Nelson County Rocks

This post will mix reminiscences about three traverse attempts across the Presidential Range of New Hampshire’s White Mountains: a winter traverse with the Harvard Mountaineering Club way back in January 1963; a planned June 2007 traverse with five family members which an ill-timed accident prevented me from participating in; and the backpacking trip last week with my two sons Nic and Tim and their wives Alison and Megan.  Each of these trips was interrupted by Mt. Washington’s famously bad weather, but with my climb over Mt. Pierce and up Mt. Madison with Nic (pictured above with Mt. Adams in the background), I finally completed the ascent of all the “president” Presidentials.

Origins

It seems almost insane in retrospect, but as a Harvard freshman with some hiking but no real mountaineering experience, I participated in what was then a Harvard Mountaineering Club (HMC) tradition: a winter traverse of the Presidential range at the end of January, in the break between semesters.  My memories are a bit hazy, but I know that we hiked up to a cabin quite high on the side of Mt. Adams on the first day, and then continued, with snowshoes and crampons, the next day over the summits of Adams, Jefferson and Clay to the side of Mt. Washington, where we pitched tents outside the (boarded up) Lake of the Clouds AMC hut.  I believe that we hiked up late that afternoon to the weather observatory on the summit of Mt. Washington, where the meteorologists, unused to visitors that time of year, invited us in for a short visit.  It was a cold night back in our tents!  The next day we continued on over the various summits to what was then called Mt. Pleasant (later renamed Mt. Eisenhower).  Here we ran into a ferocious snow storm with very high winds, and we were literally blown off the mountain, making an unplanned descent of its eastern side.  My main memory of that descent is crossing a field of young conifers on my snowshoes, and falling through the snow into the air pockets created by branches under the snow, getting the snowshoes tangled up in the branches.  But somehow we made it through and out.

The 2007 Expedition

As noted above, I did not get to go on the 2007 hike, but it too was interrupted by bad weather.  Having climbed the Mt. Webster-Jackson trail out of Crawford Notch, going over Mts. Webster and Jackson and staying at Mizpah Hut the first night, the group (Cally, Sylvia, Nic, Alison and Justin, along with Lee Spiller who took the picture above) had beautiful weather for the stretch along the AT onward to Lake of the Clouds Hut.  But the next day (in June!) brought freezing temperatures, snow and sleet, and a decision was made to come down the trail that ends up at the cog railway station, not risking the very exposed route over the northern Presidentials to the Madison Spring Hut.

click here for a YouTube video of their second day

2012: A Detour and a Completion

This past week, our party of five followed the Crawford Path from Crawford Notch up to Mizpah Spring Hut and the AT, where we spent our first night.  The next day, which started in the fog but cleared up nicely, we continued over Mts. Pierce, Eisenhower and Monroe and then on to  Lake of the Clouds Hut, where we spent the night.  Since Alison has led tours at President Monroe’s home, Ashlawn, climbing Mt. Monroe (5372′) was a special moment, and she was pleased that Mt. Monroe, with its two peaks, compares very well to the other southern Presidentials.

The next morning we hiked up to the summit of Mt. Washington, the highest mountain (6288′) in the U.S. northeast.  The weather worsened at the summit, however, and after waiting two hours to see if it would get better (it didn’t), we reluctantly arranged to take a van down to our car at Pinkham Notch.  We then drove around to the Valley Trail up to Madison Spring Hut (seeing a mother moose and her calf along the way).  Coming on top of our climb up Mt. Washington in the morning, the hike up the Valley Trail proved to be an exhausting one (with a 3500 feet elevation increase), but we all made it while dinner at the hut was still in progress.  In the morning, Nic and I climbed Mt. Madison, which along with Mt. Pierce, belatedly completed for me the Presidentials that the Harvard Mountaineering Club traverse had not covered.  The weather partly cleared at the top, giving us beautiful views of the clouds below and the summit of nearby Mt. Adams.  We all hiked out later in the afternoon and headed to my sister Eleanor’s place in the Catskills.  Overall, a great trip, and my thanks to Nic and Tim for conceiving and organizing it.

click here for more pictures of the 2012 trip

click here to learn more about the AMC huts

   

 

Over Memorial Day weekend, Monika and I got to see all our kids and their respective wives and families in a single circuit from home, starting with the arrival on Friday of Nic and Alison along with two friends to take care of our chickens.  Early Saturday we drove to Tim and Megan in Maryland, then on to Dan and Gina in New Jersey.  Sunday we continued on to Dave and Sue and Paityn and Cody in upstate Pennsylvania, and then to John and Calista and Cally and Sylvia in the Washington area.  Traffic miraculously was not bad at all, and we got to see the new homes of Tim and Megan and of Dan and Gina.  It took 815 miles to see the family, with great visiting, catching up, celebrating (Tim and Megan’s official Ph.D’s, Sylvia’s track triumphs, Alison’s job renewal, and more) and, of course, eating along the way.  Back home, Nic and Alison did a great job of chicken-sitting (pictures courtesy of their Facebook posting):

  

Click here for family pictures  along the way (with particular focus on the two newest family members, Paityn and Cody)

After three and one-half weeks without a drop of rain from late March to mid-April, spring rains finally came, much to everyone’s relief.  (While not all Nelson County folks are directly engaged in agriculture, all understand the importance of rain.)  The following weekend we had a delightful visit from my cousin Fred Brack, whom I hadn’t seen in 30 or so years, his wife Kathy, and Kathy’s seeing-eye dog, Wilda.  Our next get-together will happen sooner.  Below: Fred, Kathy and Wilda at Crabtree Falls, and with Monika at a local winery.

  

Due to the mild winter and warm spring, flowers continue to bloom several weeks earlier than normal.  Especially striking this spring have been the roses Monika planted two years ago in front and back of our house, and the three different clematis which were already in the front when we bought the place.  Monika’s inspiration also led us to reconfigure the pond area in the back with two little “zen” rock gardens.

  

Despite the dry spell which slowed things down for a while, we’re reaping the benefits of early spring plantings: lettuce, chard, spinach and turnips are ready to eat, and snap peas are now a good three feet up their trellis and blooming.  And we have plenty of basil, chives, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, and thyme.  Potato plants are ready for hilling.  I put out a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes, which I’d started under grow lights in March, in the last week of April.  Still planting various types of beans, squash and, for the first time: peanuts! (a mild addiction of mine)

   

click here for more flower and veggie garden pictures

Our various projects have kept us pretty busy around our home, but I did bike the rails-to-trails route along the Piney and Tye Rivers, which has recently been extended, making for a 14 mile round trip.  A lovely path, with lots of spring wildflowers in bloom.

  

  

 

 

It’s impressive and heartening how many Nelson County residents have vegetable gardens, although it is striking to me how few plant spring vegetables.  Apart from summer tomatoes, snap and snow peas are probably my favorite veggie to grow and eat; I planted several trellis’ worth in the first week of March, and we should be munching on them by mid-May.  Lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, and turnips, also planted from seed, are all coming along, as well as cilantro, parsley, collards, and kohlrabi, which I started under grow lights in February and transplanted into the garden a week ago.  The biggest job was planting 20 pounds of seed potatoes (we just ate our last potato from last year’s harvest this past week).  This year’s varieties are: Satina, Carola, Yukon Gold, and Kennebec.

After our mild winter, we’ve had an unusually warm early spring.  Daffodils started blooming in the first week in February, and many trees and shrubs have begun flowering several weeks earlier than normal.  This is always a beautiful time of year, with our forsythia, weeping cherry, crabapple, serviceberries, and dogwoods bursting with color.  And our apple trees (a retirement gift from my department at Rutgers) have apple blossoms for the first time.

Our chickens continue to keep us well-stocked with eggs, and three frogs have taken up residence in our little backyard pond.  Five-lined skinks are all around, and bluebirds and chickadees appear to be setting up shop in our bird houses.  Our local pileated woodpeckers continue to make periodic appearances. Monika and I have been undertaking several major projects in the back, most notably so far a rock and pebble path out to the kennel and chicken coop.

Long-time friends from Vermont, Jan and Harris, visited us in the third week of March, followed by a delightful family gathering with Eleanor, Justin, Katherine, Nic, and Alison.  With beautiful weather almost every day, our early spring has been lovely, although most everyone around here is concerned about the relative lack of rainfall.

See more pictures here

  
Moni and our Christmas tree at home

Nic and Alison stopped by on their way north before Christmas, and we had dinner at the recently-opened restaurant of the Wild Wolf Brewery, which, while having the best food of the three Nelson County breweries, didn’t quite meet expectations.  Still, we had a good time (and the beer remains great) and we plan to go back when the beer garden opens up in warmer weather.  Tim and Megan also stopped by on their way back from Lynchburg after Christmas.

 

In between, Monika and I drove up to John and family in Maryland, crossing the Potomac via White’s Ferry, and spending a delightful Christmas Eve and Christmas with John, Calista, Cally, Sylvia and Hazel (dog).  While we went lightly on presents, they thoughtfully gave us a dehydrator, which we’ve already put to work drying apple slices, with delicious results.  More dehydrating reports sure to follow.

click here for more pictures of Christmas in Maryland

“Blessed” is very much part of Southern vocabulary–sometimes with an explicit religious connotation but otherwise simply constituting a recognition of the many things we cannot take personal credit for but that enrich our lives deeply: the extraordinary beauty of our surroundings in Nelson County, the expanding web of friendship we’ve become part of, the  local knowledge and resourcefulness we’ve benefited from, and much more.  And at Thanksgiving this year, we felt blessed not only to have Nic and Alison, Tim and Megan, and my sister Eleanor with us, but be able to share in their impressively interesting and productive lives.

More of a surprise was the bonding that went on between Eleanor and our chickens, whom she was “meeting” for the first time.  Eleanor became the main egg collector, snack provider, and even poopy cleaner-upper for the time she was here, and she shared in the pleasure we take from simply sitting in the chairs alongside the outer pen and watching the antics and machinations of our flock of fourteen hens.

Our Thanksgiving turkey was an organically-raised and free range Midget White from Tall Cotton Farm (not that midget at twenty pounds), a breed we were surprised to learn has not only been rated as the best-tasting turkey by Mother Earth Magazine but was developed by a plant geneticist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, from which Tim and Megan just received their Ph.D.’s in Computer Science.  We were joined at dinner by two local friends, Mikel and Linda, and it was a lovely time.  Later on, we introduced the kids to Recipe, a card game we’d learned down here from our (93 year-old!) friend and neighbor, Virginia Page, whom we also feel blessed to know.

click here for more Thanksgiving pictures

Early August through Labor Day was busy with a steady flow of visitors (family, friends, former students)–and a trip north for a wedding.  Guests provide a great excuse to share the things we love here–the Blue Ridge Parkway, the AT suspension bridge, Crabtree Falls, The Plunge, local breweries, garden-fresh food, our chickens, and much more.  Some fond picture memories may be accessed below.

Late Summer Scrapbook

While Hurricane Irene wreaked a lot of havoc along the Virginia coast this past Saturday, we were only mildly affected in Nelson County.  By evening the off-and-on rain showers and winds were gone, and Sunday was a beautiful day.  Nic and I headed off for a 5.5 mile hike in neighboring Amherst County, where we follwed the Henry Lanum loop trail up to the two peaks of Mount Pleasant, and then on over Pompey mountain.  Thanks to the spector of Irene, we had the trail and the summits mostly to ourselves.  The views from the east and west (windy!) summits of Mt. Pleasant are among the most spectacular in the region.  Above: fortunately this tree that Irene’s winds had blown down across the forest service road left enough space for us to get past.

click here for more pictures

About 45 miles of the Appalachian Trail lie within or around the border of Nelson County,  and I’ve resolved to hike them this summer.

My son Nic, grand-daughter Cally, nephew from Germany Felix, and I  did the first stretch of the AT in Nelson County, starting at Salt Log Gap in the George Washington National Forest (about 3 miles south of the Nelson border) and ending at Route 56 (Crabtree Falls Highway) about 18 miles to the north.  It is a relatively easy stretch that goes through varied woodlands, passing interesting rock formations, including Spy Rock, which offers a 360 degree panorama view which is one of the most spectacular along the Virginia Blue Ridge.  We camped at its base and then continued on the next day over Maintop Mountain and then The Priest, the highest mountain in the region.  While wooded at the top, The Priest has fine rocky viewpoints below the summit on both sides.  Depending on elevation, the forests were abloom in Flaming Azalea, Mountain Laurel, and Rhododendron, and many wildflowers (including two of my favorites, Fire Pink and Yellow Lady Slippers) graced the sides of the trail.    At the end of the overnight hike, across Route 56, Nic, Cally and Felix  cooled off in the Tye River by the AT suspension bridge which marks the beginning of the climb up Three Ridges Mountain, the next trip.

click here for more pictures

We had a lovely (white!) Christmas with Nic and Alison and Tim and Megan.   Culinary highlights included cookies galore (mainly made by Nic and Alison, who also brought a delicious homemade apple cake) and a beef brisket bought at the Nellysford Farmers Market and cooked as prescribed by Julia Child.  Oh yes, and a large “growler” of smoked scottish ale from the recently-opened Wild Wolf Brewery.  Outings included a hike up a snowpacked road to feed the cat of a dear friend.  Further family pictures may be accessed here.