RoySwkr
New member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2003
- Messages
- 4,467
- Reaction score
- 285
I suppose with a snowstorm coming in I should have headed E for hiking, but I had a trip all figured out for the Pioneer Valley. First stop was an offbeat attraction I just heard of - the Bridge of Names next to the Lake Pleasant post office. Several hundred people who helped with construction have their names carved into pickets on the bridge railing.
Next up was Jackson Hill which summit is occupied by the Leverett Peace Pagoda. Back in the 60s Leverett was a hotbed of anti-war Quakers but now it has anti-nuclear Buddhists who are looking for money and volunteers to complete a new temple and are sponsoring a peace walk from Vermont Yankee to Seabrook. The elderly are allowed to drive up but I decided I am not as old as some people and walked. For luck I walked 3 times around the pagoda at different levels and visited ledges and shrines in the surrounding woods. I occasionally saw people in the distance wearing winter outdoor work clothes like myself but we did not communicate.
Lastly was Stoddard Hill in the Montague State Wildlife Management Area. I started up the Robert Frost Tail from the N which immediately disappeared in a blowdown jungle where I has to crawl over 6 to continue. About halfway up the trail had a long downhill section, then climbed a small cliff it could easily have circled. It started snowing about then, an hour before the storm warning was called for. The trail led to a double summit but I of course bushwhacked to a higher bump a quarter mile E. Although the woods were open lower down, a lot of the summit ridge was snowy laurel which was probably best hiked in a heavy jacket. I crossed one unmarked path each way from the summit.
I angled back to the trail and followed it awhile before realizing that I could skip the cliff, the reverse grade, and the blowdowns by bushwhacking straight down to the road so I did. My car was visible from the top of the bluff .1 miles away so I came out right at it. Traffic was slow driving home in the snow and it took an hour longer than the other way.
Next up was Jackson Hill which summit is occupied by the Leverett Peace Pagoda. Back in the 60s Leverett was a hotbed of anti-war Quakers but now it has anti-nuclear Buddhists who are looking for money and volunteers to complete a new temple and are sponsoring a peace walk from Vermont Yankee to Seabrook. The elderly are allowed to drive up but I decided I am not as old as some people and walked. For luck I walked 3 times around the pagoda at different levels and visited ledges and shrines in the surrounding woods. I occasionally saw people in the distance wearing winter outdoor work clothes like myself but we did not communicate.
Lastly was Stoddard Hill in the Montague State Wildlife Management Area. I started up the Robert Frost Tail from the N which immediately disappeared in a blowdown jungle where I has to crawl over 6 to continue. About halfway up the trail had a long downhill section, then climbed a small cliff it could easily have circled. It started snowing about then, an hour before the storm warning was called for. The trail led to a double summit but I of course bushwhacked to a higher bump a quarter mile E. Although the woods were open lower down, a lot of the summit ridge was snowy laurel which was probably best hiked in a heavy jacket. I crossed one unmarked path each way from the summit.
I angled back to the trail and followed it awhile before realizing that I could skip the cliff, the reverse grade, and the blowdowns by bushwhacking straight down to the road so I did. My car was visible from the top of the bluff .1 miles away so I came out right at it. Traffic was slow driving home in the snow and it took an hour longer than the other way.
