| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
None, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Highwater Trail, Shelburne Trail, Black Angel Trail, Basin Trail, road walk |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Thursday, September 11, 2025 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Wild River Road is closed for repairs, but the lot for Highwater Trail is before the gate. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Very low water. Wild River crossings without getting my feet wet, although on one of the "new loops of the river" I managed to slip off a rock and soak both feet! |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
This post is mostly for people who are redlining the WMG - specifically some unmarked reroutes on Highwater and the ford on Shelburne.
The first thing of note is where the "new loop of the river" comes in, where you cross it twice. There is a rough, flagged bypass around that. I walked it (in case it ever is turned into a reroute, I'll have it covered), then went out and back on the main trail. Just a thought for anyone with future editions of the White Mountain Guide in mind, "in case." We all hate having to go back and get something several miles in on a trail we've already done!
Leaving Highwater to take the Shelburne Trail across the river to the road you run into a labyrinth of flood debris that obscures the trail. I spent over an hour trying to figure this out - being a purist! Went across the river and tried from the road end - same problem. Finally I found it from that direction. Here is how it works: coming from the road, you get to the river, then go along the bank to the right (no actual "reroute" - just know you have to follow the bank and don't worry if you are on the trail proper because there isn't one) until you get to where there are rocks crossing the open channel. Go across on those, then back along the stony outwash as the book says. The trail goes into the woods right where the sandy part is. Coming out of the woods, you go along the dry stony bed as the book says, and in 20 yards (how to estimate that?) there are several rocky gullies that go up to the right. I tried all of them because I couldn't tell which it was. This will bring you to a pile of flood debris that makes you think you did it wrong. But you didn't. Just plow over/through the flood debris to the right, and lo and behold, after a short distance, if you look ahead you'll see a sign on a tree with an arrow pointing left. Follow that arrow (which gets you out of the flood debris) and you'll cross more rocky stream bed, and there will be another arrow on a tree up on your right. At the far side of the last stream bed is the woods; the trail climbs a washed out bank a little to the left, and then straight to Highwater from there.
Coming the other way - off Highwater, follow the trail until it ends at the washed out bank, cross the rocky stream bed to an arrow on the tree pointing right. Follow that, and you'll run smack up against a big pile of flood debris and you'll think you can't find the trail. Since I didn't successfully do it from this direction I'm not sure, but I think if you follow the first arrow on the tree it should bring you to the second arrow on a tree if you are looking for it - they aren't that far apart - and the second arrow will be just above a pile of flood debris, and if you really want to follow the trail, you can wade to the right over/through that pile of debris a little ways until you see some of those rocky gullies going down to the left; the rocky gullies will take you to a stony bed where you turn left, go a little ways, then head off into the woods on the right. Or, if you don't care about the trail, just find your quickest way over or around the debris, follow one of the rocky gullies ahead, and turn left into the rocky bed and then across it and on into the woods.
If you really don't care about the proper Shelburne trail at all, but you are coming down Shelburne and just want to get to the road, it is also easy to go right on Highwater, across Bull Brook (the trail goes straight through the debris there with pink flagging; no detour required), until the trail comes to the bank of Wild River in about a quarter mile. If the river is dry you can cross it, then it is a short stretch of open woods - head southeast to the road and head left on the road to the Shelburne trailhead. Or if you want to get back onto Shelburne trail before crossing (if the water is higher), once you get to the river bank, just go left along the bank until you come to the stretch of rocky/sandy outwash where you can see the old exit point straight across the river. From there you can follow the directions in the guide about heading left along the stretch of outwash until you come to where the rocks allow you to cross.
That's for the Shelburne ford. Highwater trail itself really only had a couple sections that required thought. On the rerouted section along the steep side slope between the Shelburne and Moriah Brook junctions, there is pink flagging that shows you where to go, but towards the end of that section, the pink flagging disappears (the last two flags are one up high on an overhanging branch, and then another high up on a small tree), you are on a very steep side slope with a really high drop-off washed out bank not far below, and you have to decide where the trail goes. If you don't care about following the trail exactly, you can just figure out where you want to go and eventually you'll get there, but if you want to know where the trail goes, it doesn't go up, nor straight across, it starts to angle down. You can see a bit of slightly more worn ground here. Don't go down to the very edge of the bank, but angle down, and when you come to the part where there is some grass ahead, or you could go a little further down and get close to the edge, go for the grass. If you keep going that way, you'll soon see where the area is more trodden down and you'll know you're on the right track and in a little way it will bring you down back onto the original trail location past the washout.
The second part where you might not know exactly where Highwater trail goes is when it coincides with Moriah Brook trail. As soon as the two trails join, they follow very close to the edge of another high washout. There isn't much trail to speak of here, and no markings, so just forge ahead along the bank and you'll come, very obviously, to an opening with the Wilderness sign. A little while past that, there is another stretch where it follows VERY close to the bank - right on it, seemingly, with loose rocks (I sent one tumbling to the depths) and trees starting to loosen their grip off the rocks and tip over the edge. You walk along that carefully for a short way and then scramble up some loose-ish dirt and rocks which gets you up away from the bank. Maybe there is a better way than that, but backtracking and trying again seemed to indicate that this was where the trail goes. Probably a reroute higher up the bank will be necessary in the future, for safety and erosion purposes. |
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 | Name: |
Umsaskis |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2025-09-12 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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