Connecting Old Roads and Trails to Vernon

 Sometimes we find what we seek right under our noses if we take the time to look at it from another orientation. 

On last Sunday morning Wayne was with me in the living room as I wrote my week's blog post in Nature Finds. Wayne always reads my work prior to posting to ensure that my poetic nature doesn't lead our readers too far into the fantastical realm. Of course on this day, it was a more difficult exercise as I had after all mentioned our quest. In the end however, it was "The Wild One" who prevailed; and so it was that I withheld my very character and produced a blog rooted in a singular point of orientation. 

Now you may have noticed that I wrote "The Wild One" in lieu of Wayne and this is precisely because that was one of the variations of Wayne's nickname during his growing up years and because Wayne in truth had to that point only been coauthoring within my head. 

It was when Wayne actually had finished editing Hike Bernardston MA to the Town Forest, that he began to formulate the thought that we should attempt to hike from the town forest to Bald Mountain Road in Bernardston. While it's true that we had only recently completed that very hike from the other direction, Wayne wasn't quite satisfied with the fact that we hadn't actually connected with any of the town forest trails. For my part, I agreed to his notions because in my soul I had yet to complete "the quest."

We picked up the State Line Loop, looking for a promising point from which to enter.  

At the place where the trail stops going south and begins heading more east than south, Wayne figured that we maybe ought to continue going south. I wondered if this was perhaps an abandoned road as the sides were higher than the center.

This area is comprised of newer growth than what is found along the State Line Trail. Perhaps we were following an old logging road? 

Our chosen path terminated with downed trees and thick brush; but a natural line of rocks extended by what appeared to be a man made berm or landfill, coaxed us down and to to the right towards a small clearing. 

A quick hop across a brook,

only to discover yet another trail's end.

Wayne and I are accustomed to backtracking while scouting out trails. In doing so, we often find wonderful things with our second look around.

Wayne has learned to be patient with me as I always take numerous versions of the same photograph in an attempt to capture my exact response to nature. Below is a picture of Wayne patiently waiting while I took no less than a half a dozen photographs of that beautifully twisted tree in the sun's rays. I will also let you know that it took great restraint on my part not to post all six of my tree pictures!

And here is Wayne heading up the trail after giving up on me ever tearing myself away from that old tree.

As it so happened, Wayne was the first to reach the point that had initially guided us towards the right. When I caught up to him, he had already commenced to figuring out if we ought to press on straight through fallen trees and brush for another try or continue backtracking. It's important to remember that when we fist encountered this exact location we were both facing south; but having just having caught up to Wayne, I was now facing east. 

I don't exactly know how to describe the feeling of completing one quest by accident while at the same time actively undertaking an entirely different one. We had set out to connect the town forest trail system to Bald Mountain road and instead we came across our fifth MA / VT state line marker in Vernon! 

This cement marker is clearly not of the same vintage as the granite markers set in 1896; but it is still a pretty neat find.

I am certain that those who have experience hiking the State Line Trail in the Vernon Town Forest understand that one doesn't have to venture off trail in order to find several opportunities to jump the line into MA. There is after all, a sign posted for anyone to take a selfie with while doing so. And truth be told, though this adventure seems quite long, this marker isn't much more than a hop a skip and a jump from the forest trail itself. 

I convinced Wayne to head east and follow the red state line blazes that separate Vernon from MA. We came across the same type of posting that we had seen at the gate while hiking to the forest from Bald Mountain road. I later confirmed with Seth and his amazing app on his phone, that there is no additional private land in MA that shares a border with the forest. This of course means that are free to explore this area on subsequent hikes.

We followed the brook that originates in the swamps of the town forest; ending our day's adventure back on the State Line Trail.

Solving the mystery of weather or not there is a state line marker close to the place where Bald Mountain Road may have once terminated, caused me to consider the relationship between orientation and discovery. We had after all, set out to solve one curiosity only to satisfy another. 

Following Wayne back to our car, something prompted me to wonder if even more of these markers were out there waiting to be found and what else we might find while searching for them.

Perhaps we will find another the next time we venture out to connect old roads and trails to Vernon. -Norma Manning