Last year I found a blue cohosh plant on the rail trail out in Westmoreland and I’ve gotten to see the flowers and fruit but I’ve never seen the spring shoots. From what I’ve seen in photos they’re very beautiful things, like little dark blue hands coming up out of the soil, so last Sunday off I went with a pocket full of hope.
There was a little ice on the start of the trail but after that it was ice free. It was a beautiful early spring day with the trees full of bird song and a temperature of almost 60 degrees F. It’s amazing how much snow one warm day can melt. If we had a week of days like this it would all be gone.
There are plenty of reminders of the history of this place, like this signal base. The Boston and Maine Railroad ran through here for many years.
There are some nice old stone box culverts out here, still working fine after 150 years. The stream that runs through this one must be off and on because there was no water here on this day. Leave it to the railroad to build something “just in case.” That’s why these railbeds are still here 150 years later with virtually no maintenance.
Someone found a bent rail spike and put it on a boulder.
The stone walls out here are very unusual in that there isn’t hardly a round corner to be seen anywhere. That’s because these are stones left over from when the railroad blasted their way through the ledges. They’ve never gone through the grinding action of a glacier. Rather than the usual stone walls built by farmers clearing their land, these walls are simple property markers.
There must have been many thousands of tons of stone blasted out of the hillsides and that’s a good thing because this railbed had to be built high above the surrounding terrain and all of the blasted stone had to be used essentially to fill in a valley between hills. When you build a road bed through a hilly area you take everything you’ve cut from the hills and use it to fill in the valleys, and in that way you end up with a flat, level roadway, hopefully without having to bring in a lot of fill. This shot shows that I was almost in the tree tops where I was walking.
When you look down the side of the very high railbed you see large chunks of stone and realize that you’re walking on a huge, long pile of it.
But you’d never know it from this view of a flat, level trail. The railroad engineers were very good at what they did and the sheer amount of stone under this trail boggles the mind.
If you’re on a rail trail and see a stream going under it that almost always means a box culvert, and I always look for them if the hillside isn’t too steep.
This one was bigger than the first I showed and it had water running through it. It was under the snow though, so you can’t see it. There is mortar on this culvert and that tells me that it has probably been repaired because I’ve never see railroad masons use mortar on anything they’ve built.
Before I knew it I was at the ledges where I found the cohosh. The question was, where exactly did I find it and could I find that spot again? There were a lot of leaves to poke around in.
This is the spot where wild columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) also grow and this is the ledge most of them grow on. Both columbine and cohosh like limestone and that tells me that there must be a lot of lime in these ledges.
There was a columbine leaf from last year, still hanging on. I never knew they were so hairy.
The mosses were as beautifully green as I’ve ever seen them.
I’m not sure what this one is but it’s a very pretty moss. And it was covered by ice.
I tried to dig around in the leaves at the base of the ledges in several spots and found ice under them each time. The only plant I know of that can melt its way through ice is skunk cabbage, so I knew I wouldn’t see blue cohosh shoots on this day. I’ll have to try again.
In this place it was still a little too cold for emerging plants.
And the snow on the ski slopes of Stratton Mountain over in Vermont proved it. I’m sorry I couldn’t show you those blue cohosh shoots. I’ll see what I can find this weekend; It will be worth the effort to see such a rare plant. If you’re interested just Google “Blue cohosh shoots” and you’ll see why I want to see them.
That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself, then how to come pliantly back to life again. ~Ali Smith
Thanks for coming by.
A very enjoyable walk along the rail trail, Allen. Even though you didn’t find what you set out to see you spotted many other interesting things on the way. The skill of the old engineers and the pride they took in their work is evident in what they have left behind.
Thank you Clare. Yes, they were true craftsmen and I hope we still have people like them. They did amazing things!
I planted a Blue Cohosh in our garden but I don’t know if it survived the winter.
I hope you’ll get to see those new shoots!
I quite agree about the mind boggling nature of the earth moving and engineering that went into the construction of the railways.
Once you start looking closely at what they did it gets more amazing all the time.
Great gems of information in this post. Interesting. Now I want to see the blue cohosh, so keep looking!
Thank you Cynthia. I’ll never stop looking for those blue cohosh shoots!
Nice, I like the pocket full of hope! That describes the feeling of looking for those first signs of spring.
Thanks Chris, I agree!
As always, a wonderful quotation. I, too, loved all the signs of history in your area, and I was especially impressed with how the construction was built to last. Better luck next time with the shoots.
Thanks Laurie, maybe today!
Fingers crossed!
Thanks!
Indeed, the blue cohosh shoots emerging look like little grasping hands. Those stone culverts are really handsome, durable structures. I want one 😉. Nice quote, as always.
Thank you Ginny, I’m glad you’ve seen them! I’m going to try again this weekend.
All you need for a culvert are a few blocks of granite and a very strong back!
I always enjoy following along with your adventures, but I’m particularly happy to have read this post, because you have helped me identify a previously unknown plant! I came across what I now think must have been blue cohosh shoots about this time last year. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was so pretty and interesting that I snapped a photo and tucked it away in my mind until I could discover its identity – which I’m convinced is today! Even though you didn’t find any shoots, your description prompted me to look it up, and I’m sure that is what I saw last year. Yay! Thanks so much for the help with this identification – one more plant mystery solved! Now to return to that trail and discover whether there are any blue cohosh shoots to be found this year. Thanks so much! 🙂
Thank you Cheri, I’m so glad that you found them! I hope you’ll get to see them again this year. They’re one of those truly beautiful things that can only be seen for a very short time in spring. Good luck!
I just found my photos from last year and I think it was blue cohosh shoots! I think I am probably too late to find them in Tennessee this year, but we’ll give it a try. Thanks so much!
You’re welcome Cheri. I hope you can find them!
I love the signs of the history of your area, sorry about the missing shoots though.
Thank you Susan. I think you’d enjoy walking these old rail trails. There is a lot of railroad history to be found on them.
I would indeed.