Cohos Trail - Another Long Distance trail to consider.

[peakbagger]

I had a chance to do a few days on the Cohos Trail (CT) in NH. It starts in the main area of the White Mountain National Forest and then heads North through a variety of mostly other federal lands and long term industrial forest lands to the Canadian Border. The trail had the reputation of being somewhat difficult to follow and a work in progress but in recent years its become far better established. I definitely did not do the whole route but on the stretch I did, the trail was very well marked although the trail bed is not well beat in so at intersections there is bit of "Wheres Waldo" effect looking for the small CT signs and blazes. Its not a major issue but to those used to following the AT, it require a bit more route finding.

Most people from Southern New England have warped sense of geometry reinforced by polyconic projection maps centered on southern New England that distort the edges of the maps. Most think US RT2 in Gorham is near the northern border of NH and the US, yet there is still an hour plus drive north to Pittsburg NH and eventually the US Canadian Border. The north country tends to be out of sight and mind to most as it was for 100 plus years mostly industrial forestland with only a small strip of development along the Connecticut River which serves as the western border of NH with Vermont and Canada. Much of the land was never settled and remain as unorganized townships managed by the county. The general attitude of the region and landowners was to discourage or outlaw backcountry camping as they wanted the business to go to local establishments. The area is in somewhat different microclimate than the whites so winter lasts longer and spring bug season runs into early summer. The CT is the first major trail in the area and has slowly gained permission to build shelters along much of the route north of the whites. There are no fires allowed along much of the route including the shelters and the shelters and tentsite we encountered have composting outhouses that are relatively odor free if "flushed" with the supplied fine bark powder. At least one of the shelter was literally on top of mountain with no water supply so caveat emptor, do your research in advance. All the shelters and tentsites we passed had bear boxes

I did a 3 day stretch in the Nash Stream Valley area. Nash Stream is an entire watershed, formerly timberland that was protected by the state with assistance from a couple of regional nonprofits about 30 years ago. There is still some forestry and recreational development (camps on leased lands, ATV trails on the fringes and snowmachine trails) but the CT over the years has been routed to avoid the much of summer season uses (it does on occasion share snowmobile trails in the valley). Probably the biggest issue to some is the lack of views, the Nash Stream area is home to many of the NH 100 highest mountains but very little alpine terrain. The high ridges tend to be dense spruce and fir infested with blowdowns or mature hardwood stands with ferns and hobblebush crowding out the understory and no views with the exception of manmade openings and 3 summits, North and South Percy, two granite domes visible from much of the whites and Sugarloaf which can be reached by blue blazes of various lengths. The trail tends to stay on the slopes in hardwood forests then crosses the valley for awhile before heading around the most developed camp area before heading uphill out of the valley on former haul roads. Eventually the trail heads up a valley in broad area of fairly flat wooded summits on the north end of the valley and past a small portion of large windfarm before skirting and then dropping steeply into a new watershed at Dixville Notch after stopping by one of the more famous viewpoints in the north country called Table Rock. If you think MacAfee Knob in VA is impressive you will be really impressed or possibly too scared to go out to the end of the rock and the view below to the former Balsams Resort and Dixville Notch is still quite the sight.

I have done much if not all the trail in the Whites and the Kilkenny Range that traverses the cut off north country Kilkenny section of the White Mountain National Forest. This is far less used and more remote than the main WMNF. It also visits a unit of the Silvio Conte National Wildlife Refuge going through a large wetland complex. There are no shelters south of Nash Stream but camping options are more flexible in the whites while north of there its designated areas only. It is important to note the WMNF has a strained relationship with the CT in the national forest and there is zero CT signage or specific blazing so anyone doing a CT thruhike including the whites will need to study up on what White Mountain trails make up the route. Once out of the WMNF, its yellow blazed with numerous small CT signs along the way. I not done any of the CT north of the Balsams so others will need to comment on the current conditions. Just be careful about looking at older reports as in its early years it had several long roadwalks and poorly routed sections to try to string together the trail to the border. This has changed to some extent but it may still be changing.

The north end of the Nash Stream Valley is slated for a major expansion of currently closed small ski area, its current skaible terrain is slated to be increased by a factor of five to have the largest skiable terrain in the Northeast. If this happens it will impact the trail so soon is good time to do the CT although the weather pattern for May and June have been the wettest in a long time.

Due to the lack of population, logistics for the CT are similar to the northern Long trail. The CT association actively encourages businesses to provide services but most are somewhat off trail. There is zero public transport north of US Route 2 and the bus options still require a long walk or hitch. The northly end at the Canadian border does have some business and tourist travel but no public transport of any kind. Ideally hire a shuttle servicing the whites and consider doing mail drops as there are limited local resupply options nearby.

When planning daily mileage, once you leave the whites, the usage is lower and the trailbed narrower, there will be more ferns and hobblebush in spots trying to grow into the trails and far fewer waterbars or step stones. This makes for slower and on occasion wetter travel overall as seeing the trailbed sometimes is tough.

The weather patterns this year have been wet but usually Wednesday/Thursday seems to be the best days usually lasting until Friday afternoon, leading into a weekend of rain. We timed it out well and got off trail on Friday afternoon literally with rain starting to spit and a torrential downpour about 20 minutes down the road. The trade off was hot and humid weather and I had some leg cramps one night due to not supplementing my electrolytes adequately but other than that it beats rain. We started the hike on July 4th on a popular vacation week and saw absolutely no one on the entire backpack until we walked out of the woods at a highway rest area at the end of the hike. We did not see any moose but plenty of signs although driving back from the hike we passed one on the side of the road. The trail registers at the shelters looked like the on many nights the shlters were empty.

Overall, definitely one to consider as a less crowded alternative to the Long Trail north of the AT. My bet is its only going to get more popular

[Slugg]

Enjoyed the writeup. This one’s been on my radar..Not sure if I’ll get to the Cohos before I get to NH on the AT but I could see it happpening.

[LazyLightning]

I wonder what will happen if the ski area goes through. Will the trail be permitted to go through it or resort to a road walk or routed around some day? Nice write up, it's definitely on my bucket list. It probably should be next but I'm thinking about doing the North-South>Midstate>Wapack Trails maybe next year. I'm thinking those probably have the most likelihood of losing trail/resorting to more road walking the longer I wait. The complete Long Trail is up there on my 'soonish' bucket list as well.

[peakbagger]

I am unsure, the resort has been trying to get it together for several years to reopen under a grand plan (4000 units of housing at full build) and a ski terrain 5 times bigger than what was there. Its tough sell as its bit of drive via two lane roads to get there. The closest medium airport is about an hour away in Milan NH and it could support regional jets and private jets but a bit of drive. The resort developers tried to pull a fast one to close down a very popular hiking trail to Table Rock. The planning board stopped them. On the other hand, there was a state land swap to protect a gorge that is part of the current trail which may give the trail a place to go. It will be several years before it is an issue. They are pushing a 4 season resort and having a major hiking trail and feeder trails is usually included in the concept of "4 season". The Yale retirement fund and Dennis Mallone (2nd biggest private landowner) owns much of the timberland in the area and they both seem to be in it for the long haul so that is a plus.

The Cohos trails founder's concept was "if he lays it out, they will come" and the current trail is mostly a collection of interconnect older paths and logging roads. I expect that the trail will move around and eventually get locked in on a permanent route but building new trail from scratch is lot more work than reusing other existing routes. There is several local benefactors that have donated money and resources and their shelter sites are top class.