Monday, September 5, 2011


IRENE DAMAGE ALONG THE EAST BRANCH: 8/31/11

Three days after Tropical Storm Irene's prodigious rainfall drove the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River to record flow levels (17 ft. at the gauge in Lincoln, with a flow on the order of 30,000 cubic ft. per second), I took a morning walk at Lincoln Woods to assess the damage. Just a month earlier Carol and I had "adopted" the Pine Island Trail, a lovely footpath meandering along the east side of the river parallel to the Pemi East Side Trail. We had made one brushing and blowdown removal trip on this easy trail, but after Irene swept through I found that a bulldozer might be a more appropriate tool than a bowsaw.

The water level had dropped enough so that I could hop across Pine Island Brook near the start of the trail. Even along this secondary channel, uprooted trees were strewn along the banks.


And thick drifts of sand had been deposited in the woods.


The first 0.1 mi. of the trail was OK, but when I reached the spot where it came close to the river, and had been sandy from previous overflows, I found that things had changed rather dramatically, starting with a newly opened view upstream to SW Twin.

For some distance beyond this point, the trail was....gone. This surviving blaze tree marked the start of the first section that was washed away.

Across the river, I could see that the riverbank was severely gouged and undercut.

More sand-drifts in the forest.

As I bushwhacked north through the mangled woods behind the former trail location, I edged carefully out for another newly revealed vista, downstream to Black Mountain.


"End of Trail."


Torn roots along the new riverbank.

The middle section of the trail was farther back from the river and was in good shape, until the spot where it swings back out towards the normally dry, rocky overflow channel at the north end of "Pine Island." The tree destruction here was stunning.

This is the route of the trail.

Where the overflow channel comes off the main river, the storm surge had created a huge pile of rocks. The water flow of the channel is now confined to a narrow trough along the northern edge.

The path of Irene's destruction, overlooked by trailless "Peak 2675."

From the edge of the overflow channel, a nice view upstream to West Bond and Bondcliff.

North of the overflow channel, the trail was again obliterated. The spruces it led through were gone; there were now hardwoods along the relocated riverbank. I worked out through the mess to the edge for a view of Owl's Head.

"End of Trail, Part II."

The northern 0.1 mi. or so of the trail lives on, as it was away from the full force of the raging river.

At another rocky overflow channel near the north end of the Pine Island Trail, there was now a new sandbar.


For the return walk I followed the gravel road known as the Pemi East Side Trail. Long sections of this were severely gullied by the storm, and a culvert at the base of a steep hill was blown out by a small brook, leaving a gaping cut in the road.

The culvert had been pushed 50 ft. or so downstream.

A new view across the river had been opened farther back along the East Side Trail. The landscape and riverscape have a new look at Lincoln Woods, post-Irene, and the Pine Island Trail will continue to exist only if major relocations can be made to replace the sections that now reside in the East Branch.

35 comments:

  1. The destruction is hard to fathom. Knowing the budget difficulties already, I see this storm as impacting the forest for some time. I worked on my adopted trail, Piper, last week and was able to bring it back to pre-Irene conditions. The trails on Chocorua seem to be largely unscathed. Thanks for the report.

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  2. Thanks, Chris! Glad to hear that Chocorua came through OK. Thanks for all your good work - if we had a small army of Cooperhills, the trails would be back in order pretty quickly!

    Steve

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  3. Hi Steve, I was in your shop last Saturday and overheard you describe the destruction of this trail. The pictures truly capture the destruction. I hope with time the trails return to what they were or better. I was up on the Kinsmans and those trails were fine. I'll stop by your shop in a few weeks to say hello again.

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  4. Thats insane! Where i live Irene didnt cause much damage. It was more like a heavy wind storm than anything else. It made some pretty crazy waves, but nothing compared to what everyone else got.

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  5. Congratulations for making it to BlogsOfNote :)

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  6. You captured some great aftermath here. I am from Utah, traveling around North America for 6 months camping and climbing and am currently here in the Northeast. We came exactly at the time that Hurricane Irene was on its way up the coast (unbeknownst to us) and ending sleeping in our tent through the storm in upstate NY. We were on our way to Maine the next day and found it nearly impossible to get to from the damage that was done to the roads in NY, VT & NH. We are now finally on our way back down to NH (Rochester/North Conway/Rumney) to do some climbing in the area. It will be interesting to see how much has been cleaned up since last we came through. It's great to see people organizing together in clean up efforts, though!

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  7. Wonderful photos of a beautiful area. Thank you for sharing!

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  8. Excellent Work Done! The pictures are simply awesome.

    Regards

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  9. Wow, thanks for sharing the pictures. The power of water is so breathtaking. It seems so benign while going through the streams, but when seeing the havoc it creates or even the ocean itself is sobering.

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  10. Looks like substantial damage in a beautiful location.

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  11. Sometimes destruction can be a blessing in disguise. this might allow new growth and make the forest stronger than ever. I know down here in Florida that is often the case. Thanks for all the hard work you do.

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  12. Thanks for the update, I was considering going hiking up there but went to the smokies instead. Sounds like I made a good choice.

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  13. Thanks, Ed - most of the trails came through OK. The ones that run close to streambanks, naturally, fared the worst. Good to hear the Kinsman trails weren't damaged.

    Good hiking,

    Steve

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  14. Kayleigh,

    We're lucky we didn't get the wind up here. With the saturated soils a lot more trees would have come down. We dodged a bullet with that one.

    Steve

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  15. I'm glad that hurricane Irene didn't took away many human lives but the trail she left is inevitable.

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  16. Thanks to all for the kind comments. Most of our trails are looking OK, though there are some that have obviously been severely damaged.

    I wasn't familiar with "Blogs of Note" until I read about it in some of these comments.I am surprised and honored that this little hiking blog for the White Mountains of New Hampshire was chosen.

    Steve

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  17. Irene was very surreal. I couldn't believe it was happening even though it was happening.

    www.comicdaverusso.blogspot.com

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  18. CONGRATS on being chosen a Blog of Note! I'm glad I found your blog!!

    Steve
    Common Cents
    http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

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  19. What great photographs and brilliant blog. Thanks for your wanderings - it's so different to the Hampshire, England that I live in.
    Kaye x

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  20. A lot of very nice photos, thanks.

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  21. Hi Steve.
    I have stumbled across your blog and enjoyed strolling through. I was frustrated however by the lack of info regarding which country you live in. You might want to add that to the notes in your profile.

    Thanks and keep up the good work.
    Alistair

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  22. hi,
    i think is good mountain. i like this photos very much.

    Regard
    mohsin qureshi-23227
    http://www.businessideas.pk

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  23. Great photos. Amazing quaility :)

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  24. WOW! That's alot of beautiful right there.

    http://kdjewelry.blogspot.com
    www.kachinadesigns.com

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  25. I really enjoy this mountain article, so I learned about the mountain in America, thank you

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  26. Hi !

    I am niced of discovering the New Hampshire mountains, by reading your blog of notes !!!

    Thanks for the pictures, which are very beautiful & reflecting the pretty nature of the american country.

    Congrats,

    Rita.

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  27. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures. I love your blog and will be visiting regularly.

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  28. Hi, Steve.

    I don’t guess you maintain the Stony Brook Trail as well (down Moriah), but there was also some sand in the woods along its lower part. Not as bad as on the Pine Island Trail, however. When I saw it I knew immediately the cause, thanks to your post here.

    Lots of damage to the buttresses or whatever they’re called on the Route 16 bridge over the Peabody River, too. Lots of earth washed away behind one of them, but it didn’t quite reach as far as the road. It looks like one of the cement (concrete?) things fell over, too.

    What a mess.

    Raymond (VFTT)

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  29. Congrats on Blog of Note. :) Very Nice.

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  30. The mountain is pretty. Ok thanks for all your good work.

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  31. Hi Raymond,

    Yup, this storm did make quite a mess. Most trails came out OK, but some were hit pretty hard, such as Greeley Ponds, Sabbaday Brook and Dry River.

    Steve

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