Publications

AMC Outdoors, December 2000

Rebecca Oreskes was hiking in the central White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) when she came across a trail she didn't recognize. The path was four feet wide, blazed with yellow paint, and marched nearly straight up the fall line of a mountain. Following arrow signs to the trail's end, Oreskes, the U.S. Forest Service official who manages trail policy, backcountry recreation, and Wilderness in the forest, gauged it to be two-and-a-half miles long. It had no water bars and few switchbacks to keep water from rushing straight down the slope, taking the thin layer of topsoil with it.

Over the past several years, numerous such bootleg trails have surfaced throughout the forest, another Forest Service official estimates. These aren't mere "herd paths" caused by trampling, but deliberately cut trails, usually blazed and sometimes marked with signs or festive flags. Though most are hiking trails, others show signs of being built and used by mountain bikers, backcountry skiers, snowmobilers, and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riders.

"These are not people who are passively involved with trails," says Dave Neely, who supervises trail crews and the wilderness and backcountry ranger program for the Forest Service in the Saco District, which is roughly the southeastern quadrant of the forest.

Extent of the Damage
Examples of similar bootleg trails abound: Recently, a hiker hacked a path above treeline to Huntington Ravine through a stand of fragile, high-elevation trees called krummholz. Another hiker reopened a trail, previously closed for safety reasons, that ascends a dangerous rock slide. Officials also have literally stumbled upon other trails dotted with sharp, ankle-high stubs where bootleg trail-makers have carelessly slashed down saplings.

Though no one is counting illegal trails, most sources feel that the number is rising in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. "It's hard to tell if it's getting worse, but it's not getting any better," says Terry Miller, a Saco District ranger.

Causes, Results of Unfashionable Trend
Miller and others believe several factors are fueling the trend: the ongoing popularity of peak-bagging; a lack of legal trails for certain users, such as ATV riders and mountain bikers; history buffs reopening long-abandoned footpaths; abutting-property owners building their own links to national-forest trails; and the fear that red tape will bog down requests for new legal trails.

Though the WMNF has no formal limit on the number of trails it can support, officials say this national forest is threaded with 1,700 miles of existing trails. Keeping them in shape requires not only Forest Service workers but outside help from the AMC, the Randolph Mountain Club (RMC), the Wonalancet Mountain Club, and others. Oreskes says trail-building has declined in the past decade as forest managers have faced mounting-and labor-intensive-maintenance duties.

"The AMC maintains about 300 miles of trails in the Whites, and it's a challenge to keep up with that workload," says Andrew Norkin, AMC White Mountain Trails manager. "Trail crews are spending valuable time working to prevent erosion on bootleg trails and brushing these in to prevent future use."

Officials also point out that most closed trails are that way for a reason, usually because of safety or environmental concerns. Bootleg trails, even if well groomed, rarely include water bars and other erosion-control features, Oreskes says. Most bandit trail-builders, however well intentioned, fail to "look at the [trail] holistically, in terms of its potential impacts on soil, wildlife, and plants," she says.

In addition, bootleg trails can disorient hikers who are following legal trail systems, and they may violate no-trespassing agreements with private landowners.

—Jane Roy Brown is co-editor of AMC Outdoors.