Summit Steward Demi Terry and Summit Steward Intern Sarah Heller ranged a little farther than usual this past weekend, with four days of stewardship taking them from Franconia Ridge to Mount Moosilauke and the Crawford Path, with a stop along the way at the Dartmouth Trails Partners Dinner.
On Friday, August 21, Sarah stewarded the entire Franconia Ridge Loop, ascending Falling Waters Trail and spending the day talking with hikers along the route. She also connected with AMC Alpine Steward Kristi Kienholz based at Greenleaf Hut. After several exceptionally busy summer weekends on the ridge, Sarah reported a comparatively quiet day. However, the trail counter recorded another 1133 the following day, Saturday August 22.
A Day on Moosilauke
On Saturday, Sarah and Demi shifted their attention westward, climbing Mount Moosilauke to spend the day working alongside Dartmouth Alpine Steward Duda Gonçalves Freitas.
The three stewards repainted trail signs and talked with hikers throughout the day. In contrast to Franconia Ridge the day before, Moosilauke was bustling, giving Sarah and Demi an opportunity to see stewardship on another of the White Mountains’ heavily visited alpine summits.
That evening, Sarah and Demi attended the Dartmouth Trails Partners Dinner, where they met and exchanged ideas with people representing different corners of the White Mountains trail community. Beyond simply being a social gathering, the dinner provided an opportunity to learn about other projects underway across the region and strengthen connections among the organizations and volunteers caring for the White Mountains trail system.
Back to Work on the Crawford Path
On Sunday, the stewards turned east again, ascending the Edmands Path to begin a two-day hitch on the Crawford Path.
Much of Sunday’s work focused on the large disturbed area near Mount Franklin that we have come to call “the beach.” This broad area of exposed ground has been a recurring focus of our Crawford Path stewardship this summer.
Sarah and Demi also replaced sections of black string fencing with the more visible and durable white string fencingrecently introduced on Franconia Ridge. On their return toward Nauman Tentsite, they maintained scree walls along the route.
Monday took them north toward Mount Eisenhower, restoring fallen cairns along the way. One of their principal objectives was to begin rebuilding the cairn on Eisenhower’s summit. But when they arrived, they discovered something unexpected: someone had already rebuilt it.
The mystery remains as to who did the work. Demi reported that the cairn appeared to be well constructed, suggesting that it may have been rebuilt by a volunteer or caretaker..
The day also provided another reminder of how many people and organizations contribute to caring for these mountains. Sarah and Demi encountered numerous AMC volunteers along the route, as well as AMC’s Craig Heinselman.
Over four days, the stewards moved through three different alpine stewardship landscapes: interacting with visitors on Franconia Ridge, working alongside a Dartmouth steward on Moosilauke, and carrying out restoration and maintenance on the Crawford Path. It was an unusually wide-ranging weekend, but one that illustrates an increasingly important part of the Alpine Stewardship Center’s work: connecting stewardship across trails, mountains, and organizations throughout the White Mountains and Northeast.
