Passaconaway Cutoff: 10/25/24

I had a cool, sunny day for the fall maintenance trip on Passaconaway Cutoff, the adopted trail of the AMC Four Thousand Footer Committee. We maintain this trail under the White Mountain National Forest Adopt-a-Trail program, which enlists volunteers to perform the basic maintenance tasks - brushing, blazing (outside Wilderness), removing blowdowns and cleaning drainages - for many of the trails across the region. For information visit www.fs.usda.gov/main/whitemountain/workingtogether/volunteering. (Similar programs are offered by the Appalachian Mountain Club, Wonalancet Out Door Club and Dartmouth Outing Club.) Adopting a trail is a great way of "giving back" to the mountains that give us so much pleasure. The work can be tiring, but also very satisfying. Today's primary task was cleaning the 57 drainages along the trail, with just a few blowdowns to remove.

It's been a dry fall, and the water level was very low in the beaver pond alongside the Oliverian Brook Trail, 0.7 mile from the trailhead.

This part of the Oliverian Brook Trail provides smooth walking on the grade of the Swift River logging railroad operated by the Conway Lumber Company in the early 1900s. According to Bill Gove's excellent book, "Logging Railroads of the Saco River Valley," (out of print) this was an especially busy branch of the railroad, serving a number of logging camps in the broad Oliverian Brook basin.

The Oliverian Brook Trail enters the Sandwich Range Wilderness a quarter mile before reaching the junction with Passaconaway Cutoff.

Time to wield the tools.

This leaner looked like it was ready to fall onto the trail.

I was able to pull it down and move it off the trail with help from my long-handled hoe.

This bony limb was blocking the footway.

Cleared.

The water was low where the Cutoff crosses the west branch of Oliverian Brook.

There is a nice hardwood section of the Cutoff above the brook crossing. This link in the northern route to Mt. Passaconaway, connecting the Oliverian Brook Trail with the Square Ledge Trail, was originally opened by the Passaconaway Mountain Club around 1920, following the conclusion of intensive logging in the Albany Intervale by the Conway Lumber Company. Following lumber roads up this valley, it originally stayed close to the brook, crossing it three times low down, then ascending along its south side to meet the Square Ledge Trail at the site of an abandoned logging camp on the north slope of Nanamocomuck Peak. The trail was abandoned after the Hurricane of 1938 caused flooding in the valley and unleashed a large slide on the east slope of Mt. Passaconaway, causing great damage to the trail. The trail was reopened in 1965, more or less following the route of the destroyed older trail. In 1981 the upper half was relocated higher up the slope and away from the brook, meeting the Square Ledge Trail farther to the east. In 2006 the entire trail was included in the expanded Sandwich Range Wilderness.

 

 The rocky upper section of the west branch.

Mount Passaconaway looms through the trees as the trail ascends along the flank of Square Ledge.

Cleaning the drainages is a top priority, since a waterbar clogged with leaves and other debris does not function well in diverting water off the trail.

 

  In some of the deeper drainage ditches I was up nearly to my knees in dry fluffy leaves.

I was happy to reach the upper end of the trail.

Before heading down I took a break at the edge of a small cliff below the trail, with a peek up at a shadowed Mount Passaconaway.

Here also I enjoyed a nice view north to the Nancy Range, part of the Southern Presidentials, and nearby Hedgehog Mountain. On the way out, a half mile from the trailhead with dusk drawing on, I quickened my pace when coyote howls broke out a short distance to the east.  This is evidently a good area for coyotes, as two years ago on a July afternoon I heard them down below me while bushwhacking up to the East Slide on Mount Passaconaway. It certainly adds a touch of wildness to the Wilderness.