THE COHOS TRAIL ASSOCIATION

REINVENTING THE CT

Human's have debated as long as humankind has walked the surface of this small planet about the possibility of life after life, a second go-around, another level, a higher plane, a new dwelling house for the soul, one last chance to get one's act together... The Cohos Trail Association, I am happy to report, is reorganizing so that it is a stronger entity with an enhanced mission.

Recently, The Cohos Trail Association closed the 162-mile long trail system for the 2007 hiking season. But that did not sit well with a whole host of people. Good citizens began writing and calling, trying to breath new life into the beast. They succeeded.

Today, I can report that The Cohos Trail Association (TCTA) will reorganize with an emphasis on managing the big footpath system from Coos County, not from my desktop in far off Spofford, NH. The Castines, Lainie and Pete, of Pittsburg, (the last town on the trail at the very top of the State of New Hampshire) have been very active in the maintenance and financial health of the system, and they wish to step in to help me transition TCTA from down-state to up-state and to build a worthy Coos-based organization with strong ties to local schools, local civic organizations, local volunteers of every stripe, and local resources. That is what is needed. That's what it will get.

After ten years of volunteer work developing the remote trail and it's structures, designing and publishing it's maps and guidebook, collecting a database that numbers about 1,300 names, and trying like bloody hell to find this odd property boundary pin or that in the middle of nowhere so I could figure out where the trail could or could not be laid out, I am thankful that folks have come forward to lay talented hands on the heart of the association

I am particularly grateful to the Castines and a host of people known and unknown who pledged a major dose of support for a trail that meanders through some of the finest terrain in all the Northeast. For some reason, they share my vision of Coos County, New Hampshire. They, like me, love that grand, isolated, heavily timbered and oh-so mountainous million-acre chunk of real estate pronounced co-ahss. To me, Coos is New England's undiscovered gemstone. Sure, travelers love the White Mountains on the southern edge of the county and tramp all over them, but most megalopolians don't know that there is a whole other breathing, dynamic world north of the Presidential Range.

It's that remote outpost that has held me spellbound for more than three decades, ever since I drove into the county for the fist time in 1969 during the record snowfall winter, traveling under a mesmorizing aurora borealis, I stepped out of the car at 30 below to watch the celestial fireworks and said Damn, this is the place! A mite chilly, though. I came back to live and work and to start a family in the county in the first days of 1972. Last year, I took my granddaughter hiking on the Sanguinary Summit Trail in Dixville, and we stayed at the Panorama lean-to that Cohos Trail volunteers built on North Sanguinary Ridge. It looks out on world-class sunsets and more than fifty miles of terrain in Vermont and Canada. Every kid should experience this.

But the Cohos Trail never could be a one man show. Hundreds of people came forward over the years to help make the path a reality, like the day 35 souls showed up in the backcountry of Columbia township and helped ferry, by hand, two tons of donated lean-to material about two miles up 3,097 foot Baldhead Mountain ( a very pleasant and isolated summit no one knows exists). When the last set-screw was torqued in place in the steel roof, and the six folks remaining stood back and looked at the new sleeps-six-lean-to, the moment took my breath away. It was amazing to me what people will do when they have a deep love of a place and a passion for the natural world on its terms.

But, alas, it became increasingly difficult to raise sufficient funds to cover rising costs, particularly insurance costs. With more money going into such expenses, there was less and less funding for actual on-the-ground maintenance. If a trail can't be maintained well, it shouldn't exist. Safety has to be the number one concern of any trail organization that maintains a trail open to the public. When gasoline retail prices surpassed $3.00 in the summer of '06, trampers stopped buying trail guides and trail maps and other sources of revenue declined. It created a cash-flow dilemma that was sure to create problems in '07. So rather than put the hiking public at risk, we decided to close the trail.

No sooner than we published the decision to shut down the CT for the season, the phone began to ring off the hook and the email inbox filled up with, not hate mail, but pledges of every permutation of support. Made me a bit teary in the eye, I can tell you.

Now, efforts are underway to not only resurrect the CT but to push it to the next level, where it becomes a modest but essential economic force in central and northern Coos County. Part of that plan is to apply for a major multi-year organizational grant that can help us develop a solid Coos-based entity that, within three years, would have the strength in self-generated dollars and numbers of volunteers so the trail could then stand on its own in perpetuity.

There's talk about creating new products, such as the long-promised (and complete but not published) databook, a CT embroidered patch, a fine new Get Lost CT tee-shirt and cap, and perhaps even an authentic-looking Cohos Trail sign that people can tack to their bedpost and sleep under every night. (just the thing a loving spouse would want, don't you think?)

There's scuddlebutt about stepping up marketing more effective on-line fundraising efforts, a brochure for state waysides and local visitor's booths, social events, guided hikes, Chamber of Commerce activity, perhaps a wilderness survivor race, and the like.

And there is a great deal of interst in pumping up the trail adopter program. We have always enjoyed having a number of dedicated people who get out on certain trails each year and do spring cleanup and summer chores. But the trail is so long and , in many places remote, that its been tough pulling in adopters in some sections. So there is chatter about organizing local maintenance clubs or teams tied to schools or civic organizations or just to a cluster of nuts who happen to like getting dirty and sharing a beer after a hard day on the trail.

Living so for from the Cohos Trail (and working full time) has meant I haven't been effective enough in developing strong local, Coos-based initiatives that can see the trail through to a bright future. Now, local Coos-based folks have come forward and said, we'll help take it from here. Those are very welcome words. The trail will be the better for it.

Now I can concentrate on the CT guidebook, maps and databook and spend more time raising funds, while terrific new blood builds a locally-based social and maintenance network around the trail. Then, maybe, I can go hiking the CT once in a while without having a branch loper in one hand, a bowsaw strapped to the backpack, and a messy jar of yellow latex blaze paint leaking and running down my sweatshirt.

If you wish to show your support for the Coos Trail, be it financial, trail maintenance, material donations, guiding, social endeavors, or whatever, please call or email: Lainie and Pete Castine in Pittsburg 603-538-6777, email address: prospmw@localnet.com. Or get hold of me at 603-363-8902

Kim