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Woodside, Christine

Appalachia 
Volume 58 
Number 1 Winter/Spring 2007: Reflections on 
the 1970s Hiking Boom 
Article 17 
2006 
A Peak Ahead: Time in the Backcountry 
Christine Woodside 
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Woodside, Christine (2006) "A Peak Ahead: Time in the Backcountry," Appalachia: Vol. 58: No. 1, Article 
17. 
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144 appalachia
A Peak Ahead
Time in the Backcountry
Anyone who believes that time stops in the mountains hasn’t marched like 
a zombie back to the road in the dark. Yet time does pass differently in the 
backcountry than in the city. in a sense, it stops. or perhaps it slows down. 
in the summer-Fall 2007 issue, Appalachia will consider whether the clock or 
our internal rhythms drive us if we go out into nature, where we see the sun 
all day, and where appointments barely exist.
Alaskan writer and Appalachia contributing editor Jeff Fair will describe 
the bizarre loss of the sense of time during the Arctic summer. Laura Water-
man writes from East Corinth, Vermont, reflecting on homesteading and 
hiking with a different approach to time. An essay will examine the strange 
history of Daylight saving Time, which may or may not mean anything at all 
in the outdoors.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the AMC’s Four Thousand Footer 
Club, we will interview longtime members on the phenomenon of peak-
bagging and the achievements of the club. Connecticut writer David Leff 
writes about climbing all of the Four Thousand Footers with his son.
in other articles, Adam R. Moore, a forester and the executive director 
of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association, writes on what legal rights 
Americans have to walk on long-established trails. Adventure writer Margie 
Goldsmith describes her unique trip to Mongolia, where nomads live in tents. 
Michael B. Patterson recounts his adventures with wildlife on Ellesmere island. 
World War ii veteran David sills tells his story of climbing a remote volcano 
in the Aleutians with fellow ski troopers during the war.
so let time stop when the next Appalachia is published, and you might get 
lost in the text. Until then, keep in touch.
—Christine Woodside
Editor-in-Chief
christine.woodside@gmail.com
Appalachia_07WS.FINAL.indd   144 11/8/06   4:07:57 PM



English

A Peak Ahead: Time in the Backcountry

Manning, David T.

Appalachia 
Volume 58 
Number 1 Winter/Spring 2007: Reflections on 
the 1970s Hiking Boom 
Article 21 
2006 
Hiking Mount San Jacinto 
David T. Manning 
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 Part of the Poetry Commons 
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Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol58/iss1/21 
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Hiking Mount San Jacinto

McNeil, Christian

Appalachia 
Volume 57 
Number 1 Summer/Fall 2006: Bringing the 
Journey Home 
Article 3 
2006 
Huts and Human Nature 
Christian McNeil 
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Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol57/iss1/3 
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 appalaChia
Huts and Human Nature
Bringing the Wild Home
Christian McNeil
if wildness can stop being (just) out there and start being (also) in here, if it 
can start being as humane as it is natural, then perhaps we can get on with the 
unending task of struggling to live rightly in the world—not just in the garden, 
not just in the wilderness, but in the home that encompasses them both. 
—William Cronon, in Uncommon Ground:  
Rethinking the Human Place in Nature
one snoWy evening late in oCtoBeR, When i Was WoRKing at Zealand Falls Hut in the White Mountain national Forest, our only 
guests were eight members of an extended family. since it was chilly, one of 
the fathers was lobbying hard to bring in the heavy iron woodstove from the 
storage closet, where it was supposed to remain until the winter caretakers 
arrived a few days later. “We could split some wood and haul that stove in 
here no problem,” he told us, as he commissioned his teenage son to help out. 
“We’re from Vermont, so we know how to build a fire.” 
He made offers to this effect several times throughout the evening, with 
emphasis on the fact that they were from Vermont and knew about such 
things. While at first i took it as good-natured hectoring, his persistence got 
on my nerves as the night wore on. Finally, after dinner, i asked them where 
they really came from, “because no one who’s accustomed to splitting wood 
for heat would be this eager to do that kind of work.”
After a sheepish pause, one of the women, who seemed to be the guy’s 
wife, confirmed my suspicions. “We’re actually Massholes,” she admitted, and 
my testiness dissolved amidst everyone’s laughter. They had been living in 
Vermont for only about a year. 
View into Zealand Notch from Zealand Falls Hut. AMC Photo ArChives
Appalachia_06SF.FINAL.indd   8 5/11/06   7:08:43 PM
summeR/Fall 200 
Appalachia_06SF.FINAL.indd   9 5/11/06   7:08:44 PM
10 appalaChia
As someone who grew up in steep 
Falls, Maine, i was amused to find 
someone whose pretensions sought 
to approximate a rustic, rural hick 
rather than a sophisticated urban pro-
fessional. But to other friends of mine 
who also have worked in the huts, the 
story is also funny because it unearths 
and explodes such pretensions, which 
are eerily common among guests in 
wild places.
surrounded as they are by forests 
and mountains, it is easy to forget 
that the huts have some very urban 
characteristics. Their visitors and em-
ployees are predominantly from cities 
and suburbs, and the food that they 
serve is routed through urban ports 
and boards of exchange worldwide. 
Most of the places where people go 
to escape urban places, from exur-
ban subdivisions with pastoral names 
to the uninhabited timberlands of 
northern Maine, similarly rely upon 
urban institutions. 
i do not regret the huts’ close 
relationship to the cities, nor should 
anyone else. if not for civilization, the huts would not exist, and as much as i 
admire self-reliance, a complete devotion to the principle results in personal 
self-rule, lonely and brutal. As someone who has lived with satisfaction both 
in the backcountry of new Hampshire and in the middle of Houston, Texas, 
i wouldn’t mind if the huts are subordinate to the urban, so long as the rela-
tionships are clear, honest, and easily understood. However, even conserva-
tion-minded individuals run the risk of misunderstanding those relationships 
when they romanticize the north Country as a pristine wilderness or as an 
escape from the cities. As the region becomes more of a tourist attraction for 
transient consumers and less a productive geography of forestry and agricul-
ture, the north Country runs the risk of losing its sense of interdependence 
Dinner preparations at Lakes of the 
Clouds. AMC Photo ArChives
Appalachia_06SF.FINAL.indd   10 5/11/06   7:08:44 PM
summeR/Fall 200 11
with its natural resources, and becoming suburban in the usual sense of the 
word.
The landscape of conspicuous consumption has a solid foot in the doors to 
the White Mountains, from the outlet stores of north Conway and Lincoln 
to the very summits of ski resorts and Mount Washington state Park. But the 
backcountry huts, of all places, ought to be a refuge from this. Unfortunately, 
to some, the huts themselves are merely a convenient way to consume the 
White Mountain experience as though it were a fad coffee drink. For visitors 
like these, hiking in the Whites is merely an element for bragging rights in an 
urbanite’s effort to construct a more rustic, rural identity. 
Thankfully, even if some people see the huts as just another consumable 
experience, the huts offer much more than that: a relationship to nature that 
is neither ironic nor complex. The huts offer the opportunity for people and 
wild nature to co-exist successfully and comfortably, and there is little artifice 
Inside Madison Spring Hut. AMC Photo ArChives
Appalachia_06SF.FINAL.indd   11 5/11/06   7:08:45 PM
12 appalaChia
involved in the production of visitors’ backcountry experiences. This, again, 
is what makes the hut experience distinctive: an authenticity that stems from 
a more direct, visible relationship with the natural environment. 
Too much of what people take for “nature” boils down to postmodern 
consumer accouterments, whose actual relationships to the wild are distant 
or contorted. Any sport utility vehicle advertisement is evidence enough of 
society’s lost sense of what wilderness is, but on a more subtle level, we have 
the ironies of organic produce shipped from Thailand or new Zealand, or 
“nature stores” full of plastic trinkets in the decidedly unnatural habitat of 
shopping malls. 
The popularity of the huts suggests that people desire a 
direct relationship with nature. The solution may only be 
a matter of providing them opportunities to extend those 
experiences into their homes and workplaces throughout 
the eastern megalopolis.
in the huts, on the other hand, nature is very close at hand. The back-
country huts rely on sunlight and wind for the limited amount of electricity 
that they use, their water comes from deep and fragile mountain water tables, 
and most of the food they serve travels on foot over miles of rocky hiking 
trails. During the summer and fall, the AMC offers nightly naturalist pro-
grams that teach hut guests about the forests, alpine ecology, and human his-
tory of their surroundings. And in all seasons, i have encountered people who 
are intensely curious about how hut crews are able to live so many miles from 
the nearest road, how they collect electrical power from on-site renewable 
resources, and how they employ low-impact methods to deal with waste. By 
necessity, anyone who visits the huts comes remarkably close to local natural 
resources. in my experience, the people who take the time to learn about and 
appreciate them enjoy their stay much more than those who treat the huts 
as a mere escape from the ’burbs or as something to brag about at the water 
cooler on Monday. 
Even the people who honestly appreciate this closer relationship with 
nature too often think of the experience as being unique to the mountains—
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summeR/Fall 200 13
but while the Whites are certainly unique, the experience of living a low-
impact life need not be left behind when it’s time to drive home. Cities and 
suburbs must also deal with the environment by managing things like storm 
water, air quality, and social conditions. The difference between the inner 
cities and suburbs and the hinterlands of the huts is in the intimacy of those 
environmental relationships. on a hike to the huts, you assume responsibility 
for your own fuel, your own warmth, and your own waste. At home in the 
cities, the sources of these needs are more abstract. There, fuel and warmth 
come not from food or clothing that you carry, but from multinational oil 
and gas companies, while waste is silently piped away to distant landfills or 
sewage treatment facilities. The urban relationship to nature is no less real 
than the relationship experienced in the backcountry—it’s just less visible and 
more easily disregarded.
There is no good reason why “low impact” and “leave no trace” should be 
Whitewall Mountain and Zealand Notch. AMC Photo ArChives
Appalachia_06SF.FINAL.indd   13 5/11/06   7:08:46 PM
14 appalaChia
philosophies for the wilderness only. Consider what might happen if more 
people brought so-called “backcountry” ethics into their everyday lives. They 
might be more mindful of the fact that automobile emissions cause half of the 
air pollution in cities and make real efforts to drive less. That might allow less 
pavement and more green space to preserve water quality and prevent floods, 
and this might attract more wildlife into urban centers. Before long, cities 
might become cleaner, calmer, and wilder, less a place from which its citizens 
need to escape, and more a place in which it’s an honest pleasure to live. By 
integrating thoughtful consideration of the natural world into their everyday 
urban lives, people would enjoy richer recreational experiences when they do 
take vacations in places like the Whites. 
Consider this question: What is nature? is it a thing for passive consump-
tion on summer weekends, or is it a partner in a constant, vital, and conscious 
relationship? Many people would hope for the latter, but the former is the 
cultural routine and the path of least resistance. nevertheless, the popularity 
of the huts suggests that people desire a direct relationship with nature. The 
solution may only be a matter of providing them opportunities to extend 
those experiences into their homes and workplaces throughout the eastern 
megalopolis. 
Conservation organizations like the Audubon society and the Trust for 
Public Land actively practice urban conservation by advocating for parks and 
wildlife and educating new naturalists in the middle of our cities. individuals 
and non-profits both have the opportunity to leverage huge benefits for the 
environment by encouraging the preservation of smaller urban green spaces, 
extending inner-city educational programs, and providing more programs for 
low-impact urban living. 
The truth is, even Vermont has its fair share of “Massholes.” state of resi-
dence does not guarantee a genuine outdoors person, nor does a thousand-
dollar mountaineering outfit or a peak-bagger’s patch or any other material 
adornment. Whether one’s address is in Manhattan or newton, Massachu-
setts, or Berlin, new Hampshire, only the understanding, love, and respect of 
the place that is home can make a true conservationist. 
ChRistian MCneil, a former assistant hutmaster and winter caretaker at Zealand 
Falls Hut, last year worked as a community outreach specialist for two REi stores in 
the Houston area. He spent the winter and spring of 2006 as a caretaker at Carter 
notch Hut.
Appalachia_06SF.FINAL.indd   14 5/11/06   7:08:46 PM



Huts and Human Nature

Wentworth, Marjory

Appalachia 
Volume 57 
Number 1 Summer/Fall 2006: Bringing the 
Journey Home 
Article 19 
2006 
Sierra Snow 
Marjory Wentworth 
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 Part of the Poetry Commons 
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Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol57/iss1/19 
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summeR/Fall 200 31
Sierra Snow
Above the thin trails that wander
through thimbleberry and thistle,
where mariposa lilies flow like cream
across miles of sage, and junipers
sprout from granite, as if all they need
lives on the sun-dried air,
stubborn summer snow still clings 
to the mountainsides.
in the valley below, the river churns
blood through a boundless heart. 
—Marjory Wentworth
MaRjoRy WentWoRth’s poems have appeared in numerous books and magazines. 
A collection of poems, Noticing Eden, was published by 2003. she is the Poet Laureate 
of south Carolina. 
Appalachia_06SF.FINAL.indd   31 5/11/06   7:08:56 PM



Sierra Snow

Appalachia 
Volume 56 
Number 2 Winter/Spring 2006: Winter in the 
Whites and Beyond 
Article 20 
2005 
A Peak Ahead 
Christine Woodside 
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 Part of the Nonfiction Commons 
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Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol56/iss2/20 
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winter/sPring 200   151
A Peak Ahead
in 1987, when I was 28, i resigned from my job as a harried editor to 
hike the Appalachian Trail with my husband and two friends. i left a life in 
which people you met always asked, “What do you do?” For four and a half 
months, all we did was hike, and the mountains didn’t care if we succeeded 
or not. i cried every day on the trail. But i had changed, and forever.
 it wasn’t just that i had lived without an address. And i certainly did not 
emerge as an all-knowing woodlands goddess. i remain a slightly fearful per-
son who learned to make an arduous journey and to live outdoors. Because 
i lived for so long outdoors that year, the woods became the normal setting, 
where i’d always prefer to be.
 i don’t mean that i now want to live in a cave, but that i appreciate how to 
move forward in life. The trail also made me understand Earth’s abundance. 
The weather is not a backdrop for recreation. it provides water and food so 
that we survive. if i’m outside, in touch with the weather, i feel at home. if 
i’m stuck in a building for too long, i feel cut off.
 The readers of Appalachia share a respect for nature and the simple truths 
it delivers. in the mountains, we learn how to press on. We learn survival, 
caring, humility, fortutude, and patience.
 Becoming the editor of this journal, a dream of mine, has joined the jour-
nalist in me to the hiker in me for the first time in two decades. 
 My first issue of Appalachia, the 222nd, will come out in June. Writers will 
consider what hikers gain when we pull ourselves out of regular life to hike in 
the mountains, however briefly, and how those forays change us.
 A former Zealand Falls hutmaster will describe the hut guests he met who 
yearned for the outdoors; he will consider why people don’t connect as much 
with nature back home. An engineer will describe a whirlwind trek he crammed 
into his business trip to india — the peak was not what he expected. Veteran 
Appalachia writer Gene Daniell will write about the return to regular life of Ed 
Viesturs, the first American to climb all fourteen of the 8,000-meter peaks.
 in the mountains, we confront our human weaknesses and learn when to 
step back from danger. Come join us next June, when we ask how to continue 
those journeys along the asphalt and floor-tile paths of cities and towns.
 — Christine Woodside, Editor, cwoodside@snet.net



A Peak Ahead

Jones, Michael

Appalachia 
Volume 56 
Number 1 Summer/Fall 2005: The State of 
Maine 
Article 13 
2005 
Tundra Frogs: Previously Unrecorded Amphibian Life in the 
Northeast's Alpine Zone 
Michael Jones 
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 Part of the Nonfiction Commons 
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Jones, Michael (2005) "Tundra Frogs: Previously Unrecorded Amphibian Life in the Northeast's Alpine 
Zone," Appalachia: Vol. 56: No. 1, Article 13. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol56/iss1/13 
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Tundra Frogs
Previously Unrecorded Amphibian Life 
in the Northeast’s Alpine Zone
By Michael Jones
Winter does not relinquish its hold on New Hampshire’smountains at one sudden moment, giving way to spring with a tired
sigh. Rather, it fights the incoming season in ragged, ferocious bursts,
demonstrating impressive displays of fury and power until calendar summer
is decidedly under way. Even in June the alpine tablelands of Mount Wash-
ington can be ravaged by snow, sleet, and cold rains; you might argue that
spring never really dominates at all, but acts only as an expert intermediary
between winter and summer. It is a time of the year when you might expect
snow as much as sun, and the few vertebrates wintering at treeline endeavor
to reclaim the mountains. 
By June, the crags, spurs, and fellfields are suddenly colored by the
diminutive blossoms of diapensia, loiseleuria, and rhododendron. Stone-
strewn streams and seepages swell from runoff, and through this foreboding
landscape of rock, ice, and ground-hugging arctic plants, a mass of adventur-
ous amphibians moves toward the Lakes of the Clouds to breed; their crisp,
distinct calls are as much a herald of spring as the flowers of the arctic heaths.
Undoubtedly, thousands of visitors to the Lakes of the Clouds or Madison
Huts have stood outdoors on still, pleasant evenings and wondered at the as-
sortment of vibrant calls they have heard coming from the boulder-laden shal-
lows of Star Lake or the Lakes of the Clouds. They have witnessed—as much
as the casual observer may care to—a familiar and age-old ritual of amphibian
courtship, in a setting vastly unlike most of temperate New England.
The fact that various amphibians breed in New Hampshire’s alpine ponds
has been assumed, and suggested, several times in the past few decades.
Anecdotal reports of frogs in “one of the Lakes of the Clouds” were repeated
in the Field Guide to the New England Alpine Summits, by Nancy G. Slack
and Allison Bell (AMC Books, 1995), who suggested they may be mink frogs
80 Appalachia
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 80
(Rana septentrionalis), wood frogs (Rana sylvatica), or toads (Bufo ameri-
canus). As recently as 2003, the U.S. Forest Service published a report on
New Hampshire’s alpine communities that mentioned only wood frogs
among the amphibians found near the alpine zone. Very little is known about
the amphibians that reside in or visit the high lakes. 
Remarkably, the New England alpine zone supports a diverse amphibian
fauna, although no other aquatic vertebrate occurs there (except an occa-
sional beaver). In fact, at least five amphibian species occur—at least sporad-
ically—in New Hampshire’s alpine ponds, far above treeline: wood frogs,
green frogs, spring peepers, American toads, and red-spotted newts. Of these,
wood frogs, peepers, and toads appear consistently and make an effort to
breed.
Part of the reason for a paucity of data on alpine amphibians is the fact
that there simply aren’t many places above treeline for amphibians to breed.
To begin with, arctic-alpine tundra is one of New England’s most uncom-
mon ecosystems, accounting for only a few thousand acres across the three
northern states. Within these treeless, barren heathscapes, wetland commu-
nities are common in the form of bogs and fens, but only a handful of large
perennial pools occur above treeline. The largest of these alpine ponds, oc-
curring just above 5,000 feet, are the lower and upper Lakes of the Clouds,
Summer/Fall 2005   81
Adult male green frogs (Rana clamitans).
Ph
ot
o 
by
 M
ic
ha
el
 J
on
es
 
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 81
situated on the southern flank of Mount Washington near the foot of Mount
Monroe. 
The ecology of the Lakes of the Clouds and the surrounding area—Upper
Oakes Gulf, the headwall of Ammonoosuc Ravine, and Monroe Flats, collec-
tively known as Monroe Col—has been intensively studied, but no data have
been published on the amphibian fauna of the Lakes of the Clouds, despite
their relatively high visibility. This, in itself, is perhaps more remarkable than
the fact that amphibians occur there at all: high-elevation amphibian sites in
the western states have recently drawn attention as bellwethers of environ-
mental stability, and it is interesting that the most prominent alpine amphib-
ian site in the East has largely escaped notice.
Over the course of four years between 1999 and 2003, I sampled the am-
phibian fauna of the lakes by undertaking several dozen weekly surveys. I sur-
veyed the pools visually by walking their perimeter with a flashlight and
recording all amphibians encountered. Larvae were captured with nets when
possible, identified using James Taylor’s Amphibians and Reptiles of New
Hampshire (New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, 1993), and re-
leased. I undertook auditory surveys by approaching each lake in turn and
recording the location, to the extent possible, of calling individuals (the frogs
and toads of New England can be identified by their respective breeding
82 Appalachia
Looking across one of the Lakes of the Clouds at Mount Monroe.
Ph
ot
o 
by
 R
ob
er
t 
K
oz
lo
w
 
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 82
calls, which can often be heard some distance away; with a few unusual ex-
ceptions, two calling frogs of different species can be recognized individually
when the observer is presented with a clear call, or multiple calls). Incidental
encounters with amphibians in or near the lakes were recorded as well.
Both ponds are generally devoid of plant life (Isoetes echinospora has colo-
nized the gravelly shallows of the lower lake, and assorted Sphagnum spp. and
Vaccinium spp. encroach upon the northwestern edge of the upper lake). At
high water, both lakes reach a maximum depth of about two meters and both
have substantial accumulations (more than one meter) of organic sediments.
Because of the lack of living vegetation within the pond, breeding amphib-
ians are fairly easy to spot. 
I observed wood frogs every year in early June. Their breeding spells ap-
peared to be fairly brief, lasting only through the first week of June and in-
volving only a few adults. Throughout New England, wood frogs are usually
the first frogs to begin breeding in the spring; they can occasionally be heard
calling in the lowlands by March, while ice still covers large parts of the
breeding pools. Breeding at the lakes occurs shortly after the breakup of sur-
face ice, which can occur more than two months after sea-level wood frogs
have bred. Their call is a distinctive croaking chuckle that can take on an en-
trancing, rhythmic quality when males chorus together. 
American wood frogs were formerly divided into several subspecies, 
of which one was known as the “northern wood frog” (Rana sylvatica
cantabrigensis) and was found in the northeast only on the Gaspé Peninsula
of Quebec, south to the vicinity of Presque Isle, Maine. It follows that if the
Mount Washington frogs were of far northern or relict origin, they would ex-
hibit characteristics similar to this boreal subspecies. However, the frogs en-
countered at the Lakes of the Clouds lack the mid-dorsal stripe and gray
coloration that characterizes the northern form, and they appear to be the
common, widespread subspecies R. s. sylvatica. One might deduce from this
that the frogs in the lakes are migrants from low-elevation populations and
do not represent a relict population restricted to the highlands. 
I observed what I believed to be a single adult male green frog (Rana
clamitans) in July of 1999 in the upper lake. This frog was heard calling for
several minutes before it was located, and was disturbed in an attempt to cap-
ture it. The mink frog (Rana septentrionalis), a specialized northern species
found throughout extreme northern New England, can appear similar to the
green frog (they are both variable in color, and both have prominent dorso-
lateral ridges down the sides of their back, extending from their eardrum),
Summer/Fall 2005   83
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 83
but the mink frog emits a musky odor when handled. They are known to live
in a few scattered sites adjacent to the lower Ammonoosuc River, but they
generally select wetlands with heavy emergent plant cover. This, the lakes
cannot offer. Based on the frog’s call (a heavy plung like a low bass string), I
believe that the animal I observed was a green frog. If so, mink frogs were not
observed or heard during the observation period and I do not believe they oc-
cur in the Lakes of the Clouds. 
I observed no evidence of green frog reproduction in any year. Green frog
tadpoles differ from most other native frogs by overwintering underwater be-
fore completing metamorphosis, so the larger, well-developed larvae should
be fairly visible in the spring of their second year, if they were to survive hi-
bernation in the alpine ponds. At very least, green frog reproduction should
be evidenced by the presence of large, visible tadpoles in autumn. Thus, it is
likely that the single male observed in 1999 was entirely anomalous. Male
green frogs are generally solitary; their brief presence in the lakes could repre-
sent wandering individuals from wetlands in the Oakes Gulf basin or in Am-
monoosuc Ravine.
Spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) were the most commonly observed
species, fairly easily seen on most nights during the summer season. Adults
were heard or sighted on most evenings above 40˚F from early June to late
August. I observed no treefrog eggs; however, the eggs of this small treefrog
are laid singly on submerged debris and are thus less visible than those of true
frogs or toads. 
The spring peeper can be distinguished from the gray treefrog, Hyla
versicolor (New England’s other treefrog species), by its smaller size (adult
peepers are about 2–3 inches) and smooth skin (the skin of the gray treefrog
is decidedly warty). Adult spring peepers have a large “X” pattern on their
back that extends from the base of their head to their hind legs. Both treefrog
species incorporate trills into their breeding choruses, but the trill of the
peeper is interspersed with several high-pitched calls. Male peepers will occa-
sionally trill when another male moves too close.
American toads (Bufo americanus) are probably familiar to most readers as
the only native toad throughout much of northern New England. Fowler’s
toad (Bufo fowleri) resides in southern New England and resembles the
American species: in that region, care must be taken to distinguish the two
(Fowler’s toad generally has an unspotted belly, and a dark-spotted back with
three or more warts in the largest dark spots). Toads were heard or observed
in or near the lower lake most evenings in late June and sporadically through
84 Appalachia
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August. No eggs or tadpoles of this species were found in any year, despite
careful searches. 
In New England, American toads are content to breed in very temporary
bodies of water: it is not unusual to find breeding animals, or their long strings
of eggs, in water-filled tire ruts or flooded fields. In July 2003, an adult toad
was heard calling from the shallow pools east of Mount Monroe, along the
Crawford Path. These ephemeral pools are typical of the toad’s preferred
breeding ponds but apparently do not regularly host breeding adults. 
The song of the American toad is a steady, melodic trill that can last for
fifteen to twenty seconds. Its duration separates it from the shorter, piercing
trills of the treefrogs.
It is interesting to note that toads were not observed in the upper lake,
where all wood frog observations occurred and where wood frogs actively
bred. The phenomenon of mutual avoidance in wood frogs and American
toads has been observed by researchers elsewhere in the Appalachians: one
study found that adult toads avoid wetlands with developing wood frog lar-
vae. Avoidance of wood frog breeding areas by American toads may be the
evolutionary result of successful wood frog predation upon smaller toad lar-
vae (early-deposited wood frog eggs hatch earlier and thus the wood frog lar-
vae have a several-week head start on the toads).
An adult female eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) was found dead
of unknown causes in July 2000 between Lakes of the Clouds Hut and the
outlet of the lower Lake of the Clouds by Andy Wall of the AMC’s Research
department. Not one “red eft,” or second-year newt (named for its bright or-
ange coloration), was observed above treeline, and no eggs or larvae were ob-
served in either lake. Perhaps this isolated occurrence can be explained in the
same fashion as the green frog male described above: it is possible that indi-
viduals locate the lakes by following low-elevation watercourses upstream.
Both species require aquatic hibernation sites and thus are probably not resi-
dent in the lakes. 
No recently metamorphosed young of any species were observed during
the observation period, and no tadpoles were observed with developed limbs,
suggesting that successful metamorphosis is limited if not extremely unusual. 
The presence of these species in the Lakes of the Clouds raises an assort-
ment of exciting questions. Are any of these individuals permanently resident
in the lakes? Are these populations sustained on-site by successful reproduc-
tion in the lakes, or are they continually augmented with stock from adjacent
lowlands? How often do they successfully reproduce? Is successful metamor-
Summer/Fall 2005   85
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phosis prohibited by the late onset of warm weather and early onset of cold
weather? Assuming for a moment that the various amphibian larvae in the
Lakes of the Clouds do not generally survive to metamorphosis, it’s interest-
ing to consider why the adults might repeatedly migrate to unsuitable breed-
ing grounds. And, assuming that adults migrate from below the treeline or
from other terrestrial sites with heavy snow cover, where, precisely, do they
overwinter? How does species composition vary between the Lakes of the
Clouds and Star Lake, another high-elevation pond in the Presidentials
known to host wood frogs, peepers, and toads?
Some species of frog—especially those species capable of breeding in
temporary wetlands—prefer to hibernate out of water. Both spring peepers
and wood frogs are known to tolerate sub-freezing conditions while hibernat-
ing on land, and both are known to range very far (to at least 1,000 feet in
spring peepers) from breeding wetlands. Toads also are a wide-ranging species
that hibernates on land. Because of these three species’ inclinations to hiber-
nate away from water, it should not affect adult survival if the lakes freeze
solid in winter (as they are generally assumed to). It is possible, even likely,
that adults migrate up to the lakes from points below as the ground thaws
and frees them from their hibernation sites. 
As the only major high-elevation (i.e., above 5,000 feet) amphibian site in
86 Appalachia
An adult female eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens).
Ph
ot
o 
by
 M
ic
ha
el
 J
on
es
 
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 86
New England, a standardized monitoring system should eventually be put in
place to track population declines and increases and to record the occurrence
of unusual amphibians such as green and mink frogs and Eastern newts. Such
a project could also compare the prevalence of amphibian deformities at the
alpine ponds (none were observed during the observation period) to the low-
land sites, and document successful metamorphosis. Traditionally, such a
study would involve a drift fence, a trapping procedure in which aluminum
flashing or silt fence is set into the ground in a circle or arc around the lake,
with pitfall buckets set along the perimeter to trap detoured amphibians. Ob-
viously this isn’t possible at the lakes, where several state-listed plant species
occur within a stone’s throw of the lakeshore and the established tundra is in-
tensely sensitive to soil disturbance. Because of this, our options are restricted
to long-term observation and, perhaps, closer studies of egg masses and larvae
in the lakes. 
The mysteries of the frogs’ presence will not be solved without several
solid years of attention. For the time being, it will have to suffice to notice
and appreciate their presence. The next time you’re passing through Monroe
Col at dusk, keep an ear out for the trills, chuckles, grunts, and peeps of the
amphibians that reside in the lakes, and consider for a moment the strange
dramas that are unfolding somewhere in the dark and shallow corners of the
highest lakes in the East.
MICHAEL JONES has worked with amphibians at several sites throughout central
New England. He has a degree in biology from Hampshire College, where he fo-
cused on temperate wetland ecology and arctic/boreal botany. Mike’s seasonal work
for the AMC included four summers at Lakes of the Clouds Hut and three seasons in
the winter huts. He is a resident of Andover, MA.
Summer/Fall 2005   87
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Tundra Frogs: Previously Unrecorded Amphibian Life in the Northeast\u27s Alpine Zone

Chapman, Robin

Appalachia 
Volume 56 
Number 1 Summer/Fall 2005: The State of 
Maine 
Article 25 
2005 
Bloodroot 
Robin Chapman 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia 
 Part of the Poetry Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Chapman, Robin (2005) "Bloodroot," Appalachia: Vol. 56: No. 1, Article 25. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol56/iss1/25 
This Poetry is brought to you for free and open access by Dartmouth Digital Commons. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Appalachia by an authorized editor of Dartmouth Digital Commons. For more information, please 
contact dartmouthdigitalcommons@groups.dartmouth.edu. 
92 Appalachia
Bloodroot
Who among us knows
as deep in our roots
how ephemeral life is?
Who sheds the winter
as quickly, who in our haste
to bloom thrusts up a face
to the sun, only the sun
and the bees
before we have even unfolded
our hands?
Who praises in our green
open-handedness as gladly?
—Robin Chapman
ROBIN CHAPMAN’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Comstock
Review, The Hudson Review, and Earth’s Daughters. The Only Everglades in the World
(Parallel Press) and The Way In (Tebot Bach) are her most recent collections.
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 92



Bloodroot

Zydek, Frederick

Appalachia 
Volume 56 
Number 1 Summer/Fall 2005: The State of 
Maine 
Article 27 
2005 
Going Among the Iris 
Frederick Zydek 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia 
 Part of the Poetry Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Zydek, Frederick (2005) "Going Among the Iris," Appalachia: Vol. 56: No. 1, Article 27. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol56/iss1/27 
This Poetry is brought to you for free and open access by Dartmouth Digital Commons. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Appalachia by an authorized editor of Dartmouth Digital Commons. For more information, please 
contact dartmouthdigitalcommons@groups.dartmouth.edu. 
108 Appalachia
Going Among the Iris
The iris have risen 
from their tombs again.
They are writing their
songs on the wind,
fluttering their purple
lashes and flirting
with the bees.
I trust their glittering
affair with the cosmos
more than any of my own.
These creatures know
what is expected of them.
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 108
They do the bidding
of the sun with a willingness
not even stones or the rain
can understand.
Even when the moon
redefines the hollow
fringe of day, these floral
beasts of the field
wait patiently
to explain their secrets
and the undressing
that must be.
—Fredrick Zydek
FREDRICK ZYDEK has published seven collections of poetry. T’KOPACHUK:
The Buckley Poems, his eighth collection, is forthcoming from Winthrop Press, and
the chapbook Stumbling Through the Stars has just been released by The Holmes
House Chapbook Series. His work has appeared in New England Review, Poetry, and
Prairie Schooner, among others.
Summer/Fall 2005   109
Appalachia.Sum05.all.final  5/18/05  2:57 PM  Page 109



Going Among the Iris

Greenfield, Josh

Appalachia 
Volume 55 
Number 1 Summer/Fall 2004: 50 Years of 
Climbing Everest 
Article 9 
The Fellowship of the Trail: Early Cooperation Among American 
Hiking Clubs 
Josh Greenfield 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia 
 Part of the Nonfiction Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Greenfield, Josh () "The Fellowship of the Trail: Early Cooperation Among American Hiking Clubs," 
Appalachia: Vol. 55: No. 1, Article 9. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol55/iss1/9 
This In This Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Dartmouth Digital Commons. It has been accepted 
for inclusion in Appalachia by an authorized editor of Dartmouth Digital Commons. For more information, please 
contact dartmouthdigitalcommons@groups.dartmouth.edu. 
The Fellowship 
of the Trail
Early Cooperation Among American Hiking Clubs
By Josh Greenfield
URBAN POPULATIONS IN CITIES across the United States soaredduring the final decades of the nineteenth century. Among those millions
of city dwellers were some who hungered for wilderness, and in Boston, San
Francisco, Portland (Oregon), and Seattle, they came together to form hiking
clubs: the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Sierra Club, the Mazamas, and the
Mountaineers, respectively. These four pioneering clubs overcame the dis-
tances that separated them to cooperate on a range of activities during their
early years. As a consequence of this cooperative spirit, they have been able to
work together to further the cause of conservation.
Hiking Together
A joint outing to Mount Rainier in 1905 brought together members of the
Appalachian Mountain Club, the Mazamas, and the Sierra Club. The Maza-
mas’ historian, in the 1905 issue of Mazama, notes that “a sizable contingent of
twenty-seven Appalachians put forth the energy to travel across the continent
to take part in the expedition. . . . Nor can the Mazamas forget the bright good
fellowship and chivalrous mettle of its guests from the Appalachian Mountain
Club . . . . May they come often to Mazama campfires.” An AMC account of
the trip, in the 1906 issue of Appalachia, states that “the evenings about the
great campfire were given over to song and jest, good fellowship and the inter-
change of experiences . . . . One night the Sierrans and Appalachians, clad in
fantastic costumes made up from their camping outfits, marched down to the
Mazama camp, an eighth of a mile below. Borne at the head of the procession
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was a goat’s head fashioned from the distorted root of a tree, and labeled, ‘the
original Mazama.’ Two evenings later, the Mazamas, dressed as a tribe of 
Indians with faces painted and camping blankets of different colors about
their shoulders, came up to our camp to return the visit.”
Participants in this joint trip to Rainier were aware that the cooperative
relationship they were establishing could have implications for the future of
mountaineering and of conservation in general. A contributor to Appalachia
wrote in 1906 that “the general hilarity that prevailed and songs and ten-
minute speeches by members of the three clubs went far to cement a union
that it is hoped will prove in the future a powerful factor in the furtherance of
American mountaineering and a love of the mountains and the woods by oth-
ers who may follow.”
This sense of fraternity extended to the Mountaineers of Seattle. In 1907,
invitations to join the Mountaineers’ first outing was “extended to members of
all recognized mountain clubs recommended by their secretaries, who will be
enrolled for the outing on the same basis as members of the Mountaineers.” In
suggesting that its members visit the western mountains, Appalachia advised its
readers in its 1911 issue to “[t]ake a good comrade, or cast your lot with the
Sierra Club, the Mountaineers or the Mazamas, where you will be welcome
and will find the best outdoor companionship in the world. Nowhere do more
interesting people gather in a more interesting way.”
Also in 1911, two AMC members reported in Appalachia on the atmos-
phere of another joint outing between the Mountaineers, the Mazamas, and
the Sierra Club: “Emerson and I bade farewell to the Mountaineers amid
cheers for our club, with recollections of delightful companionship, glorious
campfires, beautiful flowers, tremendous scenes, and departed for the
Mazama camp on the southwest slopes of Mt. Baker.” 
This bonding process continued in later years.  In 1913, announcement of
an outing through the Olympic Mountains “brought Appalachian, Mazamas,
and Sierra recruits to join the outing of the Seattle Mountaineers.” Here again
the sense of fellowship was explicit: “Each camp brought closer the day that
dawns early in every outing, when, with strange faces grown familiar and old
companionships renewed, the haphazard acquaintanceships of fellow travelers
becomes the friendly fellowship of the open trail.”
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Shared Images
These growing organizations were also unified by their appreciation of the
way photography could capture the beauty of mountain scenery. The March
1894 issue of Appalachia reports that:
A successful exhibition of [Vittoria] Sella’s photographs of moun-
tain scenery was held in May at the Gallery of the Boston Art Club.
The attendance was very large, and the photographs were highly
praised from an artistic and educational as well as mountaineering
standpoint. The collection is now the property of the club, and
arrangements are being made for its exhibition in other cities, thus
bringing revenue to our treasury and credit to our reputation. [247]
In May 1895, the “Secretary’s Report” in the Sierra Club Bulletin states, “It
is to be hoped that during the coming fall the kind offer of the Appalachian
Mountain Club to allow us to exhibit their photographic views may be
accepted and that a public exhibition may be held.” The “Report of the Com-
mittee of the Sella Collection” in the January 1896 issue of Appalachia includes
a brief discussion of the arrangements being made to loan the picture collec-
tion to the Sierra Club. The committee members state that the exhibit “might
at any time be called for by our California friends.” 
In October 1896 the collection was forwarded to San Francisco, where it
was exhibited for ten days under the auspices of the Sierra Club. “The exhibi-
tion was visited by some 1,360 persons, and was highly appreciated.”
Early in May 1897, the Sella Collection was sent to Oregon to be exhib-
ited by the Mazamas, and “was for many weeks the object of widespread
interest in that mountaineering center.” The collection was also lent to two
smaller mountain clubs, the Rocky Mountain Club of Colorado, and the
Green Mountain Club of Vermont.
In 1898, after receiving the loan of the Sella Collection, the Mazamas sent
their own collection of photos to the AMC. With appreciation mixed with evi-
dent local pride, an author commented in the 1898 issue of Appalachia, volume
nine, “From exhibits thus made, many fine photographs of the scenery of the
Pacific States have been presented to our club as some slight return for the
loan of the Sella views.” Similarly, in 1899, a prominent member of the Sierra
Club, Professor J. N. LeConte, presented the AMC with “thirty Sierra 
78 Appalachia
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photographs from negatives,” which were bound together with several 
presented by him the year before.
Role Models
Credit for beginning the Sierra Club High Trip tradition must be given in part
to the AMC and the Mazamas. In 1901, the Sierra Club Bulletin states that
“[a]n excursion of this sort, if properly conducted, will do an infinite amount
of good toward awakening the proper kind of interest in the forests and other
natural features of our mountains, and will also tend to create a spirit of good-
fellowship among our members.” The author acknowledges that “[t]he Maza-
mas and the Appalachian Clubs have for many years shown how successful
and interesting such trips may be made.” Though the Sierra Club had always
encouraged camping and mountaineering, the High Trip of 1902 was the first
“official” trip sponsored and run by the Sierra Club. After this, such outings
became a central aspect of the club’s activities, as they had always been for the
AMC and the Mazamas.
During the decades before and after the turn of the twentieth century, the
West Coast clubs relied on other precedents set by their Boston forerunner. A
comparison between the first issues of the Sierra Club Bulletin, appearing in
early 1894, and of the more established Appalachia for the same time period
reveals an almost exact similarity in editorial style. As with the AMC publica-
tion, which first appeared in 1876, the body of the Sierra Club Bulletin consisted
of a series of accounts of mountain exploration trips accompanied by full-page
photographs of the mountain scenes being described.  
The Sierra Club’s description of the AMC’s publication is clearly compli-
mentary. Appalachia trip reports are described as “interesting” and  “well illus-
trated.” The photographs are described as “fine.” J. M. Stillman, who wrote a
piece for the Bulletin, concluded that the AMC’s journal was “surely a cred-
itable showing of its life and activity.” In June 1903 the Sierra Club Bulletin
noted that it hoped to match Appalachia’s high standard of excellence for
mountaineering publications.
2004 Summer/Fall 79
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Mourning Phillip S. Abbot
In the record of early cooperation among American mountain clubs, one story
of particular drama and poignancy stands out: the first fatal accident in the
twenty-year existence of the AMC, which took the life of a young climber
named Phillip S. Abbott on August 3, 1896, in the Canadian Rockies. Both the
AMC and the Sierra Club reported on the accident, emphasizing Mr. Abbot’s
mountaineering skills and his interest in bringing the two clubs closer
together.
An ardent mountaineer, Phillip Abbott had devoted himself to 
establishing closer relations between members of the AMC and the Sierra
Club. A contributor to volume eight of Appalachia in 1896 writes: “To work
more effectively toward this end, he had himself joined that society [the Sierra
Club], which mourns his loss with us, and in a visit to San Francisco last May,
had consulted with some of its leaders as to the possibility of a greater concert
of action between the two organizations.” It was in the view of what he
believed Appalachia might accomplish toward this end that Abbott contributed
his energy to that publication.  
The Sierra Club Bulletin’s detailed account of Phillip Abbot’s fatal climbing
accident included a tribute to Abbott’s life. The story was illustrated with the
same picture of the youthful Abbott that had been used in Appalachia. The Bul-
letin makes note of the Appalachia article, which “gives a graphic account of the
excursion in which our fellow-member, Mr. P. S. Abbott, lost his life.”
Political Activity
Fostered by joint participation in hiking outings, the sharing of photographs
and information, and a common enthusiasm for the outdoors, mountain club
cooperation eventually expanded into the political arena, where the clubs
pooled their efforts in a number of conservation battles during the early twen-
tieth century.
Even before this, in 1897, the Sierra Club joined with the AMC, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Geological
Society of America to work toward the establishment of a national park at
Mount Rainier. A bill based on their efforts was presented in the U.S. Senate
by Senator Squire of Washington and became law in 1899. 
80 Appalachia
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The joint outing to Mount Rainier in 1905 was, in fact, not all fun and
games. At a meeting during this trip, participants unanimously adopted a reso-
lution to appoint a committee representing those present “to report to the
President of the United States and to the Secretary of the Interior, on the 
present condition of this National Park, and to recommend such action for its
betterment as might appear desirable.” The joint resolution was presented by
the Sierra Club as a “disinterested expression of the views and recommenda-
tions of nature lovers and mountaineers.”
A few years after this outing, the Sierra Club, the Mountaineers, and the
AMC participated in one of the major events in the history of American con-
servation: the effort to save the Hetch-Hetchy Valley from being flooded to
create an increased water supply for the city of San Francisco. Although the
conservationists were not successful in saving Hetch-Hetchy from the flood of
dammed waters, the conflict reinforced conservation as a national issue.
Though John Muir and the Sierra Club led the campaign, both the AMC and
the Mountaineers contributed their support. The AMC held a special meeting
at Huntington Hall in Boston in January 1909, at which about 450 people
were present. According to an account of the meeting in the July edition of
Appalachia: 
Professor William F. Bade, of the University of California, and a
director of the Sierra Club, gave an illustrated lecture on the Hetch-
Hetchy Valley and the Yosemite National Park. The lecturer
emphasized the undesirability of allowing San Francisco to secure
through act of Congress the title to certain lands within the National
Park for water-supply purposes. [168]
At the conclusion of the talk, the AMC voted that the president be author-
ized to send a delegate to Washington to appear before the Public Lands Com-
mittee of the House of Representatives. The next issue of Appalachia confirmed
that “the influence of the club had been exerted” “for the preservation of the
Hetch-Hetchy Valley” and that “delegates have been sent to Washington to
represent the Club at a hearing before the committees of Congress.” 
At the Mount Rainier gathering of 1905, the Mazamas had noted that the
representatives of the AMC were somewhat “staid” around the campfire.
While this may be true, the AMC’s representative before the Committee of
Public Lands of the House of Representatives on January 9, 1909 made an
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82 Appalachia
effective delegate to the halls of power in a way the more carefree Mazamas or
Sierrans might not have. Mr. Edmund A. Whitman introduced himself to the
congressional committee by stating:
I am an attorney in Boston, Mass., and I am here to represent the
Appalachian Mountain Club, an organization of some 1,600 individ-
uals who are scattered throughout 22 states of this Union, with the
District of Columbia; and I was authorized and directed to appear
before you at a meeting of the club held when about 400 persons
were present.  I am present here also at the request of some mem-
bers of the Sierra Club of San Francisco and California to represent
their views. [House Committee on Public Lands, San Francisco and
Hetch-Hetchy Resevoir: Hearings on H.J. Res. 223, 60th Cong., 2nd
sess., 9 January 1909, 5.]
Mr. Whitman presented a detailed legal argument on why the Hetch-
Hetchy Valley should not be flooded to provide water to San Francisco. He
also explained that he had become familiar with the region on a hiking trip he
had taken with the Sierra Club. At the conclusion of the hearing, the chairman
noted that the committee had “received many communications in the form of
letters and telegrams from the Appalachian Club and various civic associa-
tions and forestry associations both East and West, in opposition to what they
assume to be the intended legislation.”
Legacy
Early members of the AMC, the Sierra Club, the Mazamas, and the Moun-
taineers were separated by long distances. Nevertheless, their members
shared an appreciation for the beauty of wilderness, and the “fellowship of the
open trail.” Bonds of companionship forged around the campfire served polit-
ical purposes as well as the spirit of adventure. They enabled club members to
work together in pragmatic and effective ways on pivotal battles of the early
conservation movement in the United States, a cause to which they have
remained dedicated. 
JOSH GREENFIELD holds a B.A. degree from Cornell University and
an M.A. degree in history from the City University of New York
(CUNY). He lives in New York City. 
Appalachia_FINAL_gg's  5/27/04  3:43 PM  Page 82



Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice

Not a member yet

A Peak Ahead: Time in the Backcountry

Hiking Mount San Jacinto

Huts and Human Nature

Sierra Snow

A Peak Ahead

Tundra Frogs: Previously Unrecorded Amphibian Life in the Northeast\u27s Alpine Zone

Bloodroot

Going Among the Iris

The Fellowship of the Trail: Early Cooperation Among American Hiking Clubs

Hiking Back in Time: In the Mountain Stronghold of Cochise

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