New Ipswich (and other New England towns) have what I call 'welcoming' mountains which are full of life and beckon the wanderer. Mountains that are steep and rocky and lacking vegetation like many out West, do not call me to their peaks. The Wapack trail may have been less forested and maybe some high elevation areas due to the 38 hurricane, but I suspect most areas haven't changed that much. Of course the valleys were impacted by human settlers in the 1800s and those areas have grown back so that NH and Vt are more forested now than a 100 yrs ago.
When hiking out in the deep forests of New Ipswich we used to be surprised to find the number of stone walls out in the forests. We realized that at one point all that land had been cleared and it was pasture land. One could see the peak of Kidder Mountain in the 1960's from the town pool but the forest trees grew taller and the mountain could no longer be seen by the mid 1970's.
I'm quite sure that the man in the photo labeled "Father Time" is Frank Robbins. I've seen a few photos of him holding a scythe and an axe. These were his main tools to maintain the Wapack Trail.
New Ipswich (and other New England towns) have what I call 'welcoming' mountains which are full of life and beckon the wanderer. Mountains that are steep and rocky and lacking vegetation like many out West, do not call me to their peaks. The Wapack trail may have been less forested and maybe some high elevation areas due to the 38 hurricane, but I suspect most areas haven't changed that much. Of course the valleys were impacted by human settlers in the 1800s and those areas have grown back so that NH and Vt are more forested now than a 100 yrs ago.
When hiking out in the deep forests of New Ipswich we used to be surprised to find the number of stone walls out in the forests. We realized that at one point all that land had been cleared and it was pasture land. One could see the peak of Kidder Mountain in the 1960's from the town pool but the forest trees grew taller and the mountain could no longer be seen by the mid 1970's.
I'm quite sure that the man in the photo labeled "Father Time" is Frank Robbins. I've seen a few photos of him holding a scythe and an axe. These were his main tools to maintain the Wapack Trail.
Ha, I thought he might be doing a New Years Eve hike
Interesting to see how much less forested the Wapack was back then.
I'm guessing most of these photos were taken in the 1930s