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Do you have a favorite place? Is it somewhere public, or is it a "private" spot? Years ago, someone told me their favorite two places were Hampton Beach, NH, and Fenway Park in Boston, both public places. At that time, they were favorites of mine too. But times have changed. Places are important to me, as I'm sure they are to you too, and there are certain criteria for even being in the running for my list of favorites. These days, first and foremost, I like a peaceful place, where I can be alone with my thoughts and nature, or maybe read a good book. The presence of a river, stream or beach on a pond or lake, and/or a long-range view can help a lot too. Last spring, I found a really neat spot, not too far from where I live, near a local trail. I found it to be extremely peaceful, and beautiful, with views to the east, through the mature, twisted and bent hardwoods along the ridge. I could tell others had spent time there, many years ago. The old field had grown into forest, and the stonewalls were half-buried, but it had that sense of being a great place, known to others long ago. A week or so ago, thanks to a migraine headache, and a good friend, I found a quieter, more remote spot that I like even more, in the foothills of the White Mountains, though it takes a bit more effort to get there. For many years, my backyard had been my favorite spot. We live on a small dirt road, off of another dirt road, and it's been a historically peaceful neighborhood. Sometimes, in the afternoon, I like to read in my backyard, by our small pond, and sometimes, I drift off to sleep. In recent years though, there has been a lot more sudden, unexpected noises. Do you remember when heavy trucks and equipment did NOT have backing-up beepers? While the traffic on the road has increased, the thing I've really been noticing is the AIR TRAFFIC. I've been noticing this increase during the last few years. It may have something to do with that funny looking thing with the fence around it down on Beaver Meadow Road. I've been told that the thing, (a transponder?), helps jets land at the Lebanon Airport, during cloudy weather. It's quite noticeable these days. It starts with a faint, high pitched sound, which quickly gets louder, until it's literally screaming, right over our heads. We are about 400 feet above the elevation of the Connecticut River, and I would guess the jets are barely a hundred feet or so above us, at times, as they descend into West Lebanon. A few weeks ago, I was enjoying some afternoon time outside, in our backyard, reading. I started to become conscious of a "wooshing" sound, like a jet was coming in from the southeast. Then the sound faded, and I forgot about it. A minute later, I started to hear that sound again, and thought, "Okay, a jet is coming....where is it, and when will it get out of here?" I looked around, didn't see a jet coming, and the sound faded again. A minute later, it came back again! I thought, okay, what's going on? The sound ebbed and flowed, cycling over and over for about ten minutes. it was strange, and disconcerting. The next day, I read that F-35 jets were practicing taking off and landing at Lebanon Airport. Hmmm....will this be happening often? I tend to notice these things because I spend most of my free time outside during the warmer months, and this summer had been extremely dry, so I was outside just about all day, every day. And, with the pandemic, I've been spending most of my time at home. I'm mentioning all this to point out how times have changed, at least in the last thirty years or so. There's just more going on, and more loud sounds being made. Period. ____ PEACE _____ This brings me back to the idea of a favorite spot; one that is inherently peaceful, by virtue of where it is, the setting involved, and what is going on around and above. Peaceful spots are out there, but they are getting harder to find, farther away, and generally more expensive. Back to my new favorite spot: I went for a hike with a friend on Thursday, October 1st. We left around 6:45 AM, and drove up into the foothills of the White Mountains, a drive that took about an hour. We were going to hike to the summit of Mt. Moosilauke, but I wasn't really sure if I was up for it, after a bout with a migraine the night before. After about fifteen minutes on the trail, my head was starting to pound, and the thought of continually hiking uphill another few thousand feet wasn't seeming like the greatest idea to me at that point. I appealed to my friend, and he and I decided to try to find something with less of an elevation change. I'm glad we changed our plan, because we ended up in a spot that was peaceful and beautiful, that I didn't know about previously. There's an old road not far from the Glencliff Home, that is now a trail, that begins along Slide Brook. I figure the stream is called Slide Brook because the stream begins at the base of one of Mount Moosilauke's ravines, where harsh weather causes rock slides. The brook is filled with large and small boulders. We headed out on the old road, which, as it turns out, has four major stream crossings. The day we headed out on the trail there had been a substantial rain storm recently, and the brook was flowing very well, making it a bit of a challenge at the crossings. At one point, there were some beautiful ledges that jutted out over the brook. That was probably a great place to wait out a downpour. Eventually we came to a very small reservoir that had been repaired since Tropical Storm Irene hit in 2011. It was a peaceful spot, with a bench at the shore, but it was not our destination. Our destination was the Beaver Ponds, which, on the map look to be the headwaters of Tunnel Brook, in the valley between Mt. Clough and Mt. Moosilauke. My friend had been there about ten years ago, and we were hoping to hike there again. As we followed the trail, and criss-crossed the brook beyond the reservoir, the trail climbed more steeply, and eventually, Slide Brook headed to the east, away from us, toward the base of Mt. Moosilauke. After about a two mile hike in, we began to get views of the majestic mountain, one of the "4000 footers" in the White Mountains; a peak with a lot of history. Here are our first glimpses of Mount Moosilauke through the trees... ...and we found the series of beaver ponds that represented the beginning of Tunnel Brook, which descended from the ponds, to the north. This was the spot we were hoping to find, but I had no idea how peaceful it would be there! It was as if there was no one, no vehicles, no air traffic, or machines within hundreds of miles. It was SO QUIET! In fact, the quiet kind of bothered me a little, as I thought there should at least be more insects and birds around. There was the occasional crow, chickadee or blue jay, but not many birds at all while we were there. At the north end of one of the ponds, we found a simple, small campsite with a stone firepit, stones for sitting, and a small beach. We found peace there. It was such a peaceful place! At the campsite we took off our day packs, and had a break for lunch. The views of the lake and the mountain were stunning, and well worth the four mile round trip hike, to experience them. As we sat there in the quiet, eating our lunch, I thought how this scene may not look all that different from how it looked here many years ago. It was probably more of a marsh before the beavers moved in, and if you go back about 400 years, there was old growth forest here, and probably more wildlife, but basically, it looks to me, as though not much has changed here in a couple hundred years. At least, there were no houses or camps to be seen, no power lines, no noise, nor any sign of human residence, other than the trail and the little campsite. Is a two mile hike into the woods, with several challenging stream crossings worth it to find a beautiful, peaceful spot for lunch? You bet it is!
Thanks for hiking down Old Roads, Rivers and Rails! New subscribers are always welcome, feel free to share articles with your friends. Comments are welcome at the end of this article. Send any correspondence, or subscription requests to: [email protected] Sources and Suggested reading: From: http://www.cowhampshireblog.com "The Strange Haunting of Mount Moosilauke" Google Earth, Mt. Moosilauke https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/ Wikimedia commons: (Open source photography)
12 Comments
Kerrie
10/25/2020 06:59:22 am
Thanks for your post. There is so much ambient noise nowadays! The dead end road I'm on has gone from 12 houses when I was a kid to 30. The traffic is constant. At the beginning of the stay at home orders it was beautifully quiet until about late June, then everything picked up again.
Reply
Bob Totz
10/25/2020 08:18:07 am
Yes, that was an amazing time, last spring! No air traffic, very little road traffic too. It was SO peaceful!
Reply
Dave Phillips
10/25/2020 07:06:10 am
Excellent! Been up Moosilauke many times but did not know about that beautiful spot. Let me know if you want to go back some time.
Reply
Bob Totz
10/25/2020 08:19:19 am
Sounds great, Dave! I'd love to go back there.
Reply
Priscilla Connolly
10/25/2020 08:53:05 am
Wonderful thoughts. I agree about the noise and the brief hiatus in the spring which was so peaceful. My kids grew up in Newbury VT where I live and we enjoyed many hikes up Blueberry mountain right near Gencliff. Our peaceful place was just shy of the summit where there is a large expanse of rocks overlooking other mountains. I am happy to know anoint the beaver ponds too!
Reply
Bob Totz
10/25/2020 09:40:26 am
Blueberry Mountain sounds like a great hike!
Reply
Priscilla Connolly
10/26/2020 06:06:27 pm
Yes!!! About the lack of interstate exit....
suzi r
10/26/2020 12:39:43 am
Thank you for your wonderful writing and much more, Bob.
Reply
Bob Totz
10/26/2020 09:33:26 am
Thanks, Suzi! Nice to hear from you, and I hope you are getting some walks in!
Reply
Aletha Campbell
10/26/2020 08:18:24 pm
Nice to read your article. The peace and quiet have a calming affect on the soul! Thank you for sharing your adventure to find a quiet spot to enjoy with your friend.
Reply
Ted Jerome
10/27/2020 01:58:06 pm
A great read, Bob--thanks! Really enjoyed it.
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AuthorI'm Bob Totz, retired VT postmaster, and historical geographer ARCHIVES:
October 2021
EXPANDED ARCHIVES: AUGUST 2021 1858 Johnson Map of North America MAY 2021 1795 - "Road Over the Mountain" - Part Two Historic Toll House For Sale 1795 - "Road Over the Mountain" Part One OCTOBER 2020 Finding That Special Peaceful Place AUGUST 2020 Kayaking on the Pompy JULY 2020 Pt. 2: What the Heck Are These Things? JUNE 2020 Bob's Bio... What the Heck Are These Things? Pt. 1 MAY 2020 Stone Walls and Spirits The View APRIL 2020 Sunny Brook Farm Relics: Pt 2. Sunny Brook Farm Relics: Pt 1. MARCH 2020 Signs of Norwich Pt. 2 COVID-19 Tracking Map Centertown and Valleyquest Signs of Norwich Pt. 1 "Imperfect Union" - Book Review Historic Centertown FEBRUARY 2020 King's Hwy Pt. 2 WRJ Museum at Post Mills Airport Chatauguay Vermont The Independent Farmer poem Traveling Along the King's Highway - Lebanon NH JANUARY 2020 Finding Parkhurst Cemetery In Search of Parkhurst Cemetery Affordable Housing The Old Stone Grill Two Rivers Trail-Kmart License and Registration, Please! Prohibition, Murder and Dr. Seuss Peace, Paris, & P.O. DECEMBER 2019 BLOGGER'S LINKS Welcome to Old Roads Love-Quail Hollow fun Dartmouth Cemetery SEPTEMBER 2019 E. Thetford Cemetery JUNE 2019
Taps: Meetinghouse Cemetery 4-Corners Borders Quest Old Iron Gate Stumbling Upon History Sunrise Walk MAY 2019 4 Corners Cemetery Strafford's Abandoned Foundations Art in Old Stonework APRIL 2019 Strafford Tpke Pt 2 Strafford Tpke Pt 1 White River Valley FEBRUARY 2019 Learning from Historic Maps of the Upper Valley Change in Lewiston VT JANUARY 2019 A Vermont Ski Waltz John Ledyard 1773 What is the Upper Valley? DECEMBER 2018 Dartmouth Green Music Video: Sometimes Music Video: Montreal Express Railway Disaster of 1887 |