Every trail usually has its "charms" and reasons to exist. I realize that in recent years this trail was adopted and much work has been done to improve it but after hiking the entire length yesterday I would be hard pressed to recommend it to most folks in summer. The west side from Cedar Brook up to the height of land it well routed and well maintained. From the height of land east is another story. There was a recent successful attempt to relocate the trail up out of the base of the notch to a hillside but even that has had a recent slide and expect that the only thing holding the slope together was the small trees and brush that have been cut to allow the relocation. Once off this section, the trail degrades into a series of braided routes that attempt to get around walking in an eroded trench that is now a stream bed or inevitable mud pits and wet areas. Its very easy to loose what may be the official route but inevitably one pops back up on it. Blazing is minimal to non existent in this area. Eventually it does transition to an older logging road and in dry weather I expect someone could keep their feet dry and mud free once past the upper drainage. Heading down into the valley the trail follows some extensive damage in the adjacent brook and some of the eroded banks and widened stream bed means a whole lot of water must have come through recently from what is actually quite a small drainage area.
Blazing along the rest of the trail is decidedly minimal and discreet although where the trailbed got nailed due to the flooding its there where its needed.
I have heard over the years that this is an excellent remote winter cross country route and since I don't ski I will leave it others to comment. It does make a nice connector for backpacking to avoid the Lincoln Woods "zoo" and avoid a car spot so that's a plus and I have no doubt this it is a remote rarely traveled area made more so by the recent Sawyer River road washout. Maybe its comes down to that putting up with a 1/2 mile of wet trail and mud pits is a made up by the rest of the potential backpack it makes possible.
Blazing along the rest of the trail is decidedly minimal and discreet although where the trailbed got nailed due to the flooding its there where its needed.
I have heard over the years that this is an excellent remote winter cross country route and since I don't ski I will leave it others to comment. It does make a nice connector for backpacking to avoid the Lincoln Woods "zoo" and avoid a car spot so that's a plus and I have no doubt this it is a remote rarely traveled area made more so by the recent Sawyer River road washout. Maybe its comes down to that putting up with a 1/2 mile of wet trail and mud pits is a made up by the rest of the potential backpack it makes possible.
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