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1 comment:
Mary,
Over on my Sugar Mountain Farm blog on the Blue Water Ice post you asked about water temperature (minor) and more importantly stage coach roads...
The water is actually relatively warm at 45°F compared with the much colder air. I had to chop a hole through the ice of mystery pond last week to fish out a pipe. I ended up doing this three times as I didn't have exactly the right location. The first time isn't too bad. The air was about 4°F and windy so I started out cold and removed my nice warm glove. Reaching into the water felt warm compared with the bite of the wind, for a little while. Then the heat had been sucked out of my arm leaving my hand stiff and unfeeling. When I brought my hand back up the wind evaporated the moisture and I really felt the cold. After warming my hand back up I chopped the next hole in the ice. It is much harder reaching in that second time knowing just how cold it will be... Very much a psychological effect since the water was still 45°F nothing had really changed. The third time was even more, er, challenging. I never did find the end of the pipe I was fishing for. Thrice was enough on a cold windy day - I am no polar bear despite my mid-winter attire.
As to roads, interesting that you should ask. The spine of the mountains is high between Burlington and Stowe. From the height of our land we can see the cleft. I have heard that Rt-100 was a stage coach road and that probably went south from Stowe and then turned west through the pass where I-89 goes to get to Burlington. That is a fair bit west and north of us so I haven't heard many stories about that trail. In the 1880's that was a long distance - most people rarely left their valleys.
On a related note, there is an old woods road that comes from Rt-5 in West Topsham headed west up over Hannah Hill to cross our valley at the height of the ridge along Riddle Pond Road. It continues on the east side of the peak as what we know as Stage Coach Road, now a logging trail on our land. Alternatively I have heard this called Stage Coach Road. This cross road is where the school lot was in the village that existed in our valley and the roads are now called Peak (Peeke? Peake?) Road to the west and Bagley Road to the east - the latter which I think is a new name. My understanding is that this was part of the original route up from the south (Boston?) through Vermont to Quebec which passed through Montpelier and Burlington. Later this road was replaced by Rt-5 and Rt-302 from what I've been told. This probably connected to the Rt-100 stagecoach road at the cleft of the mountains there where I-89 and Rt-100 hit.
I'm guessing though. All this is based on old stories I have heard and looking at the land. I have no written records. I just googled now and didn't find any definitive answer so you'll want to research this more. Good luck with your novel.
Cheers,
-Walter
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