are no longer being sold.

"Hundreds of people put in remarkable amounts of effort making the Cohos Trail a reality," said Mr. Nilsen. He expressed his gratitude for the passion and skill that Coös County people brought to the effort of creating the trail. Mr. Nilsen may be reached at 363-8902 or [email protected] if anyone is interested in obtaining more information about the closing of the trail.

Full article here (scroll to bottom):
http://www.colbsent.com/articles.htm

Errol

 

[MikeM]

Thats bad news. That was a trip I was planning on doing one of these summers. It sounds like a done deal.

 

[carole]

Hopefully it is a wake up call that trail work is an important part of hiking.

 

[David Metsky]

This trail never had much support from the locals or the hiking community. While sad, the closing isn't that surprising. It was really a one-man operation for most of its life.

-dave-

 

[Mattl]

This is a sad day. I have always wanted do finish the entire thing, and I know many who really enjoyed it. They were even going to make a more remote trail in the eastern part of NH. -Mattl

 

[dr_wu002]

Too Bad

Just out of curiousity... I have the Cohos maps so I have an idea of what the trail is and where it goes. So when they say that the official "Cohos Trail" is closed, how much will actually close and how much of it utilizes already existing trails? Or is most of it old logging roads and such that pass through private property now so they have to close it? I mean, I believe it starts at Crawford Path, I know they're not closing that trail.

Are people just too White-Mountain-Centric or is the trail just too remote to drum up interest? It always seemed neat to me but the lack of 4000'ers for the most part seems like it won't get people's blood pumping.

-Dr. Wu

 

[bubba]

Wow, that's a rather drastic move for those involved to make. I remember reading about it in it's development. Dr Wu - the draw is it's remoteness; it's unpopularity is it's remoteness, I'd suggest. IIRC, much of the work that was being done was providing passage over wetland and stream crossings.

Wasn't "Peter" from this board long ago, one who was primarily working this trail. Dave - is that who you were referring to?? Peter - you still reading?? (if I thought longer/harder I'd get the last name). The original brownie man!!

 

[Pig Pen]

You can still go there, there just isn't a maintained trail. In some ways trails are overrated.

 

[jrichard]

Is there anything we can do?

My brother just emailed this to me. I had no idea the CT was this close to closing.

In talking with some Pittsburg locals, I got the impression that they weren't as excited about hikers as they were snowmobilers, hunters, and fishermen. That's not to say that they couldn't become excited about hiking, but it hadn't built up critical mass yet.

There are a few strikes against the trail:
- the snowmobile trails are tough to hike on
- many of the trails are remote with limited camping spots
- there are some US Rt 3 walks
So, it isn't the trail for the newbes.

I wish there were something to do to keep the trail alive. The time I spent thru-hiking the trail was absolutely the best hike I've had. The existing shelters and tent sites are nice too. And CT hiking trails were very good, especially for a one-man operation!

Does anyone have more information? In the last set of CT emails Kim described new trails in Pittsburg to take the CT off the highway. I wonder if the problem was lack of funding for trail building, or lack of funding for maintenance (seems like an easier problem), or just not enough to pay for insurance, etc... .

If its funding and maintenance that's the problem, perhaps we could swallow our pride and ask the AMC for a hand? That seems to have worked for greenways in southern NH.

 

[jrichard]

You can still go there, there just isn't a maintained trail. In some ways trails are overrated.

I don't know if that's entirely true. The trail goes though logging areas and private land. The owners might have agreed to have the CT go though, but might not want the liability of unmaintained trails and thus close access.

 

[audrey]

Bubba,

Peter Miller helps maintain some primitive trails in the Waterville Valley-Sandwich Range area. He also does a lot of work on conservation issues around Meredith, NH, where he lives. I don't recall his going that far north.

 

[forestgnome]

Bummer. Nothing about closure yet on the website. Sad to see this effort fail.

My guess is that the Nash Stream Forest section will remain hikeable for a long time.

Happy Trails

 

[Michelle]

Yep, this stinks.
Unless....enough people e-mail Kim with interest, willing to volunteer, cough up some (more likely ALOT of) cash and personal time???
I did, but his response sounds like the closure is a done deal already.

 

[bubba]

Bubba,
Peter Miller helps maintain some primitive trails in the Waterville Valley-Sandwich Range area. He also does a lot of work on conservation issues around Meredith, NH, where he lives. I don't recall his going that far north.

Yep. Mr. Miller... Audrey, I thought he was active on the CT development - but you may be closer to what he's been up to. I still miss his posts in any regard. His browinies hailed from G3.0 IIRC.

 

[Stan]

I admire the effort that brought this trail into existence and would regret it's demise. The on-going administration and maintenance of trails is no easy task, I'm sure, and it takes a combination of human resources and money. Makes you appreciate the success that AMC, MATC GMC and the like have had with their trails ... of course, they have a much broader following and longer history.

COHOS might do well to align with kindred organizations and funding sources as a means of survival. The existence of the COHOS can go far in disbursing hiker activity and bringing people to northern New Hampshire (though it's no secret that snowmobilers spend a lot more money locally than hikers but there's got to be a seasonal complement there).

I have only hiked pieces of the COHOS that coincided with destinations to certain peaks or destinations further south but looked forward to the experience of these more remote and less traveled areas.

Anyone amongst us with the time and interest to be a ring leader in organzing us to participate in any attempts to save the COHOS through strategic, administrative, maintenance and fundraising efforts?

 

[David Metsky]

I think the trail creation went ahead before the infrastructure to support it was in place. That includes land management, trail maintenance, local support, publicity, etc. Just building a trail with no budget or organization for the other parts is not a long term plan, and I was worried from the beginning that this would be the ultimate end.

I think it would have been more successful to organize this not as an end-to-end trail at first, but move from the south to the north (or vice versa) over time. As it is, a few people hiked the whole thing, but it never caught on and never really established a constituency. Having someone else take over Kim's position isn't going to solve the underlying problem.

-dave-

 

[Stan]

Having someone else take over Kim's position isn't going to solve the underlying problem. -dave-

I agree with that but what I have in mind is not someone taking over that position but instead providing some volunteer help in the areas I mentioned ... strategic planning, administering the organization and the myriad of legal relationships that must have been necessary to create this trail, maintaining trails and fundraising.

Ultimately, all these things need a paid staff but until the trail can be self sustaining, volunteer efforts would seem the only hope of keeping it going towards whatever interim or final form this trail takes.

Anyone can contact Kim to offer assistance but we've seen this site respond to various purposes in a strong way and if this is important to us as a group, then it's worth responding in whatever unified way we're able and willing to do.

 

[funkyfreddy]

I agree with that but what I have in mind is not someone taking over that position but instead providing some volunteer help in the areas I mentioned ... strategic planning, administering the organization and the myriad of legal relationships that must have been necessary to create this trail, maintaining trails and fundraising.

Ultimately, all these things need a paid staff but until the trail can be self sustaining, volunteer efforts would seem the only hope of keeping it going towards whatever interim or final form this trail takes.

Anyone can contact Kim to offer assistance but we've seen this site respond to various purposes in a strong way and if this is important to us as a group, then it's worth responding in whatever unified way we're able and willing to do.

I think it's it's a shame to see this trail close, would have liked to have section hiked it. The sections I have hiked were very nice, which includes the Kilkenny Ridge Trail that Papabear and I thruhiked together a few years ago. I would loved to have gone to some of the more northern and obscure sections of the Cohos trail.

Just to expand on Stan's thoughts above...... in a perfect world we could form a VFTT committee and inject some new blood into the project I know it's a lot of work...... like I said, in a more perfect world.

 

[dms]

You can still go there, there just isn't a maintained trail

Phil you are right. The nothern sections of this trail that I've seen were in many places more like a semi-bushwack than a hiking trail. The northern part of the trail never would have drawn the critical mass of hikers needed for it to succeed, it's way too far off the beaten track for most hikers. I also agree with Dave's comments on the reasons for it's downfall. At any rate, it was already pretty much an abandoned trail before it was announced as such.

 

[paul ron]

I'm reading this post scratching my head wondering who owns this property?