Listen in to Robin and Barb of the Green Mountain Club, Bennington Section, discussing their Wilderness First Aid course that they attended this past summer.
If there is one message that we all should consider when hiking it is :
BE PREPARED
References for the 10 Essentials of Hiking that is mentioned in this podcast

• https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/ten-essentials.html
• https://www.rei.com/learn/c/hiking/t/checklists
• https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/what-are-the-ten-essentials
• https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/the-day-hikers-ten-essentials
• https://www.nps.gov/articles/10essentials.htm

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Thinking about taking a journey across the northern part of America with a visit to Banff National Park in Canada?
Wondering what you may see along the way?
Reed and Kathy, of our Green Mountain Club, engaged in a 6 week, multi thousand mile road trip during the summer of 2023. With their Prius towing their trusty 'Trudy' (their sleep-mobile), 2 bicycles on the roof sharing space with a 16 foot canoe, they conquered the roads, the mountains, and were rewarded with the incredible beauty and adventure of national monuments and forests.
Join them on the podcast below as they fill in the details of their awe inspiring travel.
PS: you will hear in the podcast a reference to the above mentioned travel book. Sounds like "Road Trip" is a 'must read' if you are seeking the slower, more scenic backroads of America on your next road trip. 
Got your next Road Trip scheduled?

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Located just off Route 9 in Woodford you'll see an old road/hiking path into the woods. Follow this for about a mile and you'll arrive at the old, abandoned Waters Hill Cemetery. This fascinating glimpse into history contains gravestones from 1794 - 1861. Imagine what life must have been like in this remote area during the early 1800's! Below are 2 articles about this remarkable place. This walk is 1.8 miles round trip with about 420 feet of elevation gain.

You can click the files to read them or see the full text below.

Waters Hill Cemetery
From Woodford Town Report

Waters Hill Cemetery or as some called it Eddy Cemetery, is located on Waters Hill (so-called). It is about 2 miles in from Route 9, just inside the township of Woodford from Bennington. The old cemetery is about 20 yards off an old logging road. It is not easy to find, unless you know when to look for it. As described in the Bennington county Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1880-1881, "An old cemetery established about one hundred years ago by the side of this road on the hill surrounded by a stone wall, is thickly grown up with trees and shrubbery, and one has to look sharply to find the many headstones. On a visit to this neglected resting place of Woodford's pioneers, the oldest inscription found on a plain marble slab, was as follows:

In Memory of Mr. Otis Eddy,
Who died Oct. 22nd, 1794 In the 22d year of his age.
Death, like an overthrowing stream,
sweeps us away, our life a dream.

As you hike up the hill towards the cemetery, if you look closely, you will find several old cellar holes from buildings or homes that must have once been there. I often wonder how difficult life must have been for those families that lived, worked and died there. If you notice the names and ages on the gravestones, you will find many children buried there. How sad that must have been for our early settlers

Below are the inscriptions on the headstones located at that cemetery Inscriptions

In memory of Mr. Otis Eddy who died Oct 22, 1794 in the 22 year of his age
In memory of Mr. Obediah Eddy who departed this life May 4, 1826, aged 75 years
In memory of Mrs. Phebe Eddy who departed this life May 27, 1821, aged 75 years

Two inscriptions on one stone -
Anna wife of Ebenezer Temple died May 9, 1806 in the 4 7th year of her age
Amy, dau of Ebenezer § Anna Temple died Oct 29, 1840 in the 51 year of her age

In memory of Mr. Nathan Taft who died January 215 1809 aged 54 years 9 months and 26 days
In memory of Mr. Spencer Lyon who died Dec 26, 1827 aged 70 years & months §18 days
Mrs. Mary Lyon, widow of Spencer Lyon died Nov 7, 1840 aged 82 years
In memory of Mrs. Rhoda Lyon wife of Mr. Elisha Lyon who died June 30th 1829 aged 33 years 28 days


Four inscriptions on one stone -
Sophronia died August 8, aged 14 months and 2 days
Emely died April 30th 1822, aged 1 year & 8 months
Proper died October, 1825, aged 6 months
Truman R. died Nov 24, 1827 aged 6 months and 6 days
The children of Elisha & Rhoda Lyon

Two inscriptions on one stone-
Zadock E. son of Elisha and Sally Lyon, died June 21, 1835 aged I year § 8 mon

Mary A dau of Elisha & Sally Lyon died June 23, 1855, aged 3 mon.
Rachel, dau Of Wm. § Susan Wood died April 1830 age 12 years 3 mon
Susan, wife of William wood died Dec. 6, 1832 age 27 years
Joseph Bickford died Feb 22, 1837 in the 38th year of his age
Harriette. Daughter of Cyrus § Phebe Knapp; died May 27, 1838; age I yr. 9 mo., 6 days
Amy c. wife of Joseph Bickford died Oct 31, 1839 age 44
Eunice E, Daughter of Philites & Sally Knapp, died Nov 15, 1839 age 2 years, 1 mon. & 6
days.

Two inscriptions on one stone-
George W. Knapp: died May 11, 1841; aged 3 yr. 8 mon
Charlotte Maria Knapp died May 13, 1841; aged 1 years, 10 mon, &9 dys

The children of Charles and Mancy Knapp
Joseph Knapp, Esq.-died May 9, 1854; age 78
Martha A. Wife of S.B. Cotton died Feb 13, 1856. Age 35 years
Caroline E, daughter of Wm § Polly Knap; died Apr. 11, 1861. Age 21 years & 6 mon
Samuel Harris died July 19, 1868; Age 85 years, 5 m's 9 d’s

The early settlers of Woodford lived up there because they worked as loggers. I imagine that life must have been very hard there. The snow can be very deep at times and the temperatures extremely cold. I think of the conveniences we have now and wonder how they survived. Gardening must have been difficult in Woodford's rocky soil, but they could have raised sheep and cows. There probably weren't many trips to Bennington for supplies as the trek on foot or horseback would have been long 

It is reported that by the late 1800s all of vermont was 80% deforested due to logging and land clearing for farms. That section of Woodford became deserted probably because a particular logging outfit closed
 Here are some interesting facts found from reading the inscriptions on the gravestones:

• The first person buried there was Otis Eddy. Or maybe he wasn't buried there at all. His tombstone says "In Memory of “ So maybe the tombstone was only a stone in remembrance.

 

• The cemetery is sometimes referred to as Eddy cemetery probably because he was the first person remembered there.
• Samuel Harris was the oldest person at age 85 years, 5 months, 9 days and he was the last person buried there in 1868 according to the gravestones.
• George, ages, and Charlotte, age 1 died 2 days apart. They were children of Charles and Nancy Knapp
• There are a total of 27 inscriptions described here, but I did notice on a recent hike there were some other unreadable tombstones. So, there is no way to determine how many people were actually buried there with or even without a gravestone.
• According to the inscriptions we have, the average life expectancy was 29 years.
• Looking at only the adults, ages 21 - 85, the median age at time of death was 44 years
• Of the 27 total inscriptions, 11 of them were children. 10 of the 11 were age 3 and under.
• Of the adults ages 21 - 85, 7 were men and 9 were women

Waters Hill Cemetery is the resting place of many of the early founders of Woodford. I'm grateful to them for providing headstones for us to remember them by. Unfortunately, due to difficulties in maintaining this remote cemetery, the area is being taken over by foliage and trees. However, I encourage you to take a hike up there someday, read the inscriptions and try to imagine the life our founding fathers and mothers had living on the side of Waters Hill.

What life could have looked like living on Waters Hill in the 1800's.

Around 1800 the concept of each tooth of a saw being the same on a saw was challenged by creating teeth that cut, alternating with teeth that raked out the cut fibers. Antique Crosscut saws have high-quality steel, which makes them durable and coveted. They deliver clean-finished cuts with their smaller teeth even today.
Prior to the steel and tooth design by these innovative companies, a tree was felled by an axe and then cut into pieces using cross cut saws of straight teeth design. Saws with a straight back and generally used by a single person are called Bucking saws. The modern 2 man cross cut saw of 1850 allowed  saws to fell and cut the trees into smaller segments.  These saws were extensively used from 1850 through early 1900's. Companies such as Disston, E.C. Atkins, Simmons and Harvey Peace were the main suppliers of Cross Cut saws to the world.
Listen to the included  podcast to learn more of the sawyer class that one of our Bennington Section members attended.

The Sawyer training and certification class was sponsored by GMC HQ. They needed certified persons in felling trees for summer  projects.
Class was held near Pico Mountain, east of Rutland, on private land.
Below are various images and videos taken during the 3 day class.

Final Felling of large tree, using wedges to force final movement. Long movie but worth the watching!

Using Buck Saw to cut fallen tree

Using triangulation to determine how tall the tree is and how far it will fall

The following log entries are from June 2019 to spring 2020. These trail logs are for hikers to post any and all thoughts along their journey.

My Urban Adventure in Flooded Calgary, Alberta – June 2013 
by Lorna Cheriton
 
Flying to Alberta, Canada in June to visit my parents and sisters, I had a number of people exclaim that they hoped I was not going to Calgary. A state of emergency had been declared in the city following historic flooding due to a record snowfall in the Rocky Mountains combined with an extremely rainy month. I was indeed headed for Calgary, where my sister Mary lives in Lakeview, a district so unaffected by the flooding that TV filming of the disaster in the other Calgary districts of Bowness and Elbow Park looked like images disasters from the opposite side of the world.

The first two days of our time together, Mary and I obeyed the authorities’ injunctions to stay away (so that emergency crews were not hindered by traffic blocking their way to flooded areas). But on Wednesday June 27, we rode our bikes to the deserted downtown area (power was out so most companies were closed). Stopping for a drink from our water bottles, we were alone in the plaza which is normally crowded.

Crossing to the Elbow River bike path, we discovered a river swollen to many times its normal size (even though it had obviously gone down considerably as evidenced by the collapsed banks and by the debris left high in trees and on bridges. A twisted and destroyed bike-and-pedestrian bridge was blocked by plywood and guarded by a policewoman, in case anyone was so foolish as to try to cross it.  A few days before, canoeists had launched into the flood-level Bow River and had to be rescued, prompting the mayor to exclaim, with some vehemence, that he had thought it unnecessary but would now declare that “the river is closed and absolutely off-limits!”

On Thursday Mary and I drove across the city to her friend Heidi's home, concerned that Heidi and her daughter would be returning from Africa having learned of the flood only the night before when they regained Internet connections. We found streets muddy ...and parking at a premium, since city vehicles and people coming to help all needed spaces, and homeowners needed to keep access to the mountains of debris being hauled out from their homes if dump trucks were going to be able to haul it away. Residents had been advised to put signs in their windows telling what they needed. The normally quiet residential streets were as active as a festival although people were in “recovery” attire – the “uniform” being rubber boots, work gloves and with breathing masks over their mouths and noses. 

At Heidi's we found a crowd – her co-workers, soccer team-mates and friends had hauled everything from her basement, spreading potentially salvageable items across the lawn and heaping non-salvageable trash into a mountain of muddy bulges in the driveway and edge of the street.  Someone finished with the hose, so I coiled and carried the lengths to where I could hose down objects in the driveway and on the lawn.  Car carrier, mirrors from the bar, liquor bottles, furniture, clothes, bikes and sports equipment ( even a silver tea set) - all were covered with a hard-packed coating of clay from the river.  Later, a couple from an unaffected district approached us to offer help and spent several hours with us, peeling photographs out of clay and washing them in buckets where the water quickly turned as brown as the river.  We had barely started work when people in the street approached us, offering food.  I had brought a water bottle and several granola bars, but throughout our work, both adults and children from unscathed areas of the city brought bottles of cold water, fruit, cookies, sandwiches and muffins. Stations set up on street corners were laden with food, drink, work gloves, and masks, with porta-potties nearby.

On Friday evening, some young women came by inviting us to a neighborhood party where they promised Calgary's famous sausages would be grilled for volunteers. Meandering down to check it out, we crossed a plank over the Moat, a ditch whose depth had increased to 3 feet because of the flooding. An apparently abandoned lot had been set up with free beer, tables of food, and a large banner across the entrance embellished with the image of a cowboy hat and the message “This is how we giddy-up.” People climbed on a ladder to add their thoughts to the banner; others wrote their answers to questions posted on big poster paper tacked to the side of a building -

1. Q. How have I made a difference today? “ Helping people, not just the cute girls.” 
2. What was your favorite moment? A. “seeing people helping people”… “seeing happy newlyweds toasting everyone in front of their flooded home”… “knowing we are close now; we are community”… “this is the first time in 6 years that I really feel Calgary is my home” 
3. What made you cry? A. “strangers coming to help us out”… “orphans in Cambodia donating to help us” … “seeing an elderly man pull a dry photograph from a flooded basement and finding it was of his wedding in World War II Germany”
4. What gives you hope? A.“What we are going to build here!” 

​THE RADIO HIKING NETWORK
An overweight, 61 year old retiree, with zero hiking experience, decided to hike the entire 2,185.3 mile length of the Appalachian Trail in 2014. What could possibly go wrong? Join Steve and his guests as they discuss all aspects of the trail, from gear to Lyme Disease, then back to trail magic and injury.
You will find a scrolling list of previous podcasts at the bottom of this page

Use this link to access Steve's many podcasts.
​Scroll down this page to find the list of previous podcasts.

You may recognize this amazing person if you are from the Massachusetts, Vermont area.
​Listen to Sylvia discuss her hiking experiences and insights.

Trail Work is the major focus of the Bennington Section of the GMC in spring, so here's a look back at some of the highlights and memorable experiences of previous trail clearing years:

• Encountering hikers who expressed their gratitude for our work and told us our Section of trail is in better shape than so many others
• A day trip in which we hiked out of Spring, uphill and right back into Winter, finding a snow-covered trail and discovering that the white blazes we painted on dripping tree trunks ran like wet snow down the bark of the trees
• Hearing choruses of toads in vernal pools
• Seeing clouds of yellow trout lilies and getting right down on the ground to appreciate their delicate beauty
• When Celia was very new to the Bennington GMC, she volunteered for an ambitious trail work day trip and determinedly resolved to keep up with the experienced trail workers. She finished the trip very tired but, far from being cured of associating with us, looked forward to more hikes with the group, including trail work.  In 2012 Celia accompanied Lorna on a trail work trip up Harmon Hill, leading a group of 5 enthusiastic boy scouts earning backpacking badges and their 2 leaders.  (The boys favorite aspect of the trip was looking for trees they were justified in sawing, and yelling “Timber” when they did so.)

2013
Terri Armata's Spring Flora and Wildlife Notes

If we have a warm, rainy evening, watch for amphibians (frogs, salamanders)  as they journey  across roads to pools to breed.  If you find a vernal pool, take a look for jelly-like masses of frog and salamander eggs.
 
Look up! Raptors are making their way north too. The Broad-Winged Hawks should be moving through our area in mid-April to the beginning of May. 

Be on the lookout on nice warm days for Mourning Cloak, Eastern Comma, and Compton Tortoiseshell Butterflies on dirt roads or forest trails.  In rich hardwood woods, the white butterfly seen weakly flying is either the West Virginia White or the Mustard White. 

Check out an exciting new Citizen Science website: eButterfly! Now you can enter your observations just like eBIrd. Vermont Center for Ecostudies is coordinating it in this State.
​ 
So... Binocs, field guides and pencils in hand everyone. This is an exciting time of year.