August 4, 2022
Last week, I finished a twelve-year project of hiking all the trails in the White Mountain Guide (NH). That’s over 650 trails with over 1450 miles. I actually hiked well over 2000 miles since most of my hikes were solo and I had to turn around and hike back to the car on non-loop hikes. Add in the many repeats of certain trails to complete the NH Grid, and that’s likely well over 3000 miles total.
It’s the end of an era. Now for the rest of my life.
All hiking from here on out will be for my LifeQuest, except for any hikes I do in other countries. I do indeed plan on hiking in other countries – I have already done so in Iceland, England, and Spain – but I won’t account for those hikes here on this blog.
So – Vermont – its only national park site is an hour and a half away from my current home. It’s been a week since I’ve hiked anything, and I wanted so badly to walk all the trails at this site, but alas, with a heat index of over 95, I couldn’t bear walking more than a mile. I will be back to hike this site’s 20 miles of trails when the temperature is lower. I’ll add to this blog post with photos and trail descriptions after my next visit.
I did enter the visitor’s center and go on the mansion tour on this first visit, though. I skipped the Billings’ Farm tour since that costs money. The mansion tour also costs money, and I only pay for one tour at most for each site visit. Note it’s advisable to book tours in advance, but I got lucky and snagged the last spot on the mansion tour right after I walked into the visitor’s center.
The visitor’s center has a few wall displays with information about the Billings-Marsh-Rockefeller families. I did not take photos inside.
This site once housed the birthplace of George Perkins Marsh. George Marsh was the first white man to realize that human actions could destroy the physical earth as we know it, and that perhaps folks ought not to ruin natural environments but preserve them instead. In 1864, he published the first book on the subject, Man and Nature. I write the first white man and not the first man, as the park service literature and the tour guide say, because I am pretty sure more than one Native American population realized and lived by the let’s-not-ruin-our-environment philosophy before my ancestors and their countrymen arrived and destroyed everything in the name of “civilization” and “progress.”
The Marsh family sold the property to Frederick Billings in 1869, who took the main house and transformed it into today’s gigantic mansion. One of the Billings’ daughters married a Rockefeller, and the Rockefeller money helped with the upkeep. The mansion, grounds, and public hiking trails became part of the National Park Service in 1998.
To enter the mansion, one must be part of a guided tour. Thankfully there are fans and air conditioning units in the building or I don’t think I could have stuck it out for the hour+.
It’s ironic how the wood in the mansion came from the deforestation of an area near Lake Superior. So the giant home of a conservationist family destroyed the environment of a different state to avoid using the trees in Vermont.
The mansion has the kind of furniture and old books one would expect to see in a mansion used by the wealthy. I especially liked the wall ornamentation on the first floor, which is not wallpaper but wood carvings painted with silver and other metals.
The garden sits right outside the mansion, and I made quick work of walking the paths. I then tried to hike trails, but the oppressive heat and humidity immediately did me in. I’ll be back before the end of the season to hike the 20 miles, and I’ll then add to this post with photos and a trip report.
August 13, 2022
The temperature is back to normal for these parts, thank goodness. I arrived just after daybreak to hit all trails east and south of The Pogue (the little pond in the middle of the park).
The map provided by the Park Service is helpful but not completely accurate. I hiked all the carriage roads and trails to the best of my ability and knowledge…sometimes the paths were not where they were supposed to be. The carriage roads (closed to vehicles) are wide and easy and straightforward enough, it’s the footpaths…some have branches not on the map, and some have branches that may have disappeared. For the most part, the map is decent. Just be prepared to get confused in certain places if you venture off the carriage roads.
There are some beautiful views in them thar woods. I’ve included a smattering below, including one photo of gorgeous pines planted by Billings in the early 1900s. There are several such pine groves in the park; I’ll visit many more of them when I return to hike the other side of this area.
I may wait to return to hike the other trails and carriage roads until fall rolls around. I imagine this area is breathtaking when the leaves turn.
Trails of other public lands abut this park, so one can easily take an entire day and hike well over 30 miles if one wants to explore the surrounding areas. I’m keeping my hiking within the park boundaries.
I’ll add my final visit report and photos to the end of this post.
September 11, 2022
Finished the trails today, all of them north and west of the little pond called The Pogue. It was a mix of carriage roads and mostly-maintained paths amongst planted pine forest stands dating back to the early 1900s. Not all the trails were maintained and there were some herd paths here and there, but I think I figured it out.
