The Dry River trail runs along the path of the old railroad in the so named Wilderness area.  You would never know about the logging that happened along this section as it has been reclaimed by the earth.  And she is doing it again.  Hurricane Irene took out big sections of the river and the hiking trail with it.  And this is no small body of running water.  Huge boulders litter the riverbed, some large enough to have huge trees growing on top of them.  So. The energy to remove hundreds of yards of earth from one spot is amazing.  Whole trees from root ball to leaves are bundled in the middle of the River like toothpicks.  So to b hiking along and to see the trail just end and know it starts again in 500 feet is disheartening.  And often the ground left has been compromised by being undercut.  Big sections of  trees dangling out over the rocky river bed. 

My guide and Forest Service Ranger Jana was great.  She knew right where the trail was supposed to be, and was working at determining where it would go.  Leading us over the tricky parts and searching out the new location for the trail that will be as safe as the old one, but probably not as easy.  We watched as one group tried to take on the closed trail and it took them half an hour to transverse the 500 foot span that had been washed away. 

I was amazed by some of the parts of the trail, an easy hike like the Lincoln Woods trail, nice and even.  But other parts are on sheer sides of the mountain and over cascading waterfalls.  Other sections through mud and yuck not too far from the edge of going over the side.   It seems that when the trail gets tough, it also gets stunningly beautiful.  Wanting to stop and take photos, but not on this trip.  Jana needed to finish her surveying of where the new trail will be.  Tough work to say the least. 

I enjoyed some of the visuals The overhangs caused by the river and the vast see of boulders.   I think I need to work on some of these HDR Panoramas a bit more, but here they are.  parts of the missing trails.

dry river pano

dry river panorama