That's the right idea.
Maybe they want the trail blasted so it is smooth, flat and uninspiring.
Blackheart
So all the glacier polished granite mountains and domes people see exposed in the high elevation portions of the Sierra Nevada are figments of peoples imagination? It's pretty solid except from the fracturing due to the freeze/thaw cycle which is more extreme than the Appalachians get. If it was as soft as you say, the glaciers would have carved it all away. While some mountains out west are volcanic, not all are. The High Sierra portion that the JMT/PCT follows has very little of it (with a few exceptions like Mammoth Lakes) till well north of Yosemite.
I had kind of wondered why they shimmer in the heat.
Mags, I am sorry you found the trail risky. Volunteers are always welcome as well as donations, hand holds and or ladders cost money and labour. Are you willing to join a volunteer group to do what you were talking about? Also, MT Jackson is not under NH state government responsibility as it on Federal Lands. So it would be more that the US govt needs to put more money or personnel into trail maintenance (Good Luck with that) so we are back to volunteers and donations.
Mt Jackson trail has received quite a bit of work over the years. Its just has some fundamentally steep section that climb up over rocky ledges with the final ascent going up a fairly steep boulder fall transitioning to an open ledge. I haven't been on it lately in the summer but it was pretty well hardened. To make it more hiker friendly would require a pretty aggressive and extensive reconstruction that the WMNF very rarely does as they get significant pushback from the hiking public. The area is a small pocket of old growth (sadly impacted by a wind storm log ago) so making major relocations for switchback would be unacceptable in much of the hiking publics mind. Switchbacks are really not an option so its mostly going to be blasting out outcrops of granite and then cutting in steps into the ledges or putting pin steps in along with steel assists. These types of hiker aides are apparently popular elsewhere but rarely employed in the whites. The Tuckermans Ravine trail is one example of a massive reconstruction effort to armor the tread and put in switchbacks but that is mostly to accommodate snow cats. The upper section has also extensively rebuilt with rocks being split and harvested for steps making lone rough staircases of stone treads. Not something practical for much of the whites and not possible in the wilderness areas due to restrictions imposed by the WMNFs interpretation of Wilderness regs.
Chris
[email protected]
978-804-1131
Shuttle services to/from Boston Logan or Manchester, NH airports to/from all points in MA, NH, VT, and ME.
Ah...that wasn't me. It was a link to a "letter to the editor" written by someone else..
What I did this weekend...
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Last edited by Mags; 06-19-2017 at 11:40.
Paul "Mags" Magnanti
http://pmags.com
Twitter: @pmagsco
Facebook: pmagsblog
The true harvest of my life is intangible...a little stardust caught,a portion of the rainbow I have clutched -Thoreau
If you guys can get all these 'improvements' done, please work on adding them to Mt Everest. Then I might consider hiking it. You know if there was a railway and a restaurant on top, that would be nice too.
The new feedback on her Facebook business page (an autogenerated one) and in Google reviews for her practice are hilarious.
I'm just glad she did not hike the Huntington Ravine Trail
Let me go
As you wish...
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