OUR
COMMENTS - September, 2002
Odd Weather Continued into Spring, A New Job, & Odds & Ends
Living in the mountains of New Hampshire causes one to be very attuned to the weather, especially those close to Mount Washington and its own weather making system. The prior two "Owner's Comments" columns began with discussions of the weather and so will this one. Well, the weather roller coaster continued and the brief reappearance of winter at the end of March was immediately followed by nearly 90 degree (F) days at the beginning of April. And once again, winter snows were back at the end of the month and continued into early May. The last heavy snow up at Pinkham Notch came in mid-May. The mosquitoes and black-flies were so confused that they didn't know wether it was time to appear or not, but the ticks were out in full force early in the season. After the early April warm spell, we didn't encounter 80 degrees again until summer's official entry on June 22. We then had a brief spell of 90 degree + days around the 4th of July and then returned to the comfortable days of 70's with night-time temperatures of 50 or lower. The bugs were then out, but not in any great profusion, and seemed to be confused by the ever changing weather. The summer saw one more very hot spell of several days with near 90 degree temperatures, but for the most part was very pleasant with cool nights and a very dry end of summer. As usual here in New England, the last week of August ended the summer and cool days and cold nights are already back, which is just as we wish.
We are both enjoying our part-time seasonal jobs with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) based at Pinkham Notch below Mount Washington. The pay is low, as is to be expected from a non-profit organization like the AMC, but we treat the experience more as a volunteer opportunity. Our desk sits 50 feet from the Appalachian Trail, we get a free lunch, enjoy employee privileges such as discounts, and are able to work the time in around our other activities. We have learned a lot about the operation of the AMC in the White Mountains and appreciate the amount of volunteer effort that goes into maintaining trails and the hut experience for hikers there. We work closely with the Adopt-A-Trail program and the volunteer trail program that offers week-long and weekend trail maintenance opportunities. By far, the greatest number of volunteers come from Massachusetts, nearly twice the number from New Hampshire.
Odds & Ends
AT Adopt-A-Trail We made three trips to work on our section of adopted AT/Mahoosuc Trail this summer. The first trip was to clean drainage from Dream Lake back west to Wocket Ledge. We hiked in via the Peabody Brook Trail, which requires a three mile hike with 2400' elevation gain. The hike in and out took up half the day. We found a very large illegal campsite on the eastern edge of Dream Lake and will try to eventually close the site with brush and planted rocks. On our second work trip we were able to clean the remaining drainage from Trident Col to Wocket Ledge from the opposite direction. Trident Col is less than 3 miles from our First Mountain cottage, but we drove some thirty miles around Berlin and up the Success Pond logging road for a faster 1.25 mile hike-in with a slight elevation gain. On the second trip we found a section of the AT flooded at the southern tip of Page Pond and Larry returned with AMC trails staff on the third trip to assess the flooding and determine if a re-route was possible or necessary. A third beaver dam has enlarged the pond and has also probably buried any likely illegal campsites that might have been along the shoreline. Page Pond is a very pretty, high remote pond visited most often by AT through-hikers. The Appalachian Trail Conference will have to approve and fund a new set of bog bridges next season at the third dam to fix the problem as a re-route was not possible.
Bear Sighting & Large Animal Sounds Willie (our golden retriever) and I encountered a yearling black bear while hiking up our west trail on First Mountain one early June evening. The bear was about a hundred yards above us on a steep ridge and when I first saw it, I thought it was a wolverine or some other small mammal. Realizing that wolverines have been gone from northern New Hampshire for more than 100 years, I finally was able to recognize it as a very young bear, probably weighing even less than Willie. Mother bears force the previous year's cubs out of the den and and away from her protection so that she can devote her time to that winter's newborn cubs. That leaves the newly abandoned prodigy distressed and this yearling certainly appeared distressed and hungry.
When Willie saw the bear, he wanted to play and went charging into the ravine and up the ridge. My yelling finally halted him about half way to the bear, but then the bear thought he should get involved in the play and began to lope down towards Willie and I. I turned and quickly began running back down our trail, calling Willie as I went. The only way Willie was going to come to me, instead of rushing to meet the bear, was for me to make him think he was being abandoned, which my hasty exit achieved. The distress in my voice also likely imparted a sense of urgency into Willie and he quickly joined me. Unfortunately, each time I have encountered a bear on our property, Willie has short circuited my chance to just sit and watch the bear's activities. We hiked back up the trail right after the encounter, with Willie then under tight control, but found no more sign of the bear.
During the rest of June, I frequently heard loud, high pitched snuffling sounds from a very large nearby mammal as I took Willie on his late evening walk in the forest near the cottage. I was never able to tell whether we were encountering a moose or another bear, though I did see a large distinct dark figure on one of the occasions. We have also begun to hear the howling of a nearby coyote pack late at night.
Stream Flow Our primary stream east of the cottage flowed steadily without interruption from the early spring snow melt until mid-August this year. We had frequent rain this spring and early summer and last year's drought may be behind us. I have watched the brook go dry at the end of July and into August most years, but last year saw the brook dry up in June and remain dry until winter snow covered the ground. The brook starts up high on First Mountain from a spring, feeds into a three acre wetland, then flows out as a single brook along our east boundary and enters Gates Brook across the road for its journey into the Androscoggin River and the Atlantic Ocean at Popham Beach.
Larry
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