4-21-13 More On Path Building by the Appalachian Mountain Club between 1860 and 1920

The following is included because it's reliable trail history from Frank H. Burt that, in most cases or comparisons, corroborates the trail history I've compiled and recently published in several recent articles under the heading The Pemi Traverse.  I'm including these odds and ends because they're accurate, they provide a really valuable chronology, and they're brief. Some of the information will be redundant but I'm including it for the sake of reliability. Writing history can be challenging because it requires reading many sources and ferreting out discrepancies.  I want to provide readers with what is most reliable, most accurate. If reading history bores you I will not complain if you skip these sections.

Frank H. Burt was a prolific writer. He spent many years in the White Mountains and witnessed a lot of history being made. He wrote: "It was my good fortune in the early days of the Club to meet many active Appalachians, both on Mt. Washington and at field meetings in different parts of the mountains and it was an interesting part of my duties to report in Among the Clouds their path work and exploration." (Appalachia XIV, p. 47)



In 1901 Frank H. Burt became the editor of Among The Clouds, the newspaper printed on the summit of Mt. Washington since the summer of 1877 when and where it was founded by his father, Henry Burt. Frank continued printing the paper until the summer of 1908 when a massive fire destroyed most of the buildings on the summit including the Among the Clouds newspaper office.

Frank, by 1908, had become a fixture in the mountains and as a newspaper owner and editor he was a storehouse of stories and information. Many times during his life, he died in 1946, he was on hand at important Appalachian Mountain Club events to entertain guests with little known stories about the White Mountains. He had a good memory. The following narrative begins with a prepared speech he gave at an AMC meeting that he titled, "The White Mountains 40 Years Ago" meaning the period from 1870 when he made his first visit to the mountains with his father and up into the 20th century.

His 1870 visit was brief, he told the guests. He was only 10 years old and his memory contained only snapshots of things that appealed to a 10 year old boy, certainly a few of the huge, new hotels. For instance, he and his father stayed their first night at the Profile House in Franconia Notch which sprawled across several acres and was several stories high. They then traveled by a six-horse-team Concord Coach to the Crawford House, a trip, he reported, that took 5 hours, or half a day. In transit they went past the brand new Twin Mountain House, completed in 1869, and the newest version of the White Mountain House still under construction. The original White Mountain House, once owned owned by Horace Fabyan, had burned to the ground in1853. By 1870 the Cog Railway up Mt. Washington was complete and quickly gaining deserved fame. The Cog Railway was the primary reason Henry and Frank were visiting. In 1870, at the time of their first visit, a connecting rail line from Fabyans to the Cog base station didn't yet exist. By 1870 the tracks of the Boston, Concord and Montreal Rail Road (B.C.M.R.R.) reached Fabyans from Boston via Littleton, NH. The lack of a connecting line from the Cog to the main road had been a major problem in constructing the Cog Railway because all of the lumber, machinery and rolling stock for the Cog Railway had to be transported to the site of the base station on huge sleds pulled by long trains of oxen! It was also a problem for Henry Burt because he wanted to move an entire newspaper business to the summit that included the heavy presses.

In 1875 the Portland and Ogdensburg Rail Road finally completed a main line up through Crawford Notch that joined with the B.C.M. at Fabyans, and, the following year, the B.C.M. extended its tracks to just below the Cog Railway Base Station at Marshfield, and the tracks for the Cog were extended down to meet the B.C.M. tracks. It became possible to get on a train in New York, Boston, Montreal, Portland, Springfield or Worcester and, with an easy car change at Marshfield to hop on the Cog Railway and be puffing your way to the summit of Mt. Washington

Frank Burt's second visit to the White Mountains came in 1877, the year after the AMC was founded.  This time he and his father traveled royally on the White Mountain Express from their home in Springfield, MA, where they began their trip at 12 noon and arrived at Fabyans in 5 hours arriving there in time for supper! (I wish the White Mountain Express was still running.) It was quite a change from 1870! With them was all the printing equipment to set up tAmong the Clouds on the summit where it would be printed every day for 31 years, but only during the summer.

 Staff of Among the Clouds at Marshfield. Frank H. Burt is third from the left.

That first night at Fabyans the AMC was holding its fourth "Field Meeting" which were basically planning sessions for the nascent mountain club. Frank sat a table with J. Rayner Edmands and E. C. Pickering, the Club's new President. A few days later Among the Clouds was up and running on the summit and the front page story was about the AMC's field meeting at Fabyans. From that date the AMC, the entire region, had its own historian.

The caption for this photo read "Slideboarding Among the Clouds to Beat The City Dailies".The slideboards were popular but dangerous "sleds" built to descend the tracks at blinding speeds.

In his "The AMC Forty Years Ago" talk Frank reeled off everything he'd noticed in from 1870 that was of historical importance regarding trails and exploration. After briefly noting the 1870 trip he continued, "by 1877 the Glen Path, Crawford Path and Davis Path were wholly forgotten, there were no trails on the northern peaks. I never saw even traces of the Gordon Path of 1860. Lowe's Path opened in 1876-1877, and, although there were trampers using it (Lowe's Path), we went a whole week in the summer of 1880 without seeing a single tramper that came up to the summit by way of the Northern Peaks. Vestiges of the Fabyan Path could be seen low on the mountain near the Cog base station at Marshfield. Traces of it could be found in 1907and 1915, maybe 3/4 of a mile in length. (This writer, in 2010 and 2011, found traces of the Fabyan Path in the form of switchbacks located at timberline and close to the Cog tracks.)

"Fishing parties, chiefly, were exploring the Great Gulf, occasionally brought up the Gulf by Ben Osgood from the Glen House, or he would bring them over the northern peaks.

"Major Raymond blazed the Raymond Path in 1860 but it was overgrown by 1870 and impassable. Not until 1879 was it opened to the foot of the Tuckerman Headwall.

"Pathless peaks in 1877 included the following: The Carters. Moat, Wildcat, Baldface-Eastman Range, Twin Mountain Range, Kinsmans, Garfield, Jackson, Webster,  Willey, Carrigain, Lowell, Anderson, and Osceola. Permanent Camps were unknown. Hermit Lake Camp built by Dr. W. B Parker of the AMC was one of first. Hermit Lake was then called Glen Lake.

"Dr. W. G. Nowell was the first Councillor [sic] of improvements (trails) and in 1877 reported progress on a path up Mt. Lowell and the beginning of the Carter Notch Path. The same year Dr. W. B. Parker made the Moat Path assisted by William L. and Charles P. Worcester. 1878 a path up Mt. Willey by Charles Lowe who also worked on a path up "Middle Mountain" (Middle Moat?) in North Conway. The 1878 Field Meetings were held at Fabyans and in North Conway. At the meeting Charles Fay began raising money for a path (The American Institute of Instruction Path) from Livermore to Waterville and up Carrigain. Parties from both the field meetings ascended Moat, Willey, and Carrigain.

"Dr. W. B. Parker was Councillor [sic] of Improvements. He reported the completion of the Carter Dome Path by Jonathan G. Davies, the Livermore-Waterville-Carrigain Paths, and a path to Crystal Cascades and Tuckerman Ravine from Pinkham Notch. Guests staying at Greeley's Inn in Waterville Valley cut a trail up Mt. Osceola. Field meetings in 1879 were held at Crawford, Waterville and Intervale.

"A. E. Scott was Councillor of Improvements in 1880-1882 and the field meetings were held in Plymouth, Fabyans and Jackson. At the Jackson meeting in 1881 it was announced that Ben Osgood had opened a trail in the Great Gulf from the Glen House to the Summit. J. Rayner Edmands was attending the Jackson meeting and he organized a party that tramped from Jackson through Carter Notch to the Glen House and up the new Great Gulf trail to the Summit.

"At the 1882 Field Meeting in Jefferson it was announced that the Watson Path had been completed by Laban Watson to the summit of Mt. Madison. In 1882 Dr. W. B. Parker was again Councillor of Improvements and announced the opening of a path over the Twin Mountain Range in conjunction with the new Twin Mountain House (1869). The new path was dedicated at June field meeting at the Twin Mountain House after which a large party of 30-40 club members went up North Twin and camped at a "New Camp" made by Charles Lowe on the 'slope of North Twin' and they tramped the next day over the entire range, camping that night at Bear Brook at the base of Mt. Bond. The next morning a dozen members of this party including several women plunged boldly into the Wilderness,  and came out at Willey House after nearly a week in the forest." (White Mountains 40 Years Ago, by Frank H. Burt, Vol. XIV, Appalachia, p 37).

This next section covers the AMC trails in the Great Gulf that were cut during Warren Harts' tenure as Councillor of Improvements in 1908-1910. There are, in Appalachia, hundreds of accounts that are worth bringing forward to the present and it's difficult to chose which have the most value. The following are some of my favorites.

Report of the Councillors for the Autumn of 1908

Improvements

by Warren W. Hart

"New Paths: May 29-30 a trail was cut about the larger Carter Lake by George N.. Whipple and the Councillor.

"June 24-27 a path was constructed from Star Lake to the summit of Mt. Adams. [Ed: The Star Lake Trail on your maps]. This trail will enable visitors at the Madison Hut who ascend Mt. Adams via head-wall of King's Ravine to return on the easterly side of J. Q. Adams via Star Lake. The advantages of the Gulfside Trail for commencing the ascent are obvious, while the return by the new trail will be more sheltered from northerly and westerly winds. The view of Madiosn Ravine are wild and the midsummer cloud shadows on Osgood Ridge are very interesting during the descent by this route. The path was the result of a Club party (consisting of Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Larrabee, Miss Gertrude Newhall, Elbridge K. Newhall, and Horation Newhall, Jr.) with who the Councillors spent several very pleasant days at the Madison Hut. We were aided also, by Willis O. Evans, and Chester and Herbert Heath.

"September 13-18 a trail was constructed through the Great Gulf, the most important work of the year. The party consisted of George N. Whipple, Ralph C. Larrabee, Lawrence Strong, and the Councillor, spent the night of September 12 at the edge of the Gulf, on the north bank of the West Branch. On the morning of the 13th, disregarding superstition, we commenced work at the Osgood Path, nearly two miles from the Glen, and by nightfall had blazed a way to the crest of a bluff, ear the junction of the Madison Brook and the West Branch [Ed: West Branch refers to the West Branch of the Peabody River on your maps] which affords a remarkable view of Mt. Washington and the Northern Peaks. We named it the 'Proscenium', because the semicircular wall of mountains from this point at evening , seem but a few hundred yards distant. This view is destined to become famous. That evening we were joined by Chester and Leon Heath, two of the most efficient men employed by this department.

"On the following day we blazed our way across Madison Brook and entered a wide logging road on the north bank of the West Branch. We utilized this through all its diminishing stages until we reached its very beginning, a point where logging in the Great Gulf ceased many years since. At nightfall we left our path and tramped on to an excellent camping-place, a short distance below the junction of the Jeffferson Brook with the West Branch. Here we spent our third night in the open.

"On the 15th Dr. Strong was summoned by telegram to leave for Boston, thus reducing our party to five. We returned to the point where we had left our work of the day before, and blazed a trail through a delightful forest of virgin spruce and for the first time since leaving the Osgood Path cross the West Branch. At the point of crossing we discovered the old blazes marking the trail cut by B. F. Osgood in 1881, and now completely overgrown. We succeded in following these blazes, and druing the day completed our path as far as Jefferson Brook.

"On the following day Dr. Larrabee and Mr. Whipple ascended the precipitous side of Mt. Jefferson on an exploring trip, while we continue our path work through a extensive blow-down and past a high waterfall. A short distance farther on we reached the most beautiful waterfall in the Gulf, which we name 'Weetamoo Falls'.

"We were joined at nightfall by Messrs. Whipple and Larrabee, who reported that from the heights the Gulf appeared interminable, and that it seemed doubtful if we could complete our trail. They did not know, however, that in their absence we had advanced the path nearly one and on half miles. On the following morning we were fortunate in finding many good leads through the underbrush. It was our fifth day of toil, and we could devote only another half day to the work. Under the circumstances we were somewhat surprised and altogether pleased when, at 4 p.m., we reached a slight eminence and saw but a few hudred yards distant the beautiful, isolated Spaulding Lake. Here we passed our sixth night in the open.

"On the morning of the 18th we cut a trail about the lake, completed the main path to the head-wall of the Gulf, and there constructed a line of temporary cairns , completing the trail shortly after noon.

"In 1909 we hope to indicate, in an unmistakable manner, the point where the path joins the Gulfside Trail, a short distance below the summit of Mt. Washington; to build a line of permanent carirns on the head-wall; to construct a bark camp in the Gulf; and to cut a trail from the West Branch up the difficult wall of Mt. Jefferson, past the spot where the great drift of snow clings far into the summer, and into the Gulfside Trail [Ed: what would become the delightful Six Husbands Trail].

Report of the Councillors for the Year 1909

Improvements

By Warren W. Hart

"During the season of 1909, the Department received, in it field work, the vigorous and efficient aid of twenty Appalachians, coming from six different states. New trails were constructed, extending our path posessions several miles, while independent path-builders did excellent work. Our expenditures were  $487.26, although the report of the Treasurer will show a slightly higher sum, as certain bills for the preceding year were not presented in time to be included in the acounts for the year 1909.

"Great Gulf Camp. Late in June Alexander Wilson, Harry  W. Pinkerton, and F. L, Steele, Jr., joined me on a working-trip in the Great Fulf. At Gorham we hired Delmont L. Heath, Willis O. Evans, and John B. Sanborn. We arrived on teh 27th and found that Dr. Ralph C. Larrabee and George L. Howard, who had preceded us by a day, has selected an admirable site for a permanent camp.

"On the 28th we commenced work on the new camp and completed it July 1. It is 10 X 16 feet; it is situated on the south bank of the West Branch, within a few feet of the trail; is about five miles from the Glen House and three from the summit of Mt. Washington; and will accommodate eight or ten persons. A small brook which flows near by furnishes excellent drinking water, while the West Branch is within a stone's throw. The location being protected by forests, we ventured to make the frame of the camp high enough for any one to stand erect at the front. It was constructed eight feet from the boulder, which serves as a fire shield, in order to avoid the smoke nuisance; and as well-equipped campers in the Gulf seldom have occasion to build a fire except for cooking purposes, it may discourage the keeping of a fire burning through the night. When the party is asleep, a fire is sometimes dangerous and, as a rule, is a waste of fuel. Many campers fail to see the objection to burning slash and deadfalls, but when this fuel is gone wood must be brought from a distance or the standing trees will be cut and the beauty of the camp site ruined, as in the case of hermit Lake Camp and Carter Notch Camp.

"Six Husbands Trail: On the 28th of June, 1908, Elbridge K. Newhall, Horatio Newhall, Jr, and myself, left the Gulfside Trail, went down the easterly slopes of Mt. Jefferson, over the great drift of snow, to the tip of the Knee and then down the sky-line of the ridge, into the Jefferson Ravine. We were so impressed with the scenery of this region that we began, immediately, to plan new trails for the benefit of the public. On the following day we chanced to meet Dr. P. M. Dawson, a summer resident of Randolph, and he suggested, without knowing of our journey of the previous day, that the Club construct a path from the Gulfside Trail to the tip of the Knee.

"On the 28th of June 1909, precisely one year after the earlier journey, I went over the same course in company with Dr. Ralph C. Larrabee, Alexander Wilson, and F. L. Steele, Jr. The sun was blazing down upon the peaks, but we ound the great drift eight hundered feet wide and three hundred feet long. It may be of interest to state that this drift had not entirely disappeared on July 27. We found that Dr. Dawson had done some path work between the Gulfside Trail and the tip of the Knee. Dr. Larrabee and myself spent considerable time in looking for a suitable course for the trail, and on June 29, with the aid of Mr. Wilson, the course was lined out for a half mile from the Great Gulf Trail, cross the West Branch and continuing through a charming forest to a stream flowing down Jefferson Ravine. On the following day, Wilson having returned home, Larrabee, Steele, Sanborn, Evans and myself  [Ed: Six Husbands] cut the trail as far as its course was indicated, but were obliged to leave it unfinished and take up another important work.

"On August 1 our second working party, including Harry W. Tyler, Frank H. Burt, F. Allen Burt [Ed: Frank H. Burt's son], Mr. Wilson, Mr. Steele, and Mr. Sanborn [Ed: again, six husbands] set to work on this trail. Later in the day we were joined by Dr. Dawson, who, in response to my invitation, spent two days in the work. Our course passed some great boulders, led through several caverns, and brought us to an interesting ledge. Here we constructed a rude ladder which answered our purpose very well. We called this Wilson Reach, because Mr. Wilson, with his great height and length of arm, could reach to the top of the first shelf. On the following day the same party, with the exception of Mr. Wilson, who returned home, completed the path to a point a few hundred yards below the tip of the Knee. On August 3 Mr. Sanborn and myself cut through the scrub, as far as the great drift, following , to some extent, the course indicated by Dr. Dawson. On August 4 Sanborn and I continue our work, and, with the aid of Steele and F. Allen Burt, constructed a line of cairns from the site of the great drift to the Gulfside Trail. This completed the new path, which is slightly less than two miles in extent."

Warren Hart lending a hand to Frank Allen Burt as they ascend one of the difficult sections of the Six Husbands Trail in 1910, shortly after the trail was completed. All photos used in this article were taken from Frank Allen Burt's The Story of Mt. Washington published by Dartmouth Publications, Hanover, NH., 1960

"We found ice in several caverns, but the (snow) drift had vanished, and in the depression it had occupied the buds of the flowers were just opening, for to them it was spring. From this spot during the latter part of July it was possible to stand beside thousands of tons of snow and see on one side the violets, and on the other side the grasses scorched brown as autumn.

"The party first to pass over the new trail included Eldredge H. Blood, Alice F. Blood, Jane F. Blood, and Robert E. Blood of Lyn, Caroline Taylor of Baltimore, and Frank A. Turnbull of Lynn. This was on August 4, and the last few hundred yards of trail had not been completed at this time.

[Ed: there's a final note, a question about the naming of The Six Husbands Trail. Various reporters have attributed the name to the so-called six husbands of Weetamoo, who was a powerful sachem of the Pocasset band of Algonkians in what is now Massachusetts. She actually only had five husbands. The most famous was named Wamsuttta. He was the oldest son of Massasoit the sachem, or chief, of the Wampanoag band. Warren Hart and crew named the falls in the Great Gulf, "Weetamoo Falls" and later, a new trail cut from the Auto Road down into the Great Gulf was named the Wamsutta Trail. One by one, they might all have been named as part of a theme that was popular at the time, or perhaps not. At that time people perhaps believed Weetamoo did have six husbands. On the other hand the Six Husbands Trail was made by six husbands working on it together, even though at times they were only five husbands and for a shorter time, they were seven husbands. For most of the time there were six husband working on the Six Husband Trail. Frustratingly,  Frank H. Burt in his "Nomenclature of The White Mountains" evades the issue completely and, for some mysterious reason, skips over Wamsutta, and Weetamoo, and why it was named the Six Husbands Trail.]

Adam Slide Trail: On the 29th of June, while Mr. Wilson and I were exploring Jefferson Ravine, we discovered a brook flowing out of the mountain-side. We decided that the mew path up Mount Adams should pass this spot and planned the course of the trailas afar as the foot of the great slide. On the following day Dr. Larrabee, with the aid of Steele, Sanborn,and Evans, marked the path up the series of slides neraly one half mile in extent and through the scrub to the bare creas of the long easterly ridge of Mount Adams.

"On July 31 this trail was completed by another party, including Rev. C. L. Lyons, C. L. Noyes, H. W. Tyler, George M. Weed, F. H. Burt, J. W. Sanborn, and myself. During the day Nature showered her attentions upon us in sow, hail, rain, warm sunshine and a cold penetrating wind.

"The trail is about one and three eights miles in length, is quite rough and difficult, but the ridge is desolate and magnificient.

"Season of 1910: During the coming season we hope to extend the Six Husbands Trail westerly, from the Gulfside Trail to the summit of Mount Jefferson, also to extend it easterly, from the Great Gulf to the Mount Washington Carrigage Road, and, probably, on through the Alpine Gardens [Ed: this work was never actualized].

"Independent Path Builders: On August 25 (1909)  Eldredge H. Blood commenced the construction of a path which descends from Star lake over the southerly side of the Parapet, continues along the lower slopes of Mount Adams, and joins the Adam Slide Trail at a point about one mile from the Great Gulf Camp. The path is nearly two miles in extent, and, for trampers carrying packs, will be the easiest route between the Gulf and the Madison Hut. Mr. Blood was aided in the work by other member of his family, and employed John H, Boothman and John Hayes. The trail was completed September 18, and reflects great credit upon Mr. Blood. It is interesting, is well supplied with water, and should become popular."

That is the extent of my canonizing of the early Club trail makers. At least for now. I think these vignettes of the more difficult and exciting trails help me, at least, fully appreciate the work involved in locating and constructing trails, and the trails themselves. Knowing who built them and when makes it less likely to take the trails for granted. It also tells us that these trail builders had something important to offer us which, for want of a better work, is the beauty of these mountains.

The End

4-17-13: Historical Notes Regarding Two Early Shelters, Cascade Camp and The Perch, on the Northern Peaks, and A Story of Being Snow Bound at Lakes of the Clouds Hut in September 1915.

Revised historical notes regarding the construction of Cascade Camp and The Perch on the Israel Ridge Trail.  (From Appalachia, Vol. XV, p. 113. Story by Louis Fayerweather Cutter. Photos are  from the December 1956 Appalachia.)

Cascade Camp (above) was built by J. Rayner Edmands, Charles Lowe,
his son, Charley Lowe, S. H. Thorndike, who was a friend of Edmands',
and a man named Ashley who worked for the Lowes. They built Cascade
Camp and The Perch between June 11th and 13th, 1892. The fire place
was originally located by Edmands at the base of the large rock ledge
where it would reflect heat into the shelter, but due to the close quarters
of rock and shelter the first smoked badly. Edmands remedied that by
building the chimney in the foreground.

J. Rayner Edmands was born in 1850 in Boston and at the age of 18, while a student at Harvard College, visited the White Mountains for the first time. He spent a short vacation at Jefferson Highlands where he had a fine view of Mt. Adams and Mt. Jefferson and Cascade Ravine. He went for a few short hikes to familiarize himself with the terrain. In most of the narratives of the creation of the Appalachian Mountain Club in 1876 Edmands is credited as one of the founders along with E.C. Pickering, the Club's first President. Edmands would serve in many administrative posts of the AMC including serving a term as President.

After college Edmands traveled and spent a few years climbing in the Rockies where he became familiar with the "graded paths" of the Western mountains.  These are gently sloping trails that switchback up and down mountains and are designed more for horse back riding than hiking. In July 1891 Edmands, according to Cutter, is "back in the White Mountains agitating for [the creation] of national forests. On July 7, 1891 he began the work that continued for his entire life time." This, of course, was his passion for path making. Edmands created a dozen of the primary paths, mostly on the Northern Presidentials, as well as the Edmands Path on Mt. Pleasant (Eisenhower). The Gulfside Trail from Madison Hut to the summit of Mt. Washington is probably his best known work.

Edmands' paths are distinctive for several reasons and their primary attribute is they are "graded" in a similar way to the trails Edmands was introduced to in the West. They have a graded, smooth tread, more like a sidewalk than a trail and rather than heading directly up a steep mountain flank, they climb gently with the use of "switchbacks". He also introduced the idea of "stairs" in which he used selectively placed rocks to create stairs on steep sections to ease the strain on hikers but also to slow  erosion of the tread from water runoff and hikers.

Cutter wrote, " In 1891 J. Rayner Edmands, with Charles Lowe and his eldest son, Charley Lowe, and S.H. Thorndike, ventured into Cascade Ravine  and built a crude camp they called Cliff Shelter From there they began to blaze a trail on what was then called the Emerald Tongue and that later was called Israel Ridge." (Israel Ridge was named after the Israel River which, in turn, was named by a local hunter, Israel Glines, in the early 1700s, after himself in a successful attempt to enter the pages of history. From Lawson, p. 50).

The next season (1892) Edmands in company with S.H. Thorndike, found the site for a more permanent camp where the Israel Ridge Trail first crosses the stream of the Cascades and starts the actual climb up Israel Ridge.

Cascade Camp in a photo by Guy L. Shorey and reproduced from

Among the White Hills, the Life and Times of Guy L. Shorey,

edited by Guy Gosselin and Susan Boothman Hawkins and

published by the Mount Washington Observatory, 1998

"On Saturday, June 11, 1892, Edmands, Eugene Hunt, Charley Lowe and another man by the name of Ashley who worked for the Lowes in Randolph,  got the camp well started by building two lean-tos at right angles to each other both facing a big rock with the fire pit set against the rock between the two lean-tos. The paper was to be of waterproof paper fabric."

"On Monday, June 13th, Eugene Hunt, Charley Lowe, Ashley, Thorndike, and Edmands returned to Cascade Camp. Part of them worked to finish that camp while Edmands, Hunt and Lowe went further up the ridge to another site and started work there on the Perch. The whole party slept at Cascade Camp that night and had to put the fire out because it smoked so badly. (p. 135) A stone chimney was fashioned (see photo above) and afterwards the fire "drew" perfectly.

 The Perch in 1929

Louis describes finding Edmands at tree line on the Israel Ridge in the Fall of 1892--not at the trail's present location but on the old "straight path" that passed a feature referred to as The Eye. "Already," Cutter observed, "he had developed his system of cairning above tree line by which, without an excessive number of cairns, a trail could be followed in the fog." (p. 135)

Historically the two shelters, Cascade Camp and The Perch were important in the construction of trails and the delight of many hikers who used them to spend the night. The Perch is still in use. Cascade Camp was destroyed in a storm in October 1927, but it was a very popular destination for a generation of Randolph hikers.

Snyder Brook. At some point in my long narrative on path building I mentioned that Snyder Brook that emanates from Madison Spring and Star Lake near Madison Hut was named after Ben Osgood's dog. That's incorrect. It was Charles Lowe's dog that was named Snyder. Apparently Lowe gave that name to his dog after Rip Van Winkle's dog in the famous tale by Washington Irving.

 Snowbound at Lakes of the Clouds Hut, September 1915

From Appalachia Vol. XIV June 1916 p. 119.

Photo of Lakes of the Clouds Hut taken in August 1915 when it officially opened. 

The Lakes of the Clouds, the Appalachian Mountain Club's hut located on the open southwest ridge of Mt. Washington at the base of Mt. Monroe and close to the two lovely Lakes of the Clouds, was officially opened on August 7, 1915 and, in the opening day ceremony, was dedicated to "Those who enjoy the higher altitudes." It had accommodations to sleep and feed 36 overnight guests.

Whitehall, the author of the story that follows, begins his account by pitying people who have "found their lives to be boring and tame." He goes on to say that the "Great Storm of September 1915 furnished unexpected the stage properties for the scenario about to be unfolded and [that] furnished the amateru actors with more than they had bargained for." (p. 119)

The storm lasted for several days and made "its fury felt from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. It was especially severe in the White Mountain region where the terrible gale devastated forest as no storm has done for many years. In the Franconia and Crawford Notches roads were rendered impassable by the fallen trees, while in some places heavy growths of timber were cut off as if by the stroke of a giant scythe. The old Peak House on Mt. Chocorua, which had sheltered many happy trampers during more than a quarter of a century, strained at the moorings for the last time, and the place of its anchorage knew it no more."

Whitehall's party ascended Mt. Washington on a Saturday morning in mid-September. It was windy but sunny with no warnings as to what was to come. They spent a few hours on the summit and then descended to the hut arriving just before dinner time and they spent the night there. They woke Sunday morning to the sound of the wind screaming around the corners of the hut. The force of the wind, according to Whitehall, bowed in the new steel window frames, buckling them to the point where the guests were sure they were going to break and implode in on them.

They had no way to measure the velocity of the wind but they found it impossible to leave the shelter of the hut. The government weather bureau located on the summit measured the wind at 175 mph but the day following the storm the U.S Weather Bureau corrected it to 186 miles per hour. The wind blew continuously throughout Sunday and into Monday. On Monday the group began to ration their food which was already nearly gone. Whitehall reported that they decided on a "brunch" which was a new concept and he defined it as, "brunch; a modern title, ascribed to Gilette Burgess to designate a meal in which breakfast and lunch are combined."

The wind continued to howl all day Tuesday and they were still not able to leave the hut. The hutmaster, George, who came away from the great adventure with the highest praise of his guests for his resolve, resourcefulness, and nerves of steel (he had been on the AMC Trail Crew for a number of years prior to working at Lakes), fashioned some "bread" from bits of leftover flour he found on shelves and elsewhere. He dipped the bread in bacon drippings to add calories and taste.

 Rime a foot thick on the exterior, northwest wall of the hut on the day following the storm.

The guests spent almost whole days wrapped in blankets lying on their bunks or pacing back and forth in the narrow confines of the hut. The storm raged through Wednesday and at 11 pm the wind had not decreased. It had blown continuously for four days at speeds of 180 mph. At 5:15 on Thursday morning they woke to perfect calm. The wind had ceased. Whitehall wrote, "The sky was clear and there was much rejoicing. 'Ohs' and 'Ahs' could be heard from all as it was such a beautiful day and everything was covered with snow and ice so that it all sparkled as the sun came up. We were rewarded with clear views. Heaven was a feckless dome, the valleys a glorious green, and rising high and lofty above the Lakes of the Clouds the great cone of Mt. Washington appeared in spotless white frost feathers to a foot in depth and covering everything including the walls of the hut."

 Frost and snow covered cone of Mt. Washington above the Lakes of the Clouds

George, the hutmaster, guided the party up to the summit (no mean feat with all the ice) from where they were able to see the "golden ocean".  They used mirrors to signal loved ones in the valley sending them the "all clear" message that they were all safe. "The response was amazing," Whitehall wrote, "not only from Jackson but beyond and on either side [of the mountain] messages were being flashed up to us. It was as if everyone in New Hampshire was watching."

Whitehall concluded, "This is just a little tale of what happened to a small group of people that have humdrum lives."

4-16-13 L.C. Bliss' Alpine Zone of the Presidential Range; a 50th anniversary reproduction.

I've finished this project with brilliant results achieved by my printing wallah, Paradise Copies of Northampton. Its a 50th anniversary reproduction of Bliss' original study published in 1963 as his Master's degree at the University of Illinois. I changed the cover photo but the rest of the 68 page booklet is the same. It's a study of the geology, weather and plants of the Presidential Ridge with excellent black and white photos. The plant list is also excellent and comprehensive representing the entire 110 alpine and sub-alpine plants identified on the ridge. And it fits right into your pack. A number of folks wrote to say they would like copies. They're $7.50 each including postage and handling. Send me an email if you'd like to purchase a copy: macphail.alexander@gmail.com.

3-30-13 Ammonoosuc Ravine, Mt. Washington (aborted)

After my customary early morning, three and a half-hour drive between home and the mountains, I turned onto the Cog Railway Base Station Road heading up to the base of the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail (the Ammy). I was going to run up to Lakes of the Clouds, chop a hole in the ice, measure the ice's thickness, measure the temperature of the lake at one foot-intervales, run back down, run up to Lonesome Lake and repeat the same steps there. As I approached the range Saturday morning it was well hidden behind brooding clouds that were dissipating the closer I got to the base station.

Mt. Jefferson early Saturday (3-30-13) morning shortly after the clouds cleared away.

Up the hill just below the base station the clouds are moving rapidly off, rising on thermals provided by warmth from the sun's first rays. It was still quite cold on the west side of the mountain.

Marshfield and the base station restaurant and souvenir shop. The summit of Mt. Washington is to the right and in the clear. There's obviously no shortage of snow.

Looking west to the Twins.

There were groups of hikers preparing to set off; not as many as I expected.  Fresh snow had fallen during the week and conditions were perfect for hiking. There were only a few skiers about. I did up my pack, drank some fluid and went to change into my mid-weight Salomon boots only to discover that I'd left them in the kitchen at home! It's the first time I've done that as I usually pack up the evening before a hike and double check to make sure I have footgear. At it was the Salomons would not have been enough. Conditions required mountaineering boots and I wasn't planning on bringing my Sportivas anyway. It was a laughable moment. I most regretted having to abandon a hike up the Ammy, my first for 2013. I even put snowshoes on and tightened my gaitors to see if I could make headway with just my lightweight hiking shoes but in only a quarter mile my feet became wet and cold, too cold to go up to the ridge safely. I was out of luck, but made good use of the time spent and distance traveled by ensconcing myself once again in the library at the Highland Center (HC) for nearly six very productive hours.

The HC's library is the best thing about the center and is a comfortable place to spend time and it houses almost a complete set of Appalachia. I surfed all the volumes from 1907 to 1934 on Saturday looking primarily for information on trail planning and building of which there is a huge amount in the span of those years. Its problematic in that almost all the articles are compelling and cry out to be read thoroughly so that the remarkable history they contain can be given a new audience. I was particularly looking for pieces written by Robert Underhill, "Slim" (Stuart) Harris, Nat Goodrich and Paul Jenks and found plenty of material written by each of them about trails and plants.

As I headed home around 2 pm on Saturday this is what the range looked like. Kind of makes you want to be up there, doesn't it? That's the Bretton Woods Resort to the left in the background.

At some point I'll share more of the gems I found in the old Appalachia, but here's a small sample. The above photo is from the December 1929 Appalachia and is of Mt. Lincoln from the Old Bridle Path. It's a valuable document because you can see the extent of the logging up Walker Brook.

This is a photo from 1916 looking across Lonesome Lake at the cabins and boat house that were built there in the late 1800s as a fishing and hunting camp. It was leased by the AMC in the early 1930s to become the first Lonesome Lake Hut. Look at the slide tracks on Agony Ridge that slant down into Franconia Notch. (from Appalachia).

A wonderful photo taken in 1932 by Robert Monahan of Lakes of the Clouds hut and Mt. Monroe that I also copied from Appalachia.

A photo from the 1929 Appalachia that's similar to one from my last blog entry on 3-17-13 that was in color but showed the same layered cloud formation, an altocumulus lenticular, stretching out over the northern peaks. Jefferson's Knee is also similar in my photo.

This sketch was also found in the 1929 Appalachia accompanying a great story by Robert Underhill about an extensive trip he took in the Pemigewasset Wilderness that year with two friends. The piece contains several other sketches by artist Arthur Shurtleff.

3-17-13 Tuckerman Ravine

Mt. Adams (left) and Mt. Madison (right) under a lenticular altocumulus cloud Sunday morning photographed from the Glen House site at the base of the Mt. Washington Auto Road. If you enlarge the photo you can see snow dancing up the ridge between J.Q Adams, the bump on the ridge near the center of the photo, and Mt. Adams, itself, that indicates high wind speed associated with the lenticular clouds.

Mt. Adams, right, and Mt. Jefferson on the left. The darkened ridge jutting down from Jefferson is "Jefferson's Knee".  Jefferson Ravine is to the right of the Knee. Wonderful colors!

Mt. Washington with Boott Spur on the far left. This is the east side of Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range and the location where I took the photograph, back in the 1800s, was referred to as "The Glen" the name used in previous articles in this blog about trail building. A bridle path to the summit began here and was used for just a few years before the road to the summit was completed. By 1860 the bridle paths were no longer in business. The Crawford Path fell into disrepair but was still used by hikers, particularly with the brisk hotel trade growing in and around Crawford Notch and westward towards Twin Mountain

Close up of Mt. Washington. In an hour I would be up in that cloud.

Starting up the Fire Trail towards Tuckerman Ravine in early morning light.

AT (alpine touring) skier heading for the top of the Sherburne Ski Trail.

Couple heading down after a night in one of the shelters. Temperatures over night dipped to minus 7 degrees farhrenheit and the wind was whipping the loose new snow around.

The proud owner of this handsome mustache.

Three guys heading for the summit.

She said her Appalachian Trail name was "Belle of Baltimore".  She was on her way down after spending the weekend camping in the Ravine with her husband and their handsome pet.

The bridge at the 2/3-of-the-way mark is still under a lot of snow.

Ski tracks on the Cutler River (Alpine and Telemark skiers bushwhack a lot).

Getting close to Raymond Corner which is an indication you're almost up to the shelter.

This is John. He lives close to the mountains and is a frequent hiker on the trails. He completed his 4000 footers last fall and is looking for out-of-the-way places to hike. With temperatures around zero and a bit of wind he was out in an all-cotton outfit consisting of blue jeans and a hoodie!

Shelter #2.

 Behind the shelters is this outlook across Hermit Lake towards the Little Headwall and where, weather permitting there is a great shot of Tuckerman Ravine, but not today. This is the bottom edge of that lenticular altocumulus cloud I photographed at the Glen House earlier. The wind, here, was leaping out of the ravine, propelled by gravity and the cold temperature, racing across the ice and ripping through the firs and soundling like a freight train.

Lion Head.

Hermit Lake Shelter.

There were just a few folks about. Some that had hiked up had already skied down the Sherburne and this group was getting ready to do the same. The conditions above the shelter were pretty nasty with high wind gusts and blowing snow and low temps. A group did head up Hillman's Highway but were soon lost in the clouds. The snow depth at the official snow stake was 61 inches. Rain last week (3-13-13) got up the mountain this far and settled the snow and left a thick crust but probably all for the good. The Ravine picked up 4 inches of new snow on Saturday-Sunday and a foot, or more, is forecast for this coming Tuseday (3-19-13) and even more later in the week. The winter isn't over yet.

David Weston, one of the AMC's intrepid Tuck Shelter caretakers.

A glimpse of the hut interior. It always feels like home to me. I'd come up to do some research which consisted of sitting on the couch next to the heater and reading a Masters Thesis written in 1978 by a University of Massachusetts grad student by the name of Diane Eskenasy. The title of her thesis is The Origin of The King Ravine Rock Glacier in The Presidential Range of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Her thesis, and several others on various topics, somehow, or other, ended up at Tuck Shelter some years ago and have been sitting in the book shelf there. Like a lot of other people I've been curious about the "rock glacier" in King Ravine for years and have wanted to camp on the floor of King Ravine for a few days to explore its nooks and crannies. The rock glacier is reported to be the only one of its kind in New England. They are commonly found in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. Ms Eskenasy wrote: "King Ravine, one of the north facing cirques on the Presidential Range, contains an inactive rock glacier, a mass of rocks having the morphology of an alpine glacier." I may, this summer, get into King Ravine and integrate Ms Eskenasy's thesis into a blog article with photos that might help explain what a rock glacier is and how it evolved.

Shape of the King Ravine rock glacier from an aerial photo. The mass of rock debris is roughly 1800 feet long and 1000 feet wide. ( Diane Eskenasy, 1978).

Profile representing the rock glacier after the separation of the King Ravine ice lobe from the continental ice sheet after the disappearance of the ice sheet from New Hampshire. (From Eskenasy, 1978). (I took photos of the diagrams in the books holding my camera with one hand while I attempted to flatten the page with my other hand--which accounts for the distortion in parallax)

Modern profile of the rock glacier. The term rock glacier doesn't imply that the rock lobe is moving. It means that the glacier, at one time, when it was active transported blocks from higher on the cirque headwall. The predominant ice has since melted leaving the blocks in the form of a glacier. The time line between the first diagram and this one is roughly 11,000 years (from Eskenasy, 1978).

The view out the west-facing window in Tuck Shelter which has a spectacular view of Tuckerman Ravine--normally. It's possible to sit in the swivel chair and, with a good pair of binoculars, watch skiers and hikers in the Ravine.  

Around noon the temperature had struggled up into the positive single digits but the wind was still gusting above 40 mph so it wasn't your best hiking weather. As I was just about to head down there was this good-sized group trying to stay warm on the porch while gearing up to head out.

This is as clear as it got while I was in Tuckerman Ravine--even a small patch of blue sky! I told everyone that after I left it would clear up and be a beautiful afternoon. I'm not sure that actually happened.

A man and his dog. We got into a conversation about dogs trained to find climbers buried in avalanches which brought up the famous German Shepherd by the name of Tuckerman, now deceased, who was trained by his owner, Brad Ray a US Forest Service Snow Ranger based in Tuckerman Ravine, to search and locate people buried in avalanches. Tuckerman (the dog) would quickly sniff out "victims" that Brad had buried at different levels under the snow on steep slopes, like Hillman's Highway and the lower snowfields. It was pretty cool to watch how fast he could find the volunteer victims.

I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure that's his girl friend.

Two more hearty souls coming up the mountain.

In some of the photos you can see shards of sun stabbing through the clouds and trees here and there but a few seconds of muted sunlight would quickly be replaced with blowing snow and the gray, flat light. This photo is just above Raymond Corner on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail (also called the Fire Trail).

Lucas and his dad. I repeat this a lot but it's gratifying to see fathers bringing their sons and daughters to the mountains. This was Lucas' first time and he wasn't 100 percent enthused but it would be interesting to "follow him" and see if he comes back in his later years.

Another first-timer and obviously enthused about the hike. 

The Cutler River just above Pinkham. Most of the very early hikers, from the mid-1600s to the late 1700s, it's believed, approached Mt. Washington from the east and began their climbs in Pinkham Notch following the Cutler to Tuckerman Ravine where they then ascended Boott Spur and from there traversed to the summit cone and the summit itself. It's interesting to try and imagine what the bushwhack up beside the Cutler and up through the krummholz to the above-treeline areas of Boott Spur would have been like in the early 1700s. The Cutler has some great swimming holes! When I was 17, in the early1960s, on hot summer afternoons and evenings groups of us, young men and women who worked at Pinkham or in the huts, used to follow the river upstream a ways, until we were out of sight of the lodge and our boss, and swim and drink deliciously clandestine beer.

Finally I passed some one close to my own age. This was another father and son duo with the father on the left. They were heading up to ski the Sherburne. We had a nice chat about the "good old days."