Post by percypeaks on Mar 28, 2010 7:22:57 GMT -5
Some things have come to light about the shutdown of the Owls Head trail and the reroute around the problem.
The reroute calls for descending the Cherry Mt. Trail from near the summit of Mt. Martha down the southwest side of the mountain down to Route 3 at the junction of Lennon Road. A quarter mile down Lennon Road there is a lane to the right. That lane is an old tote road, not a town road. It has no formal name. It is on land owned by Bayroot LLC, a large investment firm specializing in timber properties. The land is in current use-recreation, so it is open to the public. We have to contact the company, of course, to optain formal permission to move over the land.
But something more interesting has come to light. A CT fan in Twin Mountain came forward to say that there might be a route around the closed Owls Head trail, a route that is very close by. Lands nearby were once a part of the old Slide Farm where the very first trail up Owls Head existed. The landowner of a portion of that old farm has been contacted and could give a nod to walk the boundaries to see if a new trail could be laid out that could link with the old trail within the WMNF boundary or come close to linking with it. If it were possible to put in a bypass along one of those boundaries, the Owls Head Trail might be able to be restored.
We'll know more in a week or two. If we can get permission and if the WMNF will agree to a link with the new route, then reopening that trail could become a priority, and the proposed work nearby on a long puncheon span across an old beaver dam in the southeast corner of the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge could be put back on the front burner for 2010 or 2011.
percypeaks
The reroute calls for descending the Cherry Mt. Trail from near the summit of Mt. Martha down the southwest side of the mountain down to Route 3 at the junction of Lennon Road. A quarter mile down Lennon Road there is a lane to the right. That lane is an old tote road, not a town road. It has no formal name. It is on land owned by Bayroot LLC, a large investment firm specializing in timber properties. The land is in current use-recreation, so it is open to the public. We have to contact the company, of course, to optain formal permission to move over the land.
But something more interesting has come to light. A CT fan in Twin Mountain came forward to say that there might be a route around the closed Owls Head trail, a route that is very close by. Lands nearby were once a part of the old Slide Farm where the very first trail up Owls Head existed. The landowner of a portion of that old farm has been contacted and could give a nod to walk the boundaries to see if a new trail could be laid out that could link with the old trail within the WMNF boundary or come close to linking with it. If it were possible to put in a bypass along one of those boundaries, the Owls Head Trail might be able to be restored.
We'll know more in a week or two. If we can get permission and if the WMNF will agree to a link with the new route, then reopening that trail could become a priority, and the proposed work nearby on a long puncheon span across an old beaver dam in the southeast corner of the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge could be put back on the front burner for 2010 or 2011.
percypeaks