[at-l] McTrailing away the choice climbs.... Re: Quick Trip Report / Gallery Posting Query

[Raphael Bustin]

At 10:58 AM 9/15/2006 -0700, sloetoe wrote:

>### FWIW, alot of the gnarliest climbs in the
>Whites/Maine that you might remember have been
>McTrailed away by over-eager trail "improvement"
>projects that are vampiring the trail's personality
>from Georgia to Maine. They hit the climb up Webster
>Cliffs in 2002 just before the boys and I arrived.
>There are STAIRS on Mahosic Arm and Katahdin. White
>Cap was getting smoothed as the boys and I went
>through in 2004. South Kinsman remained a hairy one,
>but aside from little surprises like Maine's Mt.
>Success, alot of storied climbs/descents are gone.
>(And then[!], they substitute rooted bullshit that
>denies you even a normal stride when a quiet tote road
>runs parallel, with ghost blazes remaining behind as
>evidence of a more sensible time.)


In general I've been avoiding the AT in the Whites
and when I go up there these days it's to do blue-
blazes.  Passaconaway range, or the trails off
Rte. 113, for example.  But these tend to be
overgrown and not well maintained.

I don't recall any "smoothing" of the Franconia
Range but it's been a year or two since I've been
on it.

I share your annoyance in the parenthetical
aside at the end.  There were many such
instances in this NY-NJ-PA section.  The
trail follows an old road, leaves it to crunch
through gnarly woods, then rejoins the road
(or some other road) then ducks into woods
again.  The contrast (between road and woods)
can be extreme.

You know what's most frustrating about these
sections?  I'm always suspicious when the
trail's too easy.  The trail has a habit of ducking
back into the woods when I'm not looking.

So on the "easy" sections (eg., these former
paved & now-abandoned ridge-top roads) I find
myself scanning relentlessly for blazes to assure
myself I haven't lost the trail.  Because the "easy"
parts never last long.  Any energy I might have
saved from the "easy" walk is reinvested in intense
blaze-scanning.

I'm just exaggerating a little bit, here.  This was
turning into quite a little game on Kittatinny Ridge
in New Jersey, particularly (say) the "middle"
day on that ridge.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com


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