Last Friday the 18th was a beautiful day, already warm when I got to Pitcher Mountain in Stoddard at about 11:00 am. I could see spots of ice on the trail so I wore a coat and had my micro-spikes in my pocket, just in case. I couldn’t find any recent information on trail conditions so I didn’t know what to expect but I knew it would be nice to be climbing again after the terrible ice had kept me on level ground all winter.
I looked at the hobblebushes (Viburnum lantanoides) along the way and though I saw plenty of leaf buds I didn’t see a single flower bud.
There are lots of dead trees in the forest along this trail. A standing dead tree like this one is called a snag, and snags play an important part of the overall health of the forest. This tree is probably full of insects and I could see where woodpeckers had been at work. Fungal spores will also find their way to it and eventually it will fall and provide nutrients to the surrounding soil for years to come. This one looked almost like it had a bear platform in it.
Beech leaves are quickly going white. Strong March winds usually clean them off the trees and I’m seeing as many on the ground as I am on the trees lately.
I think of this stop at the meadow as the great breathing space. I can catch my breath and think about absolutely nothing here. It’s just earth, myself, and sky. And silence. I often find a nice rock and just sit for a while.
It paid to rest up a bit for this stretch. I was expecting a little ice on the trails here but instead I got thick mud, which on a hill is almost as bad.
Mud and stones for the rest of the way.
And roots; lots of roots. They were useful to stop yourself if you were slipping backwards in the mud, which I did a couple of times. You really want to wear good, sturdy hiking boots with some ankle support here if you can.
The bright orange-red witches’ brooms on blueberry bushes burned like fire in the woods. They may seem unsightly to some and if you have a blueberry plantation you would surely want to remove them, but I worked around a blueberry bush that had one for many years, and it bore fruit just as well as the other bushes that didn’t. I left it as an experiment, just to see what would happen and it really didn’t seem to bother the bush at all.
If you turn around in the right spot as you climb the leg of the trail beside the meadow you can see Mount Monadnock over in Jaffrey. On this day it showed me that it would not be a good day for views. It was strange because I saw no signs of haze as I drove from Keene.
As I neared the summit, I saw that the old ranger cabin’s broken windows had finally been boarded up. It had been broken into and vandalized last year so better late than never, I suppose. It would be tough getting the tools and materials up here to do the job, I would think.
The only mountain ash (Sorbus americana) I’ve ever found in the wild lives up here and it looked to be doing well.
Big, black and pointed mountain ash buds often look like they have a single cap like bud scale but they actually have several overlapping scales which are quite sticky. They should be swelling any time now if this warm weather keeps up.
As I looked up at the fire tower on the summit I was grateful, because I remembered the winter I had to crawl up those last few rocky yards on my hands and knees because of the ice. I doubt I’ll ever do it again, even though being up here in January can be pretty special.
This really was not a day for views but I was able to get a fuzzy shot of the wind turbines over in Antrim. It really is amazing how big they are.
When I saw these three trees, I thought of the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
There was plenty of water on the summit for the birds to drink, and that meant plenty of mud as well. There was no escaping the mud on this day. It was over 70 degrees F. and everything had melted quickly, including any frost in the ground. By this point I was wishing that I had left my coat in the car.
Deep striations in the granite are a reminder that this entire region was once under ice. It’s hard to imagine ice thick enough to cover these mountains. It is estimated that the ice that covered New England in the last ice age was 2 Km (6,562 Ft.) thick. That means that 2,153-foot-high pitcher mountain was buried under more than 4000 feet of ice.
The near hill looked a bit drab on this day but I’ve known it in all seasons and soon it will be beautifully green with new spring leaves, because it is covered with mostly deciduous trees. In the fall it will be even more beautiful when those leaves begin to turn.
The summit is covered with many different lichens, like the yellowish goldspeck and the black and white tile lichens seen here. There are 136 species of tile lichens so identification is difficult without a microscope. I just like the colors in this scene.
I don’t know if the Pitcher family who settled here planted apple trees but there are apple trees here, and the sapsuckers love them. Their trunks are full of small holes.
I got to see a staghorn sumac bud just beginning to open.
And then there was the trail down. I picked my way carefully avoiding what mud I could, and I made it just fine, and that made a beautiful spring day seem even better.
Since there were no summit views to be had I thought I’d stop and get a shot of the Congregational Church in Stoddard on my way home so those of you who have never been to New England could see what a fairly traditional New England church looks like. The town was named after Colonel Sampson Stoddard of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, the charter being granted to him and others on May 10, 1752. The population has fluctuated over the years, falling to as low as 100 people in 1900 to around 1000 today. According to the town’s website the Congregational Church was organized in 1787, but the building in the photo wasn’t built until 1836.
A mountaintop is not simply an elevation, but an island, a world within a world, a place out of place. ~Paul Gruchow
Thanks for stopping in.
Hi Allen! Truthfully I rather like the fuzzy, hazy long views. The subtle fading of color is lovely. And the wind turbines have a certain grace and elegance I think. I had the awesome experience of viewing one, standing at the base and looking straight up. They’re huge! Spring green, that delicious, uplifting color, will soon be everywhere. This current drop back into winter (21° this morn) is painful! It’s killing all my wisteria buds, darn it. How cold in your neck of the woods?
Hi Ginny! I like that shading that you speak of too, but it doesn’t always happen in a photo. It’s always kind of a surprise to me.
I’d love to stand by one of those turbines! You can see them as you’re driving on the highway and it’s always startling when you realize how big they must be to loom over the hills like they do.
I’m seeing patches of green here and there but we don’t usually start mowing until mid-May so we have a while yet.
We had 15 this morning and I’m hoping it didn’t kill off all the flowers I saw that will appear in tomorrow’s post. I also hope that your wisteria is okay. I love wisterias, but the only one I can get close to grows up and old tree near here. I hope it blooms this year and I hope yours will too. Even though it’s cold it’s still spring!
Great series of photos, enjoyed seeing the staghorn sumac bud. Also, when I read about the place you catch your breath and “think about absolutely nothing here. It’s just earth, myself, and sky. And silence.” This made me smile, as these are the moments when I hike I tend to savor. Cheers to a great spring ahead.
Thank you. As I’m sure you know, those times and places where we can think about absolutely nothing are very valuable. I hope to find many more.
I hope you’re enjoying spring, wherever you are!
l always love it. I’m pretty sure I have seen mountain ash up on Pack Monadnock around the Audubon Hawk Watch site. You must have been there.
jbjhjc
Hi John. Yes, I’ve been up Pack Monadnock but not for many years. I wouldn’t doubt at all that there is mountain ash up there. Maybe it’s time I went up there again!
I am looking forward to the time when that restful meadow will be showing good colour. It is annoying to find that a day which looks fine is rather hazy but I was pleased that you could get a shot of the wind turbines. They do look big, I agree.
Me too, I can’t wait to see some green grass.
You first see the wind turbine looming up over the hillsides as you drive to the mountain and they’re so big they seem almost beyond belief. I’m not used to seeing anything that big.
I love the misty view of hills looking toward Monadnock. They look layered.
Thank you Su, I like that too. It doesn’t happen that often for me so I enjoy it when it does.
Nice climb, I’m glad you made it. I like that this hike has familiar things, like the ranger cabin and the fire tower. Yesterday I saw a few Hepatica trying to open, and this morning the ground here in Michigan is covered with snow.
Thanks Chris! I’ve seen hepatica just once on a garden tour, so you’re lucky that you can just find them in the woods. I think our soil is too acidic for it.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re still getting snow. There isn’t any in our forecast but there is cold. Highs only in the 30s Monday, which will set the plants back a bit. Stay warm!
The hobblebushes and the staghorn sumac bud are quite the tease. Any day now there will be color. We’ve not seen buds quite like this. The detail is really something special. Four thousand feet of ice over pitcher mountain, that’s a bit hard to get my brain around.
Yes, every day I’m seeing more flowers now, and soon I won’t be able to keep up.
That camera does seem to do a good job with those small buds.
I know what you mean about the ice, I thought the same. It boggles the mind.
Congratulations on making the climb even if the views were no good and there was too much mud! As you might guess I loved the shot of the church.
Thank you Susan, that mud was a surprise!
I thought you might like seeing the church. It’s a lot simpler than what you’re used to, I think.