Winterwalk 2006: telling the rest of the story

Here are some facts and background that may give greater context to issues raised during the Allagash Wilderness Waterway portion of Winterwalk 2006 (“Couple leaves controversial trail Allagash Wilderness Waterway trees cut during ’emergency situation’,” BDN, March 2).

In a normal winter the ice route traversing the waterway contains only one short mandatory carry at Allagash Falls. There are always open leads along portions of the river, at all lake outlets, and most narrows between lakes. Usually these areas have adequate safe shelf ice along the edges to afford safe passage.

The man-made outlet at Churchill Dam is always an exception. On our 1982 trek this required 1.5 miles of by-pass through the woods.

In 2006 freeze-up occurred with the Allagash in flood stage. Once we were on the river, continued thaw and repeated rain maintained flood stage throughout January and February. These conditions resulted in thin ice, open water, and extensive overflow.

During our traverse of nearly 92 miles of the AWW we made a total of three and a half miles of unprecedented, but necessary bypasses around impossible and-or dangerous situations in four locations. (An additional six miles of open water and overflow below Churchill Dam were circumnavigated via adjacent roads and did not involve trails.)

These bypasses required some trimming of brush, cutting of saplings, and extensive shoveling of snow to level the float, or ramp over blowdowns

Trimming was for removal of eye endangering lower branches in thick woods, and of alders at river edge that might have tangled or tumbled us into swiftly moving lethal water.

Thickets like the one depicted in the Bangor Daily News photo thankfully were rare. This picture works well because you can actually see a cut trail. It is in fact the single thickest segment we had to get through. We estimate approximately 300 feet of the 92 mile waterway contain this level of very visible short-term impact, roughly 200 feet of which is the site of the photo.

With the arrival of ice out most traces of these “trails” vanish except where the very densest thickets or blowdowns had to be punched through.

The use of boughs is not necessary. Given standard impact and esthetic concerns, not to mention AWW rules, boughs should not be used. Where we used them we were being opportunists.

Most sites where bough use showed up were in conjunction with the emergency bypass routes. If a green balsam sapling were cut as part of trail making efforts we would make use of it rather than waste it. The green pole became a fire-resistant stove pipe picket just outside the tent, and the boughs trimmed from it provided an anti-melt-back area in the kitchen pit in front of the stove; an area roughly the size of a doormat.

There were several sites where boughs were found not related to by-passes. Again we were opportunists making use of another unusual situation. Everywhere we went this winter there were often fresh balsam tops on the ground, most of them having been broken off 15 or 20 feet up the trunk of young trees. Any time we found these storm-severed tops near camp while getting standing dead wood for the stove, we’d harvest tips from them, and occasionally use the terminal pole section for a pipe picket.

For 26 years we have been professionally introducing people to comfortable winter camping. We greatly look forward to continuing collaboration with other user groups, and the state, to allow traditional winter travel activity to thrive on this beautiful waterway.

Alexandra and Garrett Conover live in Willimantic.