Post- Irene trail work on the Osseo/ Mt Flume / Lincoln Woods

[Forester Jake]

Today my wife & I were able to get out to the Osseo Trail to check out damages and make repairs. Amazingly the trail held up very well! We opened up several waterbars and removed blowdowns all the way up to the top of the ladders. We didn't have enough daylight to summit Flume All in all, the trail is still in excellent condition!
On a side note, the Lincoln Woods trail sustained some heavy damages up to the start of the Osseo Trail. Of significant note is the MASSIVE eroison to the rail bed only a half mile in from the suspension bridge. Here the Pemi, now TWICE as wide as original, has eaten away half the width of the trail- leaving a SHEER 20 foot drop straight down to the river below. Keep a close eye on your footing here, especially with children!!! Also below sure to note the literal mountains of flood-piled trees. Unreal!!!
Another amazing view is the bootleg path to the river 1.5 miles at the junction of the Osseo- major eroison resulting in a spectacular view of the Handcocks. Again use extreme caution as the bank is now a sheer cliff dropping 30' to the river below.
It is a very odd experience now traveling the Lincoln Woods trail- the destructive power of a flooded Pemi river is one you will not quickly forget!
I will try to post a few photos tomorrow

 

[yvon]

Thank you for the report.

 

[Fisher Cat]

Don't forget the fact that you also installed about 6 new bars too!

 

[Kevin Judy and Emma]

Nice!

Nice work, Jake! We all appreciate the work you, your wife, Fisher Cat and his family, and all those you recruit do to keep this one of my favorite trails. Thanks for the report on Lincoln Woods, too!

KDT

 

[JacobH]

I often wonder, while I'm hiking, about things like "how did x trail or y feature recover from z weather event"? Surely things were similar after Hurricane Bob, or 1938 storm, etc. Does the Pemi just keep eroding the banks until they are sloping gently again? I wish there was some time-lapse footage of this kind of thing XD

Great job with the Osseo trail, it's remarkably gentle for the location, and nice to travel on.

 

[Forester Jake]

I'm having difficulty uploading some photos but I hope to have them uploaded tonight after work! One fascinating aspect of the new flooding and eroison is examining the rock and gravel profile in the newly exposed banks. Sounds like some river side trails have experienced some major destruction throughout NH, Vt, & NY... be sure to expect problems. Steve Smith over at the Mountain Wanderer in Lincoln told me yesterday that the Pine Island Trail, one of his adopted trails off the Pemi, is simply GONE.
Crazy!!

 

[una_dogger]

Wow-- thanks for the updates and your hard work!! ;-)

 

[Bill and Sheep]

Steve Smith over at the Mountain Wanderer in Lincoln told me yesterday that the Pine Island Trail, one of his adopted trails off the Pemi, is simply GONE.
Crazy!!

I guess that one is off my red line list now! Thanks for the updates. I was just out there hiking Owl's Head 2 weeks ago and it's amazing to think about how much change has occurred so quickly.