OUR
COMMENTS - MARCH, 1999
Spring should be coming to the Shelburne valley in the next month, but my visits during the middle of March found our forest still buried under 12 to 20 inches of powdery snow. In spite of a very moderate winter, the forest land has been under a continuous snow cover since the first of January. On March 9, I shoveled out a spot to park the car at the front of the property and donned my large bear-paw snowshoes, then took the leash for a "raring to go" Willie.
Willie
is our golden retriever and always faithful mountain hiking companion. He
had evidently spent too much time sitting in the car during the drive up,
and when I said "Let's go", he lunged forward with enough force to
send both snowshoes into the air and me onto my back in the deep snow. Though
I wasn't happy with those events, it is not easy to reprimand a dog for having
such an exuberant desire to get outdoors and have fun.
I had driven by our mountain forest early this winter on the way to and from Canada for a month long ski trip, but had never before walked through the forest in the winter or during snow cover. I have previously reported that fall colors are spectacular up at the mountain, but I think that the quiet winter scenes are even more beautiful. The expanse of deep white snow was completely un-tracked except for numerous deer trails wandering among the hemlocks and the wetland areas. More vistas to the White Mountains and Carter-Moriah Range were also open.
Less than a week later, Ginger joined me for a Sunday snowshoe hike on the mountain and we found my earlier tracks to be already covered by new snow. Together we hiked more of the property and discovered some new locations not previously scouted during summer and fall explorations. We found two additional low elevation knolls in the interior with good views, and Ginger named a newly found valley as "Hanging Valley". It lies some distance below the cliffs and is concealed behind a knoll to the south. The snow showed many new tracks in addition to the previously sighted deer sign. A large network of snow-shoe hare tracks were observed, as well as the tracks of a possible bob-cat or other carnivore. There was also a lot of bird activity observed up in the hanging valley, including some early unidentifiable warblers.
Surprisingly, it was much easier to hike in the forest on snowshoes than in hiking boots. The deep snows have buried all of last year's ice storm fall-down. We intend to visit again next weekend to begin flagging new hiking and ski trails for clearing later in the spring. The terrain on our tract is so rugged and diverse that we think it is very possible to lay out at least 10 kilometers of trails on the 130 acres.
Our forester has completed the review and update of our forest management plan and we will begin to implement the recommended practices this spring and summer. The update has been posted to our web pages detailing the forest management plan. We also will make a decision on building a cottage or cabin and hope to improve the drive up to the log landing as soon as weather permits. There ought to be a burst of activity on First Mountain this year, and this column will keep readers posted on our progress.
Larry
Click on Photo to See Winter Views of First Mountain
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