Randolph Mountain Club Trailwork – The Link

PHOTO: Randolph Mountain Club volunteer Danielle Normand is back on The Link armed with her loppers! The Randolph Mountain Club maintains a 100 miles of trails that crisscross the Crescent and Northern Presidential Ranges. There are many groups you can do volunteer trail work with in the White Mountains and across New Hampshire, no experience necessary they will teach you and provide tools! For starters check out these volunteer opportunities with these groups: RandolphMountainClub.org, BelknapRangeTrailTenders.org, Squamlakes.org and WODC.org (Wonalancet Out Door Club).

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

Danielle, Bria and I decided we should finish what we started last summer: clearing The Link.
The Link is a trail that connects Appalachia to all the paths and trails that lead to Mount Adams and Mount Jefferson from the north and west. All we had remaining was the section from the Castle Trail to the Caps Ridge Trail.
We hiked this 1.6 mile section last year on our way to our Randolph Mountain Club assignment of brushing The Link from its intersection with Castle Ravine Trail towards Appalachia. We remembered it well because it was raining and we got car washed from all the Spruce tree branches and Hobblebush that crowded and hid the path. That was a cold wet day.
This day it was hot, too hot.. It was forecasted to be over 90 degrees in Randolph. Other volunteers that were thinking of joining us had decided to wait for a cooler day. The three of us decided to work anyway.
The trail sign stuck out of the thicket of blackberries and the footbed of the The Link wasn’t visible, making it look like the trail was abandoned.

We clipped, we lopped and hand-sawed our way down the trail. We felt that we were trail building more often than just brushing and trimming an existing path. Yes it was hot and muggy but not as hot as it was down below but still a sufferfest of sorts. The Link hovers around elevation 3,800 feet and occasionally we had a breeze.
Sometimes after cutting a tree we’d find massive piles of moose poop and wondered how the heck the moose managed to get up here. Other times after removing trees and branches we discovered yellow blazes marking that trail; we made them visible once again.
As we worked we spread ourselves a few hundred feet apart along the trail and leap frogged one another. It is fun to see what each other has cleared. And spreading out removes the danger of tossing a limb on a friend.
We tricked a couple into hiking The Link. They saw the recent trail work and decided they’d make a loop over Jefferson. They were the only people we saw all day. We explained they had a wall of Spruce ahead of them and they thanked us for our efforts and continued on still.
Of course we had dreams of completing this section. We worked hard, we even skipped taking a lunch break together. But as the hours passed we knew we weren’t going to finish.
According to our trackers we made it 3/4s of a mile, not even half way but close. What shocked us was after 5.5 hours it took us only 20 minutes to briskly walk back to the trailhead.
We had left the Caps Ridge parking lot at the height of the land on Jefferson Notch Road just before 8 am and we didn’t leave until 3pm. Our après highlight was going for a cold dip in the Ammonoosuc River!
Over the next few days we debated whether we should go back next week and finish? It was appealing to get a new assignment but it didn’t feel right to leave The Link undone.
I asked the RMC’s volunteer work trip coordinator Wendy Walsh to put the call out again for volunteers to help. If we could get help maybe we could finish it in just one more outing.
Again we met in the Caps Ridge parking lot and just before 8 am Wendy’s car pulled in. Wendy, Tim, Beth and Tai had arrived to work with us! Hurrah!

We all hiked up the Caps Ridge Trail to The Link. And it felt great to walk on a well cleared trail. And in no time we arrived at the green wall hiding the way.
We spread out but with now seven of us wielding loopers and handsaws a lot more leapfrogging was happening up the trail.
When we reached an old slide that made a nice open area with a fine view I suggested to everyone to meet there in a few minutes and we could take a break all together. This was nice and it was the only time all seven of us were all together. It was just after 11 and it didn’t feel too early for lunch. We all appreciated the break.
The camaraderie experience while doing trailwork with the Randolph Mountain Club is fun and our work supports the traditions of the RMC. We all enjoy the mountains and hiking and preserving the trails.
I learned from my RMC’s Randolph Paths guidebook that the Link was first designed in 1893 by J.Rayner Edmands and built by his crew. Logging destroyed much of it and it had to be reestablished in the 1920’s. Interestingly the section from the Castle Trail to Caps Ridge Trail was not built until 1955–scouted by Robert & Miriam Underhill and Klaus Goetze and then cleared by RMC volunteers. And in 1984 it was rerouted to its current junction with the Caps Ridge Trail to just above the Glacial Pothole ledges.
Wendy caught up to me and told me they needed to head back. She said that she was spent and they had to get back to prepare for the Charades–an over 100 year club traditional RMC event. We were so thankful for them lending us a hand. Wendy thanked us for our work too. Bria, Danielle and I decided we weren’t turning back. We still had plenty of trail left ahead of us to clear. We finally reached the end and we too were well spent.

On our way back thankfully Bria and Danielle brought their water filters and we were able to filter water to drink out of the one small brook that was still flowing. Our walk back was much longer this time and we felt deep satisfaction with the results of all our trail work.
On our drive home I texted Wendy to tell her that we made it to the end. Her response made us laugh, “We knew you would!”
I wonder what trail we’ll tackle next time? Come join us.
Have Fun.