... i woke up early, which is another way of saying i stayed up way too late, to find a little e-note from john, "if you're around want to go for a little exploring" ... i did, so, after a quick shower and shave, i was downstairs just as the man-with-the-plan arrived ... we drove down through china until we found the yorktown road ... after a mile or so driving on gravel and dirt we arrived at the trailhead for thurston park ... immediately it was clear that, unlike louisiana, central maine could use some rain ...
... even in the drought-like conditions, however, life springs anew in the forest ...
... there were unwelcome hints of autumn too soon to be ...
... go ahead, say its name five times fast ...
... along the trail were the remains of the chamberlain farm ... it's hard to visualize that all the land in this area was once cleared and planted ...
... someone had done a bit of casual archeology ... archeologists hate this, of course, since it's often that in the ground the relationship of objects to one another provides more information than the actual objects themselves ... in this case, i'm sure, it's probably not really a problem, and my bet would be that any loss is more than outweighed by how those who found the objects became excited about history ...
... "potshards" are an archeologist's dream ... the ceramic will survive almost any environment, and they're relatively easy to date ... there have been times when the discovery of a single potshard has radically altered accepted history ...
... there were many trails diverging from the main path ...
... much of the area is at the edge of a swampy bog, a place where ferns thrive ...
... i'd like to have a '56 chevy in these colors ...
... there isn't really death in the forest, just change ...
... as he walked john talked of the times as a child when he, his father, and his grandfather, would come to these very woods to hunt deer ... as he ever so softly recounted dozens of tales of his childhood my mind slowly filled with the memories of my own father, and the times we would quietly stroll through the dark alaskan wilderness ... growing up we moved every couple of years, so, unlike john, i cannot ever easily connect to the physical locations of my youth ... but, listening to john, in a forest i had never before walked, i began to slowly sense my father's presence ... a gift for which i am most grateful, john, thank you ...
... quiet ...
... a soft bed of moss, as i remember was the tundra in alaska ...
... from ground level i investigated the forest ...
... even before the trunk falls reclamation begins ...
"An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day."
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
... if a tree is falling in the forest, are we waiting to hear it ... ??? ...
... on our way out we traversed a very well-defined glacial esker ... although it's difficult to discern in this photograph since my 12mm wasn't wide enough (8mm rokinon, fuji x mount, for christmas, just in case you're already shopping), if you look closely you can see how the trail is atop a very steep sided ridge of sand and gravel ...
... when the ice sheet covered this land it was so thick that the pressure at its bottom surface caused melting ... the water running through the glacier was like the blood vessels in your body ... when the glacier finally retreated the little under-ice rivers clogged up with sand and gravel, leaving a pattern of generally north-south ridges twisting across the landscape ... the native americans found these most convenient for paths, many of which would later become roads and highways ... during the era of road building in the last century most of the easily accessed eskers were mined, so, in southern maine especially, very few of them remain intact ...
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| COURTESY MiTEP |
... we left just as the day's heat and humidity were descending into the forest ...
... from parameter hill ... 90.86 miles distant, right to the very extreme of the theoretical limit, the 6,200 foot summit of mount washington peaks above the southwestern horizon ... if central maine was at sea level only the radio antennas on the top of the mountain would show, but adding parameter's 600 foot height to the trigonometric equation results in the appearance of a good portion of mt. washington's dramatic profile ...
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| COURTESY JOHN MEADER |
... from parameter hill ... 90.86 miles distant, right to the very extreme of the theoretical limit, the 6,200 foot summit of mount washington peaks above the southwestern horizon ... if central maine was at sea level only the radio antennas on the top of the mountain would show, but adding parameter's 600 foot height to the trigonometric equation results in the appearance of a good portion of mt. washington's dramatic profile ...
... a most excellent morning wanderabout ...