peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
My redlining friend made a unusual suggestion for a hike on Friday, usually her list tends to be out on the fringes of the WMNF, obscure routes that are mostly trod by the feet of other folks chasing the last percentages of the redline spreadsheet or a strung together long route of multiple obscure trails that total up to a long day given the potential obscure/non maintained aspect. This time it was the Highwater Trail in the Wild River area, the new main trunk route for exiting the West side of the Wild River Wilderness since the Moriah Brook Bridge was removed. For those who want a “trail report” they may want to skip down several paragraphs as this definitely has a rant to begin with.
One of the fundamental issues inherent with a trail report is there actually has to be a trail to begin with. In the case of the Highwater Trail there was a trail in the past, there is present signage indicating that it exists and maps and guidebooks used by the general public for planning indicate that is exists but the reality is there are many sections that are totally missing, washed down the river with numerous sections that are right on the edge of non-existence as there is serious undermining.
The Maine side of the WMNF has had its share of now obscure/unmaintained routes. I expect usage is far lower as its long drive from the population center of Mass and southern NH. There just is no good way to get to this area that doesn’t involve rural roads and many folks regard it as too far for a day hike. The big bonus of the area is two Wilderness areas including the WMNF’s newest, the Wild River Wilderness area. The Wild River area is very much a younger sibling of the much older Great Gulf Wilderness to the west. Both areas had not been wilderness for a 150 years before designation and both had been logged with underlying road network and there was a well-developed trail network in place with lean-tos’ and tent sites and both were laid out to protect an entire drainage basin. The similarities do not end in that the trails line up with drainages and all lead to a main trunk routes that follow a river that eventually ends up at civilization. Both areas have potential for high spring snowpack and rapid response to high rain events. The actual rivers do differ in that the Peabody channel is quite a bit steeper than the Wild River channel which tends to be quite wide with a more meandering route that is subject to ice jams and debris dams. Crossing either river can be borderline impossible to very risky well into the summer and an unexpected rain event can very quickly cause them to be impassable even in late summer into the fall.
One of the fundamental parts of the Wilderness act that tends to be forgotten by many is that a Wilderness area should be accessible to the public in order to be able to observe it. In the Wild River area given the likelihood of the river potentially dangerous to cross there has always been the Wild River trail on one side and the aptly named Highwater trail on the other side. At one point the two major trails on the west side of the area had bridges to access the Wild River trail, Spider Bridge that was removed 10 plus years ago prior to the wilderness designation and the Moriah Brook Suspension bridge (outside the new Wilderness boundary)that was removed two years ago. The rational regarding the Spider Bridge removal was that it was in a Wilderness area and not required for safety as there was the Moriah Brook Bridge just a few miles down the river. The Highwater trail was upgraded a bit down to Moriah Brook and this was the status quo until the Moriah Brook suspension bridge was deemed able to be removed due to the damage to the abutments after Hurricane Irene. Despite it being outside the wilderness boundary and reasonable accessible for construction equipment to access for repair and reconstruction the WMNF gave the excuse that the bridge was not needed as in high water the Highwater trail could be followed to a new conveniently located snow machine rated bridge 7 miles south along the river.
Post Irene, the Dry River area and the main trail exiting it experienced severe damage and made it effectively impassable, in response the FS eventually made attempts to mark a bypass route to allow rough passage around the worst of the washouts despite it being totally in wilderness area under the guise of maintaining safe access. Unfortunately this has not been the case with what once was the Highwater Trail. Anyone expecting a trail for an escape route to get across the river is going to be seriously disappointed. Effectively the trail bed does not exist reliably from the former Moriah Brook Bridge crossing to approximately 2 miles past the Shelburne Trail intersection. Anyone attempting to follow it will quickly get dumped out over the undermined riverbank and stranded. There is zero attempt to mark bypasses around these spots and overflow from flooding events creates false trails that inevitably dead end. About the only option when heading out is go around the obstructed area and then bear right back to the river channel and hope the trail bed will be reencountered. The process will then be repeated numerous times where the trail bed drops over the edge into the river channel. In some areas the option is available to walk in down in the river bed as the bed is quite wide but inevitably river dynamics means the water “bankshots” from the other shore and the water comes right up against the eroding bank. Then it’s back in the woods to try to relocate the trail again.
This approach of acquiring, losing and requiring what remains of the trail works until finally encountering a parallel side channel of the river. There was again no trace of the trail and the mouth of this side channel is littered with flood debris. There is a steady flow running down the side channel and traces of overflow channels alongside it so I convinced my somewhat skeptical companions that water does indeed flow downhill and it would at some time rejoin the main channel. Thus it was best to follow the shore of the side channel as otherwise we would effectively be on an island with an unknown crossing back to the main shore. The going was good with open woods with an occasion wet spot and entering brook to cross. We eventually rejoined the main channel and at that spot and my water flow assumption proved true
the terrain rose up and we picked up the trail coming across from the island.
Another area of particular confusion is the area near the intersection of the Shelburne Trail. The trail dumps out in wide stream channel and the point on the other side of the channel is not obvious. We spent a while looking and I eventually adopted the approach of if in doubt bear right. In a couple of minutes I picked up a long straight trail bed and my companions joined me. Since we were unsure if we were on the Wild River trail and should have encountered a trail junction we decided to head back until we hit the junction. It didn’t take long and we found the junction with a nice set of stone steps heading down to the channel. It is grown in quite bit and the crossing over to the other bank is not obvious. We soon were heading down the Wild River trail. No doubt someone could inadvertently pick up the Shelburne trail and go quite a distance before they realized they were on the wrong trail.
Eventually a few miles before the Hasting Bridge, the trail transitions to an older logging road set back from the river a bit and the game of navigation ends with a pleasant woods walk. There are some very large whites pines interspersed in this area and I was surprised how they missed the loggers saw. I expect anyone heading into the Wild River area via this route would be lulled into complacency by this lower section but unfortunately I expect they are in for disappointment.
My friends favorite saying is “everything is well and good until a bushwhack breaks out”, well a bushwhack broke out quickly on this hike. The FS does have a few cairns marking a ford across the river route at the old bridge site but it would be of little use at a significantly higher water level. There is large white pine crossing the channel downstream but I would not expect it to be there for long.
IMHO the FS has really dropped the ball on this one and in the least has been negligent by not maintaining some semblance of a viable path through the wilderness section of the route as a means of high water escape. At a minimum there should be warning signs at both ends warning the hiking public that the trail is seriously compromised and that route finding skills and off trail travel is required.
Despite the trail issues, this was a fun hike, all three of us don’t mind bushwhacking and with a bit of flexibility on route finding the woods are relatively open with not a lot of underbrush. There were occasional berry bushes and we were in no rush. The river bed is impressive and the damage along the river due to storm flows is impressive. Beyond the discussion on which way water flows we were in general agreement on a route and we made reasonable time. Of course it was a sunny day and we had the option of just fording the river and ending up on the Wild River road. I expect the experience would be different for a neophyte hiker in over their head with marginal to no land navigation skills on a rainy night in a thunderstorm/heavy rain event.
One of the fundamental issues inherent with a trail report is there actually has to be a trail to begin with. In the case of the Highwater Trail there was a trail in the past, there is present signage indicating that it exists and maps and guidebooks used by the general public for planning indicate that is exists but the reality is there are many sections that are totally missing, washed down the river with numerous sections that are right on the edge of non-existence as there is serious undermining.
The Maine side of the WMNF has had its share of now obscure/unmaintained routes. I expect usage is far lower as its long drive from the population center of Mass and southern NH. There just is no good way to get to this area that doesn’t involve rural roads and many folks regard it as too far for a day hike. The big bonus of the area is two Wilderness areas including the WMNF’s newest, the Wild River Wilderness area. The Wild River area is very much a younger sibling of the much older Great Gulf Wilderness to the west. Both areas had not been wilderness for a 150 years before designation and both had been logged with underlying road network and there was a well-developed trail network in place with lean-tos’ and tent sites and both were laid out to protect an entire drainage basin. The similarities do not end in that the trails line up with drainages and all lead to a main trunk routes that follow a river that eventually ends up at civilization. Both areas have potential for high spring snowpack and rapid response to high rain events. The actual rivers do differ in that the Peabody channel is quite a bit steeper than the Wild River channel which tends to be quite wide with a more meandering route that is subject to ice jams and debris dams. Crossing either river can be borderline impossible to very risky well into the summer and an unexpected rain event can very quickly cause them to be impassable even in late summer into the fall.
One of the fundamental parts of the Wilderness act that tends to be forgotten by many is that a Wilderness area should be accessible to the public in order to be able to observe it. In the Wild River area given the likelihood of the river potentially dangerous to cross there has always been the Wild River trail on one side and the aptly named Highwater trail on the other side. At one point the two major trails on the west side of the area had bridges to access the Wild River trail, Spider Bridge that was removed 10 plus years ago prior to the wilderness designation and the Moriah Brook Suspension bridge (outside the new Wilderness boundary)that was removed two years ago. The rational regarding the Spider Bridge removal was that it was in a Wilderness area and not required for safety as there was the Moriah Brook Bridge just a few miles down the river. The Highwater trail was upgraded a bit down to Moriah Brook and this was the status quo until the Moriah Brook suspension bridge was deemed able to be removed due to the damage to the abutments after Hurricane Irene. Despite it being outside the wilderness boundary and reasonable accessible for construction equipment to access for repair and reconstruction the WMNF gave the excuse that the bridge was not needed as in high water the Highwater trail could be followed to a new conveniently located snow machine rated bridge 7 miles south along the river.
Post Irene, the Dry River area and the main trail exiting it experienced severe damage and made it effectively impassable, in response the FS eventually made attempts to mark a bypass route to allow rough passage around the worst of the washouts despite it being totally in wilderness area under the guise of maintaining safe access. Unfortunately this has not been the case with what once was the Highwater Trail. Anyone expecting a trail for an escape route to get across the river is going to be seriously disappointed. Effectively the trail bed does not exist reliably from the former Moriah Brook Bridge crossing to approximately 2 miles past the Shelburne Trail intersection. Anyone attempting to follow it will quickly get dumped out over the undermined riverbank and stranded. There is zero attempt to mark bypasses around these spots and overflow from flooding events creates false trails that inevitably dead end. About the only option when heading out is go around the obstructed area and then bear right back to the river channel and hope the trail bed will be reencountered. The process will then be repeated numerous times where the trail bed drops over the edge into the river channel. In some areas the option is available to walk in down in the river bed as the bed is quite wide but inevitably river dynamics means the water “bankshots” from the other shore and the water comes right up against the eroding bank. Then it’s back in the woods to try to relocate the trail again.
This approach of acquiring, losing and requiring what remains of the trail works until finally encountering a parallel side channel of the river. There was again no trace of the trail and the mouth of this side channel is littered with flood debris. There is a steady flow running down the side channel and traces of overflow channels alongside it so I convinced my somewhat skeptical companions that water does indeed flow downhill and it would at some time rejoin the main channel. Thus it was best to follow the shore of the side channel as otherwise we would effectively be on an island with an unknown crossing back to the main shore. The going was good with open woods with an occasion wet spot and entering brook to cross. We eventually rejoined the main channel and at that spot and my water flow assumption proved true
the terrain rose up and we picked up the trail coming across from the island.Another area of particular confusion is the area near the intersection of the Shelburne Trail. The trail dumps out in wide stream channel and the point on the other side of the channel is not obvious. We spent a while looking and I eventually adopted the approach of if in doubt bear right. In a couple of minutes I picked up a long straight trail bed and my companions joined me. Since we were unsure if we were on the Wild River trail and should have encountered a trail junction we decided to head back until we hit the junction. It didn’t take long and we found the junction with a nice set of stone steps heading down to the channel. It is grown in quite bit and the crossing over to the other bank is not obvious. We soon were heading down the Wild River trail. No doubt someone could inadvertently pick up the Shelburne trail and go quite a distance before they realized they were on the wrong trail.
Eventually a few miles before the Hasting Bridge, the trail transitions to an older logging road set back from the river a bit and the game of navigation ends with a pleasant woods walk. There are some very large whites pines interspersed in this area and I was surprised how they missed the loggers saw. I expect anyone heading into the Wild River area via this route would be lulled into complacency by this lower section but unfortunately I expect they are in for disappointment.
My friends favorite saying is “everything is well and good until a bushwhack breaks out”, well a bushwhack broke out quickly on this hike. The FS does have a few cairns marking a ford across the river route at the old bridge site but it would be of little use at a significantly higher water level. There is large white pine crossing the channel downstream but I would not expect it to be there for long.
IMHO the FS has really dropped the ball on this one and in the least has been negligent by not maintaining some semblance of a viable path through the wilderness section of the route as a means of high water escape. At a minimum there should be warning signs at both ends warning the hiking public that the trail is seriously compromised and that route finding skills and off trail travel is required.
Despite the trail issues, this was a fun hike, all three of us don’t mind bushwhacking and with a bit of flexibility on route finding the woods are relatively open with not a lot of underbrush. There were occasional berry bushes and we were in no rush. The river bed is impressive and the damage along the river due to storm flows is impressive. Beyond the discussion on which way water flows we were in general agreement on a route and we made reasonable time. Of course it was a sunny day and we had the option of just fording the river and ending up on the Wild River road. I expect the experience would be different for a neophyte hiker in over their head with marginal to no land navigation skills on a rainy night in a thunderstorm/heavy rain event.
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