Publications

Our Legacy (or Curse): The Vulnerability of Old Trails to Erosion

By Carl Demrow

Trails can have, in a sense, a genetic predisposition to wash away. Many trails in New England were built to take a hiker from point A—usually near a road or river—to point B, usually a mountaintop. When the pioneer trail builders of 1870 to 1930 built a trail, they never anticipated the use trails see today and they weren’t particularly concerned with erosion—they just wanted to go from A to B in as straight a line as possible.

We also have plenty of trails that were originally winter-use logging roads or railroads—also never intended for the heavy use they now get during the summer, when the ground isn’t frozen solid.

The result is a formula for erosion. Many of those original trails have been rebuilt, and others have been relocated, but in the end those straight-up trails keep us on our toes. Here’s why: Water is lazy. It wants to take the straightest path down. Path is the key word here, for if water can’t seep into the ground, it is headed for the nearest ocean, ASAP, and the steep, straight trail is as good a highway as any. Erosion is tricky and insidious. Drainage may remove water, but on a steep trail after a heavy rain, that can be a tall order—sometimes there is enough water that something, somewhere, is going to erode. That’s why those steepest, straightest trails are armored with rock steps and lots of drainage. These modifications help trails to adapt beyond what their creators envisioned.

Five Battles: Intro  |  Heavy Use  |  Erosion Risk  |  Our Legacy  |  Mother Nature  |  Money and Labor