It’s blueberry picking time in these parts so last Saturday I thought I’d visit one of our most popular blueberry picking sites and get a climb in as well. The day was supposed to be hot and humid as so many have lately so I got up early and headed out to Pitcher Mountain in Stoddard; about a half hour north of Keene.
Since blueberries cost as much as $3.50 a pint in stores $1.50 a quart is quite a good deal, but of course you have to pick them yourself. Payment is often trusted to the honor system.
The trail is a drivable road to a point; wide with a relatively easy grade. If I was 20 again it might take me 15 minutes to make it to the top but these days I find interesting things to photograph along the way, so it often takes me twice that amount of time. Or maybe that’s just an excuse to stop and catch my breath.
I’ve climbed this mountain so many times that I really don’t know the number, but I’ve never seen bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) here before. On this day it was everywhere, all along the trail. This illustrates perfectly why I follow the same trails over and over; you simply can’t see it all in one hike and sometimes I wonder if you could say that you had seen it all even after 100 hikes.
Bush honeysuckle flowers are tubular and pale greenish yellow at first before changing to orange or purplish red. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten a photo of them that I could be satisfied with. The long red mushroom shaped central pistil is a good sign that you’re seeing bush honeysuckle. In the fall the leaves turn from green to yellow to red. Bumblebees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds visit the flowers and moose and deer like to browse on the branches.
There is always a feeling of having stepped through a doorway into another world when I see this view. After living in the closeness of the forest for so long here is suddenly open space, and it seems vast and infinite. I have to stand here and stare foe awhile trying to take in the immensity, and if I remember I’ll take a photo.
The old road gets a little rocky from this point on but I’ve seen trucks drive up it. Walking up it is a little trickier, but not too bad.
I keep hoping to see the Scottish highland cattle that live in the fields that border the trail but I haven’t seen them yet.
As if to live up to its name meadowsweet grew beside the meadow. This one had a blush of pink, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen. I just found out that there is a native meadowsweet called Spirea alba and an introduced species called Filipendula ulmaria. In photos they look identical, so that will complicate things somewhat. It looks like I’ve got some studying to do. I also discovered that I misidentified the scientific name of the meadowsweet that appeared in my last flower post.
Before you know it the fire tower appears above the trees. The last time I was here it was manned and someone was washing the windows, but I didn’t see anyone this time. One benefit of climbing early is the sun doesn’t glare off those windows.
The old cabin seems to tilt more to the left each time I see it, but it’s hard to see in this photo. It’s only a matter of time until a snowy winter takes it down, I imagine. I’m guessing that it was probably built so the fire lookouts could stay around the clock. It makes me wonder what living up here was like. For a lover of solitude it must have been just about perfect, even without indoor plumbing.
The 5 acres at the very top of Pitcher Mountain are owned by the New Hampshire Forestry Commission. They first built a wooden fire tower here in 1915 but in April of 1940 a fire destroyed 27,000 acres of forest, including the fire tower and all of the trees on the summit. It was the most destructive fire in the region’s history. The present steel tower is a replacement and, because of the lack of trees, offers a full 360 degree view of the surrounding hills. Visitors are sometimes welcomed in to see the views.
It takes some serious hardware to keep the fire tower from blowing off the mountain. Strong steel cables pin it to the bedrock in several locations.
The wind turbines over on Bear Mountain in Lempster, New Hampshire were visible. It’s often so hazy that they can’t be seen at all. As the trees in the foreground of this photo show it was quite breezy on this day and the windmills were pointed right into it. There was a time or two when strong gusts came through and I wondered if they might blow me over.
I don’t know the name of this hill that is nearest to the mountain but I like the way it rises out of the surrounding forest like an ancient burial mound. It’s hard to believe that all I could see was burned and treeless less than a century ago. Nature heals itself quickly.
Clouds were casting shadows on the forest below and I sat for a while watching them move over the landscape. I used to like doing the same when I was a boy. I didn’t notice the many undulating hills and valleys rising and falling off into the distance until I saw this photo.
Blueberry bushes are everywhere you look here, all along the trail and all over the summit, and you can often hear blueberry pickers that you can’t see. As this photo shows the berries aren’t quite fully ripe but I was still surprised that I didn’t meet any pickers this day. In fact it seemed like I had the whole mountain to myself. Black bears love blueberries too and I’ve heard that they’ve been seen here during berry season, but I didn’t see any of them either.
Common goldspeck lichens (Candelariella vitellina) cover the bare bedrock in several places. At least I think that’s what they are; there is an alpine species that apparently looks much the same unless you have a microscope to see the spores with. My new camera does well with macros but it can’t get quite close enough to see lichen spores.
The body (Thallus) of the goldspeck lichen is kind of egg yolk yellow and the tiny round fruiting bodies (Apothecia) have a slightly raised rim. This is a crustose lichen that I usually find on rock, but it can also grow on wood, bark and soil. I know of a few trees that are covered with it right in downtown Keene. Unlike many lichens it doesn’t seem to mind car exhaust.
A flower I’ve never seen grows in the cracks in the rocks at the summit and I was amazed that I had never noticed it before. Mountain white cinquefoil (Potentilla tridentata) is also called three toothed cinquefoil because of the three large teeth at the end of each leaf. The white 5 petaled flowers are small; maybe a half inch across on a good day. They are said to bloom for 2 or 3 months and make an excellent choice for a sunny rock garden that doesn’t get too hot, because they don’t like heat. They must be struggling this summer because it has been hot. We’ve had a long string of mid-80 to 90 degree days.
There had been a thunderstorm the night before and it helped fill the natural birdbath a little, but the darker line on the stone in this photo shows how much has evaporated. I love how the sky reflects so much blue into this small puddle.
If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. ~Eleanora Duse
Thanks for coming by.
Beautiful views of the forests, hills and valleys from the top, I like the blue puddle too. Honeysuckle bush is lovely.
Thank you!
“It makes me wonder what living up here was like. For a lover of solitude it must have been just about perfect, even without indoor plumbing.”
Have you ever read Kerouac’s “Desolation Angels” especially the portion entitled ‘Desolation in solitude’?
No, all I’ve ever read by Kerouac is “On The Road,” but this one sounds good. I’ll have to look it up!
Always interesting to get a glimpse into a writer’s life, I think.
Yes, especially his.
Hello to the Author!Who are you?I find your blogs fascinating and would like to know your source for Native American uses for plants.I live in Hillsborough Upper Village and love to explore the nearby woods and fields.Can you give me a steer to your sources?Thanks so much,Cynthia Van Hazingacynthiavh@earthlink.net
Hello Cynthia. My name is Allen and I know Hillsborough fairly well. I used to live in Antrim.
I don’t have a single source for ethnobotany. I usually just go to Google and type “Native American uses for XXXX,” where XXXX is the name of the plant.
I hope this helps!
I love this climb. Every time you go it seems you find something new to ‘report’ about. I never noticed or thought of it before but how do the fire spotters reach the wooden station on the top? I didn’t see any ladders or enclosed stairs and wonder if it isn’t a bit hairy getting up there on a windy day?
Thank you Martha. There are stairs that go up the inside of the structure. You can just see them in the first shot of the tower. I wouldn’t want to be standing on the stairs in a strong wind!
So many beautiful photos, and thank you for the tour! Those are some good-sized wild blueberries you saw.
So that is meadowsweet. I used to see that as a youngster where I lived, and did not know what it was called. I remember two kinds of honeysuckle from back then, the pinkish bush type and a yellowish flowered vine.
The wide vista from mountains are wonderful, aren’t they? I always loved the view from the eastern mountains, living down in the enclosed lowlands. Those wide vistas are one thing, among many, I love about the west. There is something about that 360 view and seeing the weather come in from a long way off.
Thank you Lavinia. Most of our native blueberries are on the large side but every now and then you see bushes with smaller berries. It’s a wonder that we have any at all with the many weeks of dryness we’ve had.
The pink honeysuckle was probably invasive Asian tartarian honeysuckle but I’m not sure about the yellow flowered vine. It doesn’t sound like a native.
Yes, though I don’t always climb for the views I do like to see them and I love watching the clouds float by from up there. I do envy your newer, higher mountains!
There is something about being where it is green and lush and looking up and seeing tall snow-capped peaks at the same time. Mount Jefferson is visible coming into town here. The drive up I-5 displays more views of these snowy beauties in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood is east of Portland.
I’ve seen pictures of it and it’s very beautiful. You’re lucky to be able to see those mountains each day!
What may be an added confusion if you look at the link is that the author calls the plant ‘Spirea ulmaria’ which is what it was called in the 19th century. I think all the name changes plants have gone through recently make it difficult for amateurs to keep up!
Yes, DNA tests will have the final say but before everything is settled it’s bound to be very confusing!
I can completely understand the confusion between Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and Astilbe and if both turned up here in the wild I’d have real trouble telling them apart. The photo of the pink meadowsweet is very pretty! Our meadows and lanes are full of Filipendula ulmaria right now. We also get Dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris) which is unscented and has smaller sprays of flowers. I think the following link to a site I visit often gives a good description of Filipendula and may help in your research.
https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/meadow28.html
I always think that Astilbe flowerheads generally form a flame-like shape but Filipendula flowerheads look like an inverted triangle with another tuft at the top! (This description may not be at all helpful!)
I love to watch cloud shadows sliding over the landscape. I remember my excitement when I was a girl as the shadows rushed towards me and I knew I couldn’t outrun them.
Thank you Clare. I visit that site occasionally. It’s a good place to find historical information about plants.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen Filipendula ulmaria. Our meadowsweet is a small tough shrub and looks very shrubby and yours, the Filipendula ulmaria, is an herb that I imagine would look (and feel) very different. I’d love to see it.
I used to feel the same about cloud shadows when I was a boy. Maybe all children do!
I expect they do if they ever go out of the house without their phones! It is also easy to forget about those special feelings we had as children – your photograph brought it all back to me!
I think I must be more child than adult because I see things that take me back to childhood all the time.
I think you have retained your ability to be observant and interested in what you see. Most adults lose the skill quite quickly, which is sad.
If I have it wasn’t through any conscious effort.
I think that many adults have lost their curiosity and their sense of wonder, and I’m trying to help them get them back.
Wild blueberries is sufficient motivation for me to do some climbing. I tried unsuccessfully to grow Bush Honeysuckle – I think the spot I had it in was too moist.
Those blueberries motivate a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise be climbing!
Bush honeysuckle grows in dry places naturally, often on hillsides, and it can take quite a lot of shade.
I really loved the landscapes with the forest covered undulating hills and the clouds casting shadows here and there! It doesn’t look as hazy as some of the other times that you’ve been there.
It must have been a very satisfying day, finding two “lifers” there when you’ve hiked there so many times in the past. Isn’t that the way it goes at times? I’ve been finding quite a lot of flowers that I’ve never seen before also, and as usual, I’m having no luck IDing them.
I love freshly picked blueberries also, wild ones always have more taste to them than the commercially grown ones do.
Thanks Jerry! It was surprisingly clear up there that day in spite of the heat and humidity down below.
Yes, I think most discoveries I’ve made of never seen before plants have been by accident. I don’t see how I could have missed these two so many times but I did. I’m looking forward to seeing the ones you found.
Yes, the flavor is why these blueberries are so popular. They’re really good!
It was good to get a view from the top for once. It looks like a very good place to be.
It was on that day because there was a cooling breeze up there. It’s been very hot here lately.
Thanks for climbing so high to give us the lovely views.
You’re welcome Susan. For a change there wasn’t much haze.
Would I love to be there! Not for the heat and humidity of course, but what gorgeous blueberries! Loved your hike photos, a couple of which do look a little like Scotland.
Thank you Sue. The Scottish highland cattle seem to feel right at home on the flanks of the mountain.
There are so many blueberries up there I think you could pick for several weeks.
Yes, yes, and yes to the wonderful quote! Oh, and your post is awesome, too! 🙂
Thanks Paula. That’s one of my favorite quotes and I’ve probably over used it. I’m glad you liked the post too!
The Bush Honeysuckle is not something we’ve seen in Ohio.
According to the USDA it grows there but it’s an easy shrub to miss. It’s very low growing and spreads more than it grows tall. The flowers are also quite small.
A wonderful hike. I love the open meadow. Aren’t highland cattle just too cute!? glad you found something new (again).
Thanks Laura. I can’t say much about highland cattle because I’ve never seen one, but they sure are hairy in the photos I’ve seen. Much different than the average cow!
They are my most favorite cows! I always spend time photographing them when I find them!
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I have memories of picking wild blueberries in Maine during family vacations when I was a child. Compared to the ones I find in the supermarket, those blueberries were small but were packed with flavor and perfect to put in pancakes. I feel like I have hiked with you up this mountain multiple times and enjoy your commentary and observations of what you see and what you are thinking along the way. Like you, I am fond of returning to the same places over and over again, knowing that each time will be a new experience. Wonderful posting, Allen.
Thanks Mike. Blueberries are an abundant crop here and many people pick and freeze enough to get them through an entire winter, but I usually just eat them off the bushes for a snack.
I’m always surprised by what I’ve missed even though I’ve followed a trail many times, so I keep following them and finding new things. Your trips to Huntley Meadows Park is a great example of that.