(Host)
Some of the Vermont State Parks that long-time journalist and
commentator Tom Slayton is visiting this summer are more challenging
than others. Ascutney State Park meant a stiff mountain climb – through a
couple of centuries of Vermont history.
(Slayton) When you climb Mount Ascutney, you are quite literally hiking through history.
There
are traces of that history all over the mountain, from old logging
roads and early granite quarries to stone structures and the steep,
winding summit road built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the
1930s. The mountain’s name – Ascutney – hints at an even earlier history
because it is believed to come from a Native American term meaning
"steep mountain with a rocky top."
I climbed the mountain
recently with state park ranger Mark Gedmin, so I know that Native
American name is accurate. There’s no denying that Ascutney is steep!
Each of the four trails that climb it have places near the top where
they simply drive straight up. All you can do is crank your way up those
steep pitches, panting and sweating.
Ascutney State Park, which
encompasses the mountain, offers camping sites, amenities and
information, and it’s where the summit road begins.
At the top
of the mountain, there’s an observation platform and from a nearby spur,
hang-gliders regularly soar into the air and glide off for parts
unknown. Ascutney is, as a result, the premier hang-gliding location in
New England.
This mountain has obviously had a long association
with humankind – and perhaps the most interesting part of Mount
Ascutney’s long history is the most recent – because it is an expression
of Vermont’s love for this rugged little mountain.
That
affection, when you get right down to it, is what built the trails up
the mountain, and led to the formation of the Ascutney Trails
Association, (which still holds an annual picnic on top of the
mountain). It was that affection that built a 
rude stone overnight
cabin, now gone, and that led the CCC to construct fireplaces and
tables, and the creation of Ascutney State Park, to oversee and care for
it all.
People in the Upper Valley have come to love and value Mount Ascutney. They regard it as "their" mountain.
It’s
a feeling that develops as you explore the mountain and get to know its
secret places. I found another such place on my hike this summer – a
small stone picnic shelter with an enormous view about halfway up the
CCC road. You can see the shelter and a hint of its broad view of the
Valley below as you walk toward it through a hypnotically beautiful
grove of big pines. The ground is carpeted with green moss, and you feel
that at any moment elves might just appear from behind a tree. Then you
reach the stone shelter itself and the Upper Connecticut Valley and the
peaks of nearby New Hampshire are spread before you.
It’s the
kind of discovery that brings a mountain to life, and allows us to
realize what a complex, many-layered thing that it really is.