Earthquake Assessment
After the earthquake the other night (officially a 3.9), the crew's been heading out onto the trails to assess the damage to various trails throughout the park -- at least on this side of the island. These photos are from trails on Champlain Mountain, namely the East Face Trail and the beloved Precipice Trail. Unfortunately, after much scrutiny and careful consideration, both of these trails were closed indifinitely, along with the recently re-opened Homan's Path and the popular Ladder Trail. I think you can see why.
Here is the first indication something's wrong. This is at the first intersection up the East Face Trail that takes you up to the summit of Champlain. This was nothing.
This is one of the reasons they hesitate to paint blazes in trees. If you look closely just above the rocks in the center of the picture, you can see the blue blaze on the trunk.
Believe it or not, there used to be a trail through here. In fact, the treeline extended completely through the shot, up to probably the left 1/3 of the image. The guys are standing where the trail used to be.
At this point we're on a pretty sketchy area of the Precipice Trail, where one false step could be a bad thing. Notice the new bend in the railing.
And here's a shot looking the other way from the wooden bridge, that took a couple of hits itself. These shots were not the only damage on this particular trail by a long shot, but they give you an idea of what we're up against -- Mother Nature.
So it would seem that in the last entry I made, the "thunderstorm rumble" I said I heard after the quake was, in fact, the landslides happening all up and down these mountainsides. That would make perfect sense. Thank God this happened on a Fall night and not on a bright Summer afternoon. It would've been tragic.
Here is the first indication something's wrong. This is at the first intersection up the East Face Trail that takes you up to the summit of Champlain. This was nothing.
This is one of the reasons they hesitate to paint blazes in trees. If you look closely just above the rocks in the center of the picture, you can see the blue blaze on the trunk.
Believe it or not, there used to be a trail through here. In fact, the treeline extended completely through the shot, up to probably the left 1/3 of the image. The guys are standing where the trail used to be.
At this point we're on a pretty sketchy area of the Precipice Trail, where one false step could be a bad thing. Notice the new bend in the railing.
And here's a shot looking the other way from the wooden bridge, that took a couple of hits itself. These shots were not the only damage on this particular trail by a long shot, but they give you an idea of what we're up against -- Mother Nature.
So it would seem that in the last entry I made, the "thunderstorm rumble" I said I heard after the quake was, in fact, the landslides happening all up and down these mountainsides. That would make perfect sense. Thank God this happened on a Fall night and not on a bright Summer afternoon. It would've been tragic.
posted by Highroad at 4:09 PM
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