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Franconia Ridge is one of the most exposed and fragile areas in the White Mountains,
and it's also one of the most heavily trafficked. Spectacular views across the Pemigewasset
Wilderness draw hikers up the Falling Waters Trail, Old Bridle Path, and Greenleaf Trail.
The Franconia Ridge Trail, which stretches for almost 5 miles between Mount Flume and
Mount Lafayette, bisects delicate gardens of diapensia, mountain cranberry, and alpine
bilberry.
It's one of the few places in New England that has Alpine habitat. So it is unique in
New England.
Craig Repasz is a volunteer Alpine Steward who spends time on Franconia Ridge each summer.
The Alpine Steward program, a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service, AMC, and
the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, began in 2000 and recently expanded to include the
summit of Mount Washington. Volunteer stewards spend summer weekends atop the ridge, talking
to hikers about the fragile alpine ecology and Leave No Trace principles, recording hiker
traffic, observing trail conditions, and monitoring alpine flora.
Who has been on the ridge on a weekend before? OK. Now you've probably seen somebody up there
with a uniform like this.
We are volunteers, so we do not have any authority besides being a fellow hiker with an interest
in preserving this. This is here because of people's efforts in the past to preserve it.
So that is something that people have to be reminded of.
Our focus is a lot of hiker interaction. We just want to have nice, natural conversations
with people, and point out the vulnerability of the alpine environment. And, also, very
important is to make sure that they're OK. We hike with extra food, extra water, a big
first-aid kit, and a radio because a lot of people get up here and they get in over their
heads. Really, you know, we are out here enjoying the same environment, the same resource, so
we probably have a lot more in common, and just to make sure that the uniform is not
something that gets in the way of understanding this commonality.
Throughout the weekend, Repasz stops to examine conditions on and near the trail, making notes
that he will pass along to AMC's Trail Volunteer Supervisor. Teen and adult volunteer trail
crews and trail adopters can then be dispatched to work on the most highly impacted areas.
Repasz also spends a lot of time undoing something that hikers frequently do without understanding
its consequences:
These cairns are built with large rocks in a cylinder style, with a hollow center. What
happens with these small rocks, it holds ice, so when there's wind-driven snow, freezing
rain, etc., it collects the ice and creates a frost heave and the whole cairn can collapse.
Alpine Stewards also contribute to AMC's Mountain Watch research. They observe the state of
various alpine flora within several study plots on the ridge. Their data is incorporated
into a large database that AMC's research staff uses to study climate trends and their
impact on alpine vegetation.
This is a alpine bilberry and you're not seeing any flowers right now, you're seeing a few
fruit that are green.
While Repasz examines a trail-side tuft of Bigelow's sedge, two hikers pass behind him
along a washed out, off-trail section of the ridge. They had unknowingly left the trail
and, after a short conversation with Repasz, they retrace their steps and continue their
hike toward Mount Lafayette.
You see because of hikers, because of erosion, that this area is now all washed out and there's
no alpine vegetation growing here. So this is why it's important to have scree walls
and hiker education.
Each Alpine Steward spends at least two weekends each summer on the Ridge, roaming between
Little Haystack and Mount Lafayette and spending the nights at Greenleaf Hut. For them, it's
a labor of love.
It's a phenomenal landscape up there. To be able to be a volunteer trail steward in the
trail program, it's a way of protecting something that is my home, is my house.