WHITE MOUNTAIN TRAILS
TALES OF THE TRAILS
TO THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT WASHINGTON AND OTHER SUMMITS OF THE WHITE HILLS
BY
WINTHROP PACKARD
Author of "Florida Trails," "Literary Pilgrimage of a Naturalist," ''Wild Pastures," etc.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1912
BY SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
Entered at Stationers' Hall
Printers
S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
Sunrise from the summit of Mount Washington
TO THE
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB
WHOSE PATHS MADE IT POSSIBLE
THIS BOOK IS APPRECIATINGLY DEDICATED
FOREWORD
THE author wishes to express his thanks to the editors of the
"Boston Evening Transcript" for permission to reprint in this volume
matter originally contributed to the columns of that paper; to Mr.
Frederick Endicott of Canton, Massachusetts, for permission to
reproduce his photographs of "Sunrise on Mount Washington," "Clouds Cascading over the Northern Peaks," "Fog on Mount
Cannon," and "Lafayette from Bald Mountain"; to the Appalachian
Mountain Club for the shelter of cosy camps so hospitably Open to all
wayfarers; and to many mountain people, especially those who dwell
summers in the tiny hamlet on Mount Washington Summit, for unassuming
hospitality and friendly guidance.
ILLUSTRATIONS
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Sunrise from the summit of Mount Washington
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"The smooth highway over which thousands of automobiles skim in long
summer processions from Massachusetts to the Mountains"
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"You realize the grandness and beauty of this outpost sentinel of the White Hills"
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"The shadowy coolness of evening was welling up and blotting the gold of sunset from the treetops"
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The Glen Ellis River at Jackson, New Hampshire, Thorn Mountain in the distance
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Down the Wildcat River, over the brink of Jackson Falls, Moat Mountain in the distance
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"From nowhere does one get a better view of Kearsarge than from this
little cairn on the plateau which is the summit of Iron Mountain"
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Sunset over Iron Mountain and Jackson, seen from Thorn Mountain
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Kearsarge and Bartlett, seen from Middle Mountain, near Jackson
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From Eagle Mountain one may see Kearsarge, blue and symmetrical in the distance, peering over the shoulder of Thorn
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Sunset light on the Southern Peaks, seen from the summit of Mount Washington
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Clouds on Mount Washington, from the Glen Road, Jackson
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Carter Notch seen over Doublehead from Kearsarge summit
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"Always climbing by easy gradients toward the great V in the Carter-Moriah Range"
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The Appalachian Mountain Club camp in Carter Notch
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"The snow arch at the head of Tuckerman's Ravine holds winter in its heart all summer long"
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"Then the shadows are deep under the black growth that spires up all
about the little placid sheet of water, though it still reflects the
sapphire blue of the clear sky above"
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The Appalachian Mountain Club camp in Tuckerman's Ravine
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"The giant is awake, has tossed his bedclothes high in air, and is striding away along the notch behind their shielding fluff"
-
"It all depends on what winds Father Aeolus keeps chained, perhaps in
the deep caverns of the Great Gulf, or which ones he lets loose to
rattle the chains of the Tip Top House"
-
"The more distant valleys were deeply hazed in this amethystine blue,
but the nearer peaks and plateaus stood so clear above them that it
seemed as if one might leap to the Lakes of the Clouds or step across
the Great Gulf to Jefferson in one giant's stride"
-
"Dawn on the mornings of those days was born out of the sky above the
summit, as if the fading stars left some of their shine behind them"
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Butterfly-time on Mount Washington, the summit seen over the larger of the Lakes of the Clouds
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The fantastic lion's head which, carved in stone, guards the trail along Boott's Spur toward the summit cone of Washington
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"Semidea persistently haunts the great gray rock-pile which is the summit cone"
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"The stocky, square-headed, white-faced cattle may well feel themselves
superior to these beings far below who groom and feed them"
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Mountain Sandwort in bloom on a little lawn near Mount Pleasant on the last day in July
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Clouds on the Northern Peaks, Mount Adams seen from Mount Washington summit
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"Where the path swings round the east side of Jefferson"
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Cataract of clouds pouring over the Northern Peaks into the Great Gulf, seen from the summit of Mount Washington
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"Dwarfed firs, beautiful in their courage, set spires along portions of
their borders, dark, straight lashes for clear blue eyes"
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Spaulding Lake at the head of the Great Gulf, Mounts Adams and Madison in the distance
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"Profile of Webster," looking toward Crawford Notch from the old Crawford farmhouse site
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"Where railroad, highway, and river draw together and touch elbows in passing through the gateway of the Notch"
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"Just below the nick of the Notch you may see where the Silver Cascade
and the Flume Cascade hurry down from their birth on Mount Jackson, and
farther down the vast slope of Webster"
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In the heart of Crawford Notch, the summit of Jackson on the distant horizon
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"As if giants had carved a huge, preposterous figure of a flying bird there for a sign to all who pass"
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"Nor is this to be said in any scorn of the lumberman, He bought the
woods and is using them now for the purpose for which he spent his
money"
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"My way to the Giant's Stairs lay over the high shoulder of Iron
Mountain, where the road shows you all the kingdoms of the mountain
world spread out below"
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"From the top tread of the Giant's Stairs one sees half of the mountain world, the half to southward"
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"On the way the gray brow of Mount Cannon looks in through the gaps in the foliage"
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Profile Lake, Franconia Notch, and Mount Lafayette from Bald Mountain
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"Such beauties as these the mountains set daily before the eyes of the
man who hewed out the highest farm in New England on the high shoulder
of a westerly spur of Wildcat Mountain"
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"The Glen Boulder has a George Washington nose, a Booker Washington chin, and the low forehead of the cave man"
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The Crawford trail along Franklin, Mount Pleasant in the distance
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"The world was blotted out in a gray mass of scudding vapor that
gradually became black night out of which by and by rain came hissing"
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