T H E C O H O S T R E K K E R

The electronic newsletter of The Cohos Trail Association

THE BORDERLINE DECISION

The New Hampshire Department of Parks recently posted information regarding the state of the land-planning process for the Connecticut Lakes Timber Company properties (former International Paper Company lands in Pittsburg, Clarksville and Stewartstown) surrounding the headwaters of the Connecticut River near the Canadian border. Much of the public input is in and recommendations recorded. Final drafts will be completed soon, apparently, as officials want to sign off on the plan as early as April of this year, according to the posting.

That could have a big impact on the Cohos Trail. In the body of the newsletter it states that three hiking options for the headwaters lands were presented to the public, the first to keep the limited hiking avenues as they are, the second to embrace new day-use trails on the lands, and the third option to embrace new trails and the completion of the Cohos Trail (day-use, too) the length of the property up to the boundary mountains.

According to the newsletter, 50 percent of the public favored the Cohos Trail on those lands. Some 13% of respondents favored day trails not including the CT. One organization went on record as being opposed to the trail. People heavily favored day-use only on the timbered property, mimicking the use policies that have been in effect for decades in the boundary country.

All this is welcome news. At some point, it is possible we could be given the nod to open to hiking the existing ways in the trail plan we submitted for review, and then hopefully be permitted to flag the proposed new trail routes so they can be inspected by land managers, the state biologist and others to see if what we lay out is suitable for foot traffic.

One major link in the new trail proposal in Pittsburg is an unmarked snowmobile trail that is easily followed on foot now from Camp Otter Road to Coon Brook and through to Magalloway Road where the road reaches a span over the Connecticut River. Just opening that three-mile footway to trekker traffic would greatly enhance the Cohos Trail experience in the north. Several other trail segments in the plan would require minimal clipping and some minor water diversion to make long-abandoned ways passable for those on foot.

Other parts of the plan will take some real effort in layout and execution, such as the proposed route up and over Mt. Covill to Round Pond and down the high shoulder above Round Pond Brook out to Route 3 near Camp Otter Road. The proposed path from Second Connecticut Lake boat landing to the junction of East Inlet Road and Route 3 is relatively level, but there is a good deal of thick young spruce and fir to shimmy through. As a policy, the association doesnıt take down trees larger than a human wrist, so there would be a great deal of clipping needed to open up a fair route through that corridor alongside beautiful Second Lake.

That the state's land-use plan for the region is about to become a reality is a heady thing as far as this trail association is concerned. We've always believed the Cohos Trail could be one of the premier long-distance hiking trails in the East, but Clarksville and Pittsburg presented an obstacle for a decade. Once we are able to put the trails in and open them to foot traffic, and once the Sentiers Frontaliers hiking club from Lac Megantic, Quebec links their big trail system to the CT where the Canadian and U.S. customs stations sit at the border (see more on this below), the Cohos Trail may begin to approach the status we always hoped it would enjoy.

YURTS: NO NEED TO GO TO MONGOLIA

Received word recently that Phillips Brook Backcountry Recreation (PBBR) company is in the final negotiations with landowners for the right to improve low-impact-use trails and place overnight yurt structures from the eastern flanks of Dixville Peak and Mt. Gloriette all the way east to Millsfield Pond. This would put at least several yurts within easy walking distance of the Cohos Trail as it crosses by the topmost lift towers at Balsams Wilderness Ski Area.

According to PBBR founder Bill Altenburg, it is likely half a dozen yurts will be open by 2008 in the forests of western Millsfield and Dixville (a dozen yurts are planned for the entire system and some are in place already to the east). If that comes to pass, then a trekker on the CT could veer off the trail down a link path downhill into the yurt complex in the forests below and, provided he or she had a reservation, could overnight in comfort half way between the location of the Baldhead lean-to on Baldhead Mountain and the Panorama lean-to on North Sanguinary Ridge.

onversely, an overnight guest at one of PBBR's yurts could move uphill to the Cohos Trail and then turn north or south to start a long-distance trek or to stay at one of the lean-tos. Said Altenburg, there would be a parking/orientation area for the yurt and trail complex in the forests to the east, affording yet another jumping off point for the CT on high ground to the west.

For those who are not familiar with a modern yurt, the structure had its origins millennia ago among nomadic herdsmen on the frigid steppes of Mongolia. Yurts are circular in design and sport conical roofs. Kit yurts available from half a dozen manufacturers today can be put up in several days. They are extremely light weight yet strong enough to withstand high winds and heavy snow loads. Space-age fabrics cover the structures (the Mongolianıs used animal skins) and make them water and wind tight. They have windows and a door and most owners build them on a wood deck. Shove a woodstove in one and you could sleep like a baby at 30 below. Bring a bottle of wine in with you and invite your main squeeze and, well....

To learn more, go to www.phillipsbrook.org

POWER UP THE MOUNTAINS

On North Sanguinary Ridge, there is a new research tower, a tall skinny structure outfitted with ananometers that record wind speed. The Cohos Trail slips right past it on the recently created access lane. Why record wind speed there? It's to determine if the ridgeline is suitable for the installation for windpower generating turbines­­that's windmills, for short.

The same sort of thing is underway at Whitcomb Mountain, miles of ridgeline that extend from Long Mountain in the Nash Stream Forest at Stark to Mt. Muise in Columbia township. A wind energy firm, Noble Environmental Power, is proposing a large wind farm on the height of land along the ridge, the bases of the windmills just east of the divide between the Nash Stream Forest and the Phillips Brook watershed.

Why the interest in these locations and more high ridge locations in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine? Clean, renewable energy at an inland locale that has among the highest ratings for sustained wind availability year Oround, that's why. A good number of points high in Coos County are in the 99 percentile for wind speeds suitable to turn a wind turbine. Only the New England coasts and the near-shore ocean yield a better rating.

Clean, renewable energy production -- wind, solar, tidal, biomass -- is a growth industry, like it or not. If you have ever driven through the immense desert wind farms west of Palm Springs, California, you know that wind turbine technology is already here and generating power. The East is about to play catchup. Farmers, timberland owners and energy corporations are all investigating how to jump into the renewable energy game. The only incentive needed is this: money. When one can generate a commodity such as electricity when the resource to generate it is as free as the wind, there are dollars to be made perpetually.

There is the likelihood that, in the future, a trekker on the CT will move somewhere beneath the blades of wind turbines, looping lazily in the summer breeze.

And speaking of biomass energy, not one but two corporations are interested in investing in forest-resource energy generation, including liquid bio-diesel fuel distillation on sites in the community of Groveton, home to the Wausaw Paper mill on the Upper Ammonoosuc River (standing beneath the twin cones of the Percy Peaks ten miles off).

ADDING PEAKS

The Cohos Trail slips over 30 peaks on its way end to end in Coos County, NH. Peter and Lainie Castine have suggested we add another, a small hillock but one with a mind-bending view. To do it, a series of landowners who own relatively small parcels of land have agreed to permit the use of existing ways from River Road to Young's Store, and from that supply depot north on existing paths to Prospect Mountain, a low summit at the end of Danforth Road in Pittsburg. From the summit, the way would cross to the northeast over to Ramblewood Cabins and Campground and the CT, largely on existing trails.

If all goes according to the Castine's plan, the trail could then get away from Route 3 altogether, except a direct crossing at Young's Store. The new route would put that supply outlet right on the trail, making life much easier for long-distance trekkers coming up from the Whites more than a long week's hike away or coming down from the border.

The new CT stretch would also pass through or near three private camping facilities, Mountain View Cabins and Campground, Bear Ledge Campground and Ramblewood, giving hikers a choice of places to pitch the tent.

The big attraction here is Prospect Mountain. That bump of a summit is a cleared one without a tree blocking a 40-mile view into Canada and Maine. A foot trail/snowmobile trail and a dirt lane now reach the top. The vista takes in all of Pittsburg and Clarksville east of Route 3. Big summits such as Pisgah, Magalloway, Diamond Ridge, Stub Hill, Rump, Kent, and the boundary peaks D'Urban, Trumbull, Salmon, Saddle Hill, and Marble (in Canada) are visible close at hand. Other peaks are visible farther south, including Vermont's Monadnock in the west, and the tall ridges from Stratford township through to the Nash Stream Forest and over to the Phillips Brook watershed. At the foot of all this is the 3,000-acre Connecticut Lakes behemoth, First Connecticut Lake -- all of it. You can even make out spray from the fat jet of outflow water from the big TransCanada dam (unseen behind a low ridge).

So routing the Cohos Trail away from Route 3 to Young's Store, by the campgrounds, up to Prospect summit and over to Ramblewood (and then on to Eagle Pond and over Mt. Covill to Round Pond as the original plan calls for) would greatly improve the experience for trekkers and help make Pittsburg a hiker's destination. Linking the little twin elevations of Prospect and Covill, with their luxury box seats above sublime country, would create a day hike, even a day-hike loop, that would be better than an all-expenses-paid cruise up the Oqavongo.

BACK ON HIGH GROUND

The metamorphosis of The Cohos Trail Association is moving ahead apace. People from Pittsburg, NH to Florida to Pennsylvania to Arkansas to Nevada to Fairbanks, Alaska, have pledged support or offered to work on the trails. A new board will be seated, and some of the day-to-day work of running the trail has already shifted to Coos County where it belongs.

We have applied for an organizational grant to solidify the effort to create a strong Coos-based organization, and an all-out effort is already underway to encourage local schools, scouting troops and civic organizations to get involved in improving this big county-long recreational resource.

The website is being upgraded a good deal, starting with a rolling slide show on the home page. The new maps are off to the printer, and the guidebook is in stock. Although not revised, the guide contains an inserted color page directing people who buy the book to go to the website to download information about changes in the trail route for 2007. That will give us a whole year to reformat the book and make substantial changes so it is better than ever. The Cohos Trail databook will go to press, too, before the hiking season begins. That's a simple pocket-size guide that features mileage between points and directions (turn right at x and left at y) as one moves along.

To think this is going on now, so quickly after having decided to close the trail for 2007 just a few months ago, is mind boggling. What a distinct pleasure it is to see people highly motivated so suddenly and getting their hands dirty and their computers overworked for the sake of a trail in the middle of nowhere (the very best place to be, mind you). Humbling, it is.

Get to work on the trail, too -- you! Call 538-6777 in Pittsburg, NH (or email prospmw@localnet.com) and tell Peter or Lainie you have been a slacker and you need to get your act together by volunteering to work on the Cohos Trail. Then you can breath easy, because you will go to heaven...eventually. Hopefully.

THE PART ABOUT MONEY

If you have an interest in supporting the Cohos Trail but forgot to send a donation from $5.00 to $5 million, why not send a gift to The Cohos Trail Association, 266 Danforth Road, Pittsburg, NH 03592 or to 252 Westmoreland Road, Spofford, NH 03462. Either way, the dollars find their way onto the trail.

Send your gift today, so we won't show up at your door in the middle of the night.

BORDER RUNNING

Several people have written over the last year about the potential for trail along the Canadian border, something the Sentiers Frontaliers hiking club at Lac Megantic, Quebec has been working on for a decade.

To see what the Canadians have done largely in the boundary peaks above westernmost Maine but also out to New Hampshire's Mt. D'Urban , go to www.viewfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14033 and have a look at Papabear's logs and photo albums there. Of particular interest to Cohos Trail trekkers is the journal and photos that show the way from Crown Monument, the three-foot-tall cast metal marker at the Maine, New Hampshire and Quebec boundary intersection, westward over Mt. D'Urban (2,999 feet) and down to the Canadian side of Boundary Pond, a little finger of water that comes within inches of touching the border along its northern marshy shoreline.

From the U.S. side, this terrain is about as far removed from New England civilization as seems possible in the Northeast. However, from the Quebec side, the trails and bushwhack described runs high above working farm fields and the quaint village of Chartierville, Quebec.

And to see what the Sentiers Frontaliers do, go to their website at the following address: sentiersfrontaliers.qc.ca. The site is in French, but it is a joy to work through if you can decipher a little of that fair romance language. If you can't read a bit of French, at least have a look at the photo album and carte (map). They have built some interesting structures on their system, by the way, including lean-tos with skylights.

There is real potential to link the CT and the SF together, either by a Quebec-side border trail (their board of directors voted in the affirmative a year or two ago to attempt it) or via a six-mile road walk (with expansive views) from the border down Magnetic Hill and out to where the club's long-distance trail to Mont Megantic crosses a farm lane in eastern Chartierville.

As many who have read this newsletter over the years know, the SF trail to Mont Megantic ends at that big ring-dike mountainıs trail complex which, in turn, leads to a fitting ending point -- the very entranceway into Canada's largest astronomical observatory. What could be better than culminating an international trek at the foot of the stairway to the stars, eh?

NEW OLD PEAK DISCOVERED

The fellow who wrote the journal for the forum on the View From The Top website (listed above) discovered in his research of the boundary terrain that the 3,277 elevation not far to the west of Boundary Pond (what appears to be the easternmost shoulder of Mt. Salmon) actually was once labeled with the name Trumbull Mountain. Sounds good, good enough to include on the Cohos Trail maps. So we plugged the moniker in before we shipped the electronic files off to the printer.

THE LAST WORD

At the very end of January of this year, I opened the garden cold frame and picked baby beet greens, spinach, Swiss chard and kale for a fresh dinner salad. That's fresh, succulent. Green. Good. And free, perfectly free. The cold frame was free, too -- free old storm window hinged to a few odd boards nailed together. I fluffed up some hay for insulation around the contraption and that was that.

Next winter I'm going to have twenty feet of coldframes housed inside a small homemade greenhouse (2x4s, strapping and plastic. Cheap!). I'll eat everything from fresh carrots and parsnips to endive and Dutch mache all winter long. That's the plan. Potatoes will be stored in a box in the ground (covered with hay) in the greenhouse so I can pick them out whenever we want a roasted spud for dinner.

I have acorn squash on the pantry shelving that has turned orange but is as hard as a rock even now. Cut it open, scoop out the seeds and roast them, pour maple syrup and butter inside the squash and bake it in the oven. Sweet. Delicious.

All this food came to me from a distance of about fifteen yards, not the 1,300 miles that the average calorie of American food travels to the dinner plates of our population. At no time in my fifty-eight years, have I worried about my family's food supply. I'm worried now. It is totally dependent on one commodity. It's called oil. You know the stuff. Price goes up, down a little, then trends upward, upward, uuuupward.

What does this have to do with hiking? Hiking is done with the feet. Freely. The benefits to a body and mind are beyond dispute. Food use to be free, or nearly so. Your forebears and mine just a very few generations removed from right now use to know how to bring forth a cornucopia of food from the ground each and every year using the energy of human and animal muscle, not the muscle of fossil fuel. Food was local, generated by small business men and women. We called them farmers. Remember them? They were once the back and shoulders of rural New England's economy. There were tens of thousands of them. Ghosts, they are now, most all of them. Ghosts don't till much earth, I hear.

Get to the point, man!

In the verbiage above there is a brief passage about harnessing wind energy in Coos County, New Hampshire. Energy from a local resource. It's called wind. Price doesn't go anywhere. Not up, not down. I can have all I want of it, for free. If I can get my dinner salad for free with almost no work and no transportation or retail cost, why didn't I do that most of my life? If I could drive a hybrid car plugged into an electrical outlet energized by the turning of local wind turbines in the free wind, why wouldn't I drive juiced instead of gassed up? If I can hike on two feet for fourteen miles a day and overtop three or four mountains without burning so much as a thimble full of Middle East oil, why would I want to do anything else in these grand 200 million-year-old mountains?

So this summer, I'll try something greenhouse-gasless. I'll eat all home grown food for a day, drive an electric hybrid up to Dixville Notch, and hike from the notch to Coleman State Park and summit on Sanguinary, Mud Pond Ridge peak and Sugar Hill (in Stewartstown, not Sugar Hill, NH). I will be eco-happy on this small blue ball orbiting the sun. And ten years from now, when my granddaughter is a young woman, we'll do the exact same thing. Then, when oil is $220 a barrel, she and I can make the same trip across beautiful Coos County. For free.

Maybe I'll treat my granddaughter to a big dinner in Colebrook for a few bucks and spend the night (always spend money for a hot shower, I say) for a few dollars more up in the Indian Stream Territory.

See you on the trail, where wondering about in the wilderness is a blessing, not a curse.

Kim

Kim Robert Nilsen

The Cohos Trail Association