- Trail:
- Highway to Heck (Essex Woods)
- Status:
- Minor Issue / Yellow
-
Issue status:
- Condition:
- Variable - some wet spots, or some dusty spots but overall good conditions
- Reporter Primary Activity:
- Mountain Bike
Description:
This trail doesn't show on any of the maps currently posted at Essex. From those maps it appears much of it is off the property.
The top half of this trail, roughly uphill from the Power Line Trail, seems abandoned. There's a large tree across it, you can carry over it, but it seems likely it has been there for a couple of years now. The trail isn't marked at all, but you can still make it out from the edge of mowed grass at the top of the hill.
The best way in is to go down the Powerline Climb a little and take one of the well-worn lefts into the woods.
The critical right turn to make it back out to Boneyard/Powerline Climb has a small marker on the tree now, I think it's a white diamond.
The top half of this trail, roughly uphill from the Power Line Trail, seems abandoned. There's a large tree across it, you can carry over it, but it seems likely it has been there for a couple of years now. The trail isn't marked at all, but you can still make it out from the edge of mowed grass at the top of the hill.
The best way in is to go down the Powerline Climb a little and take one of the well-worn lefts into the woods.
The critical right turn to make it back out to Boneyard/Powerline Climb has a small marker on the tree now, I think it's a white diamond.
Previous Reports
6 Comments
- + 1
schlockinz
Jun 26, 2021 at 11:01
That is someone else’s land I can talk offline about that, at least the upper part before the cut in on power line. The bottom half is where it gets tricky and all the old blow downs are. That all is still city land, at least looking at the gis maps. If you walk up from the bottom of power line and go across the bridge you can find the real trail. I ride there a lot, more than I put up here and I frequently end up on the wrong trail until I’ve ridden it a few times in a row
- + 1
For the above report, that is the wrong trail, many old trails in the region there and it is quite confusing. If you hit the old blow downs, you are on an old parallel trail
- + 1
In all of your ride logs you're going into the trail halfway down, as mapped, below the Power Line Trail. This why I say the top half of the trail is abandoned.
- + 1
@btmspox: I put up a video of the areas and dropped some logs on the old abandoned trails at the bottom. From experience someone will remove these
The landowner is building up top and he owns the top portion of the trail and some of the bottom. I have stopped riding the top portion due to that and haven't done any maintenance there for a while.
The landowner is building up top and he owns the top portion of the trail and some of the bottom. I have stopped riding the top portion due to that and haven't done any maintenance there for a while.
- + 1
@schlockinz: That makes sense, I do remember seeing a painted property line near there.
Last week I found someone under the power lines searching for the entrance based on what trailforks showed as the trail, so we should get that fixed. Do you have a GPS log of the portion of the trail that is active? We can submit it as a replacement on trailforks. Or I can find a ride and edit it.
Because it isn't on the Essex Woods map, I guess they're not going to put a sign up, so maybe we should stick a "shingle" up on the tree at the entrance that you maintain?
www.bangorparksandrec.com/documents/essex_woods_map.pdf
Last week I found someone under the power lines searching for the entrance based on what trailforks showed as the trail, so we should get that fixed. Do you have a GPS log of the portion of the trail that is active? We can submit it as a replacement on trailforks. Or I can find a ride and edit it.
Because it isn't on the Essex Woods map, I guess they're not going to put a sign up, so maybe we should stick a "shingle" up on the tree at the entrance that you maintain?
www.bangorparksandrec.com/documents/essex_woods_map.pdf
