This “deep cut” rail trail is a place that I hadn’t visited for a few months so, since it was a hot day and this narrow man-made canyon has natural air conditioning, down I went. I say “down” because if you look up at the top at the cliff face on the left side of the photo, that’s the height of the road where you park and walk in, and in places these ledges soar to 50-60 feet to reach road level. Somehow the still air on the outside is drawn into this place on a breeze that is created right here and it’s always about 10 degrees cooler.
The railroad workers cut through solid rock by drilling holes into the stone and then blasting. Deep holes like these were probably drilled by steam power and are evidence that black powder rather than dynamite was used. Packing these holes with black powder and lighting a fuse was a very dangerous business and many were killed doing it, but dynamite wasn’t invented until 1866 so it was either black powder or brute force. After the wall face was blasted away someone had to clean up tons of stone. There are several dump sites that can be seen from the highway, but they are quite far from this cut.
Not all of the blasted stone was dumped; stone retaining walls line parts of the cut to hold back the hillside. The railroad must have had stone cutters working right at the site, cutting and fitting the blasted stone into stone walls that have stood since the mid-1800s.
A stainless steel 3 car diesel streamliner with “Cheshire” (for the Cheshire Railroad) proudly displayed on its nose ran through here from 1935 until it was retired in 1957. A big 600 horsepower Winton engine was in the first car. The second car was a combination baggage / mail / buffet dining car, and the third car had coach seating for 188 passengers with rounded glass on its end that allowed 270 degrees of countryside observation. A sister train called The Flying Yankee ran on another part of the railway.
What the passengers on The Cheshire saw out of the windows was probably very close to what we see here today. Mosses, ferns, vines, liverworts and many kinds of plants cover every inch of space in areas, making the place look like James Hilton’s Shangri-La or the hanging gardens of Babylon. For a plant nut it’s a wondrous sight.
Groundwater constantly seeps from the ledges and runs through drainage channels on either side of the rail bed. These channels are filled with water year round and help keep the humidity stable and slightly higher than it would be otherwise. They’ve also kept the rail bed dry for over a century.
Great scented liverwort (Conocephalum conicum), grows in places where it never dries out so they love growing over the drainage channels here. They are very fussy about water quality and will only grow where the water is clean and pure. Though they like a lot of water they can’t stand being submerged for any length of time and stop growing just short of the water surface. When you crush a leaf of this liverwort you smell a clean spicy aroma that would make an excellent air freshener, and I’m surprised that nobody has bottled it.
Great scented liverwort is also called snakeskin liverwort for obvious reasons. The reason it looks so reptilian is because of the way its pores and air chambers are outlined on its surfaces. It is the only liverwort with this feature, so it is very easy to identify. I think it’s a beautiful thing.
Another liverwort that grows here is called overleaf pellia (Pellia epiphylla.) At a glance it looks like great scented liverwort but a close look shows that its leaf surfaces are very different. This liverwort always reminds me of bacon and I’ve learned to spot it from a distance by its shape and wavy edges. In colder weather it often turns purple and shrivels a bit.
Because the 3-4 foot wide drainage channels separate anyone walking on the rail trail from the ledge walls I put on rubber boots and walk in the water of the channels to get close to the liverworts. The problem with doing this is rocks can and do fall from these walls; I’ve seen fallen stones that would have crushed half a car. So far I’ve never seen one fall but they are lying around everywhere, so it’s just a matter of time. That thought stays with me when I’m walking in the drainage channels, so I don’t stay in them long.
Falling rocks or not, who could resist wanting to see things like these bright red Jack in the pulpit berries (Arisaema triphyllum) up close? Jack in the pulpit plants grow all over these ledges and when the berries form their weight makes the stems bend and they are left hanging.
Flowering plants of all kinds, from coltsfoot in spring to the New England asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) seen here, grow along the edges of the drainage channels. This is the only place I know of where I can see some form of green growing thing year round. Even in winter there are mosses, liverworts, and evergreen ferns to see.
One of the flowers that grow here is waxy leaf meadow rue (Thalictrum revolutum.) This plant looks very similar to tall meadow rue and I thought that’s what it was, but the black seeds match only the waxy leaf meadow rue, from what I’ve seen. This is the first time I’ve ever seen this plant so if you know it I’d really like to hear about it.
One of the strangest things growing here are these green algae, (Trentepohlia aurea) which are actually bright orange. A carotenoid pigment in the alga cells called hematochrome or beta- carotene, which is the same pigment that gives carrots their orange color, hides the green chlorophyll in the algae. It grows like small tufts of hair all over certain rocks. I’m not sure what that algae / stone attraction is, but it only grows on certain ones and this is the only place I’ve ever seen it.
The algae are very small and hard to photograph. They are described as “filamentous green chlorophyte algae.” The pigment that masks the green chlorophyll can also be yellow or red. In India in 2001 airborne spores from these algae were in high enough concentrations in to cause a “red rain” that actually stained clothes pink. Yellow, green, and black rain was also reported.
In the winter ice columns as big as tree trunks grow here and they are colored by what I’ve assumed were minerals leaching from the soil. I’ve seen several shades of blue ice, green ice, orange Ice, brown ice and even black ice. This photo shows what I think is an instance of the ice coloring minerals leaching from the soil. I saw this happening in a few different places.
Each time I come here there is less to see of the old lineman’s shack. Since there is so little left of the walls I expect the roof to cave it, but still it hangs on. There are people’s initials and dates going back to at least 1925 chalked on its walls so people have been visiting it for nearly 100 years, at least.
This object wasn’t here when I was here last, but there it sat on the floor of the lineman’s shack. At first I thought it was a piece of equipment used to run the railroad but a friend suggested that it was a television antenna rotor control box, and when I Googled 1950s television antenna rotor control sure enough, I found several images of items that looked much like it. Did they watch television here in the shack I wonder, or did they use an antenna for some other purpose?
There are roads known by everyone and there are roads known by no one. Choose the second, the mysterious one where many glories are hidden. ~Mehmet Murat ildan
Thanks for stopping in.
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Saturday, September 26th
Join Clif Seifer and Wendy Ward on an inaugural birding expedition along the new boardwalk through Tenant Swamp at Keene Middle School, where we’re likely to encounter a variety of migrating woodland warblers and thrushes. Meet at 7:30 a.m. (until 9 am) at the entrance to the boardwalk, which is located behind the school at the back of the playing fields.
Nice quotation too.
Thanks!
What a wonderful place to walk, as long as the falling rocks don’t get you. I wonder where that TV antenna rotor came from? Maybe someone found it and left it there.
I’ve never seen one fall but it’s obvious that they do.
I’m not sure where that gadget came from. They might have had a TV in the lineman’s shack but I doubt it. I think they were probably too busy shoveling snow to watch TV.
This is one of my favorite spots that you’ve shared, as well, Allen…always interesting and wonder-ful. 🙂
Thanks Scott. That is a very unique spot. I can’t think of another one like it.
Makes me wish we were back in the days when rail was a much bigger presence than it is now. It’s astonishing how we have allowed our rail service to decline, especially in relation to other countries. My wife’s grandfather was a locomotive engineer for the UP, so she has fond railroad memories.
I agree, and I think that one day we’ll be sorry for letting railroads go. I grew up with the Boston and Maine railroad in my back yard and I miss seeing trains go by.
This was so interesting! So many unusual plants, esp. the liverworts, like ancient creatures from prehistoric times! 😉
Thank you Eliza. I agree; that liverwort looks more animal than vegetable. If you ever meet one in person crush a leaf and smell it. It’s quite a surprise!
I’ve seen them around but their “slimy” look has always been off-putting! 😀 I will have to overcome that and follow your advice. 🙂 I forgot to comment on the very cool train photo. I love that style of “modern” locomotive.
They really aren’t slimy and in fact feel dry when water isn’t dripping on them.
That train takes me back to the Saturday morning cartoons when even cars had that shape.
There’s always so much to see on your hikes. The waxy leaf meadow rue stood out with its unusual color. Enjoyed!!
Thank you. Yes, I can’t think of another plant with seeds like that rue had. I’m going to try to see its flowers next summer.
I would like to have travelled on that train but your journey was very enjoyable too.
Thank you. I’d love to have travelled on that train too. Theoretically I could have, but since it stopped its run when I was just 2 years old I wouldn’t have remembered much about the journey.
I wonder who left that antenna rotor control box there, and why. I assume they found it there. A mystery! The black seeds of the (possible) waxy-leaf meadow-rue are fascinating. I hope you get to confirm its ID.
Thank you Clare. The control box appearing like that is a mystery, and one I’ll probably never solve. I think someone probably just found it lying in the weeds and put it there. I was just telling Martha that there are old woodstove parts and other debris lying around as well. I think that old shack has probably been vandalized almost from the day it was built since it’s out in the middle of nowhere like that. There are more people than you’d expect using this trail.
I’m hoping I can find those rue plants next summer when they’re blooming. That will confirm their identity.
I hope you find them. A photograph of the flowers would be good to see.
I’ll do my best. I visit that place often, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
What a fascinating find in the antenna rotor control is amazing! Did it just show up or do you think it has been there all along??
I just heard there is a rail trail from New Boston to the coast! Love these old “roads” back in time.
I think it’s probably been there all along but I have no real way of knowing. I’ve seen quite a few people out there though so I think one of them probably found it in the weeds and put it in the shack. I’ve also seen old woodstove parts lying around too.
I love these old rail beds too. The one from New Boston to the coast could prove to be very interesting! I wonder if you could ride a horse on it?
That would be wonderful! I should check it out. Of course, you would want a truck and trailer on each end or you would have to back-track. I always go in circles if at all possible!
What an interesting place, I love anything to do with old railways. I hope you are extra careful when walking in those drainage channels.
Thank you Susan. No, I don’t stay in the drainage channels very long. I have fallen rocks all around me when I walk in them and it reminds me of the risk.
That cut would be one of my favorite places also, if there were anything like it around here, I would go there often, especially during the hot days of summer. The cut is deep enough so that the walls at the base are probably around 60 degrees most of the year, and the dampness also contributes to the cooling in the summer. It’s a perfect example of a microclimate.
You always find interesting things there, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a liverwort, but I’m not sure about that.
I’m not sure about this either, but what you think are minerals leaching from the soil may be algae instead. Since the rocks are always damp, it could be like the Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone, where algae in almost every color of the rainbow grows, tinting the water and rocks. I’m sure that minerals are involved too, but the ice in winter would capture both, the algae and minerals and tint the ice.
Thanks Jerry! Yes, and it’s a nice cool microclimate on a hot summer day.
I think every time I go to this place I see something that I hadn’t seen there before. Some of them, like the barred owl I saw sitting in the trail last fall, are really amazing.
You could be right about the algae. What I know about it could fit in one paragraph, but I have read that it comes in many colors. I’d love to see those hot springs in Yellowstone!
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
Thanks very much Agnes.
You’re very welcome, Allen.
A MAGICAL PLACE INDEED, ALLEN. EVEN THE LINEMAN’S SHACK ADDS TO THE MAGIC.
Thank you Cynthia. I’m guessing that the shack might have had something to do with snow removal. Every time it snowed the snow had to be gotten off the tracks and out of that canyon and it must have been quite a job.
Always enjoy your shots of the liverwort as it’s rather hard to find in central Ohio.
Thanks! Anyplace near good clean water would be where I’d look. If it had vertical walls of stone that stayed wet so much the better.
I still haven’t made it to that part of the rail trail. Every time you write about it, I think darn it, I’ve got to get over there. It seems you are always finding new things to see!
It’s an amazing place, Laura! I’ve never seen anything else like it.
I remember well your posts when you have visited in the winter, lovely to see your visit at this time of year too.
Thank you Julie. There seems to always be something fascinating to see there no matter what the time of year.