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The Highroad Guides
Longstreet Highroad Guide to the Vermont Mountains
The indispensable guide to the best the Vermont mountains have to offer.
- GenresTravel
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 1999
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November 2, 2010
For anyone planning to enjoy the natural wonders of Vermont, this is an indispensable book. It starts out with a fascinating discussion of Vermont's natural history and mountain orogenies (an orogeny is a geological mountain-building event). There are sections on each of the state's regions: the Champlain Valley, Taconic Mountains, Southern Green Mountains, Central Green Mountains, Northern Green Mountains, and Vermont Piedmont and Northeast Kingdom, finishing with a section on the long trails and rivers, which include the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail.
Within each regional section, individual parks, wilderness areas, lakes and ponds, hiking trails, and ski trails are described. The authors take great pains to describe what flora and fauna are in each park, pond, fen, and bog, and along each trail, both forest canopy and understory, using the Latin binomial nomenclature as well as the common names. If a lake contains a beaver dam or nesting loons, they'll tell you. They also describe the underlying geology, whether it's billion-year-old Precambrian gneiss and quartzite, schist, granite, limestone, a gorge formed by glacial meltwater, a pluton formed during the Acadian orogeny, etc. Trail lengths are given, in miles, and elevation and elevation changes, in feet. The degree of difficulty for hiking trails is provided (easy, moderate, strenuous). Trail surface is given, for example: well maintained footpath, boardwalk and footpath, old railroad bed, rocky road bed, rocky footpath, graded and rocky footpath, old road and rocky footpath, old road with log bridges over the wet spots, rocky footpath wet in places, abandoned roadway rocky and washed out in places, ledge. The trail blazes are described by color, or if the trail is unmarked, that is indicated. Where there are entrance fees (mostly for state parks), that is indicated (but not amounts). Directions to the site from the nearest town are given, as well as contact information for the entity that maintains the park or trail.
By the close of the nineteenth century, due to both farming, and ambitious logging and the manufacture of other forest products like potash and charcoal, Vermont had been 75% deforested. Today it is 80% forested. Driving or hiking through forests today, you can often see the remnants of old stone walls indicating former pastureland; family burial plots and old apple trees indicate old orchards or abandoned village lands. "If when hiking along, you find a big white Eastern pine (Pinus strobus) in the middle of the woods with thick branches on the lowest part of its bolw, you can bet that it grew up in the middle of a field that is now grown over, because trees growing in the abundant light of open fields can grow outward as well as upward." Also, "clumps of thistles (Cirsium spp.) and burdocks (Arctium minus) growing on large bumps on the ground are a sure sign of an old manure dump."
Some interesting facts:
• Vermont's native plant species comprise about 60% of the total species in the six New England states combined.
• The shape of a delta varies depending on water temperatures. When there is little temperature difference between river water and the water body it empties into, water and sediments squirt out in a narrow jet and form the shape of a birdfoot. If the river water is warmer or colder than the body of water it is emptying into (and thus a different density), it tends to fan out and form a broad delta.
• Both biologically and geologically, the Taconic Mountains are different from the Green Mountains. The flora of the former have strong ties to both the southern Appalachians, and the deciduous forests of eastern Asia.
• The difference between bogs and fens: generally acidic, bogs form where drainage is limited. Fens form where seeps or small streams can bring nutrients to poorly or moderately drained areas. Thus fens support a richer diversity of plant life. Both are underlain by mats of peat moss.
The book contains sidebars about topics of interest: loons in Vermont; a recent severe and very damaging ice storm; a local wind farm; frogs that survive being frozen; lake sturgeon; moose. Each section contains several maps. There are many drawings of regional plants and animals, a glossary, index, list of special events and festivals, and a list of outfitters, guides and suppliers.
One minor criticism: the black and white photographs have a maroonish tint that makes their details harder to perceive. On a more serious note, there's a misplaced apostrophe on p. 224.
Within each regional section, individual parks, wilderness areas, lakes and ponds, hiking trails, and ski trails are described. The authors take great pains to describe what flora and fauna are in each park, pond, fen, and bog, and along each trail, both forest canopy and understory, using the Latin binomial nomenclature as well as the common names. If a lake contains a beaver dam or nesting loons, they'll tell you. They also describe the underlying geology, whether it's billion-year-old Precambrian gneiss and quartzite, schist, granite, limestone, a gorge formed by glacial meltwater, a pluton formed during the Acadian orogeny, etc. Trail lengths are given, in miles, and elevation and elevation changes, in feet. The degree of difficulty for hiking trails is provided (easy, moderate, strenuous). Trail surface is given, for example: well maintained footpath, boardwalk and footpath, old railroad bed, rocky road bed, rocky footpath, graded and rocky footpath, old road and rocky footpath, old road with log bridges over the wet spots, rocky footpath wet in places, abandoned roadway rocky and washed out in places, ledge. The trail blazes are described by color, or if the trail is unmarked, that is indicated. Where there are entrance fees (mostly for state parks), that is indicated (but not amounts). Directions to the site from the nearest town are given, as well as contact information for the entity that maintains the park or trail.
By the close of the nineteenth century, due to both farming, and ambitious logging and the manufacture of other forest products like potash and charcoal, Vermont had been 75% deforested. Today it is 80% forested. Driving or hiking through forests today, you can often see the remnants of old stone walls indicating former pastureland; family burial plots and old apple trees indicate old orchards or abandoned village lands. "If when hiking along, you find a big white Eastern pine (Pinus strobus) in the middle of the woods with thick branches on the lowest part of its bolw, you can bet that it grew up in the middle of a field that is now grown over, because trees growing in the abundant light of open fields can grow outward as well as upward." Also, "clumps of thistles (Cirsium spp.) and burdocks (Arctium minus) growing on large bumps on the ground are a sure sign of an old manure dump."
Some interesting facts:
• Vermont's native plant species comprise about 60% of the total species in the six New England states combined.
• The shape of a delta varies depending on water temperatures. When there is little temperature difference between river water and the water body it empties into, water and sediments squirt out in a narrow jet and form the shape of a birdfoot. If the river water is warmer or colder than the body of water it is emptying into (and thus a different density), it tends to fan out and form a broad delta.
• Both biologically and geologically, the Taconic Mountains are different from the Green Mountains. The flora of the former have strong ties to both the southern Appalachians, and the deciduous forests of eastern Asia.
• The difference between bogs and fens: generally acidic, bogs form where drainage is limited. Fens form where seeps or small streams can bring nutrients to poorly or moderately drained areas. Thus fens support a richer diversity of plant life. Both are underlain by mats of peat moss.
The book contains sidebars about topics of interest: loons in Vermont; a recent severe and very damaging ice storm; a local wind farm; frogs that survive being frozen; lake sturgeon; moose. Each section contains several maps. There are many drawings of regional plants and animals, a glossary, index, list of special events and festivals, and a list of outfitters, guides and suppliers.
One minor criticism: the black and white photographs have a maroonish tint that makes their details harder to perceive. On a more serious note, there's a misplaced apostrophe on p. 224.
Displaying 1 of 1 review