Powwow Hike
by takk
BWAC is doing a great job and putting in tons of hours to put hands on the trail. But its important to recognize that the trail is now in a young regenerating forest and any open area with a lot of sun (aka, the trail) is going to be covered in aggressive vegetation. You'll be on lots of very nice old logging roads but the hand cut trails are always going to struggle with vegetation covering the walkway. I noticed that my speed was about half on the trails compared to the old roads. On the cut trails, there is a lot of blue flagging and many stone cairns to use as route markers, but these can still be obscured. If you're lucky you might also see some blue diamond blazes on the fire-killed trees.
More trail campsites seem to be fully set up with fire grates and latrines than the BWAC conditions report on their website makes clear. They've done a great job installing these things. Do not expect many tent pads suitable for larger tents or trekking pole tents. There are few places suitable for hammocks.
Beavers have been active and there is now a flooded section near to Pose Creek. It got surprisingly deep.
Be careful when crossing things that look like beaver dams. When you're on the logging roads they were basically building earthen dams to a low ford where they piled trees up parallel to the flow to act as a ford, built simple bridges or culverts that they later removed. Whichever, beavers often took the opportunity and closed off these narrow points. Where the fords used to be, however, there can be some very large leftover rebar spikes sticking out of the ground and water and deep water channels. Be cautious when crossing.