Voice of the Wapack – Fall/Winter 2024
President’s Note
After celebrating significant anniversaries for the Friends of the Wapack, the Wapack Wildlife Refuge and the Wapack Trail in recent years, this has been a little more normal year for the Friends. On the trail, it seems the COVID crowds have diminished a little, but there continues to be significant use, especially by the running community. For the first time in many years, I was on a work day in the spring, on the Berry Pasture Trail. Openings for views of Monadnock were opened up. Keeping them open in the future will be my job as the adopter. Elsewhere on the trail, Matt Hillman, Refuge Manager for the Wapack Refuge is planning a visit there with some of his staff in October. They will be working on replacing missing signs. Mike reports that the rest of the trail is in good shape, but there is always more that can be done.
Off the trail, there are many things happening. My work with Corinne Chronopoulos, the Director at the Peterborough Library has led to a plan for digitizing and archival storage of the Friends collection. See the “FOW Archives Update” article about this elsewhere in the newsletter.
Discussions continue regarding additional right-of-way (ROW) protection for the trail. To support that, I’ve had a teleconference with a law firm about providing the necessary expertise to assure proper protection for the trail. Anne has been good about having us budget for these expenses, like legal fees and any other payments related to ROW. Anne has also changed our investment manager to provide more choices for return. An investment committee of Anne, Rick and myself will be working on a guiding document.
Dwight Horan had originally been part of the investment committee, but Dwight has resigned from the board for health reasons. We appreciate all that Dwight did for the board, serving many years as vice-president. As a landowner along the trail, his opinion carried significance on matters regarding landowners. Other landowners are welcome to contact me by email at president@wapack.org. I’d also be glad to hear from those who are not able to work on the trail, but would like to contribute in some way to the Friends.
– Bruce Myrick, President
Friends of the Wapack Archives Update
Thanks to the efforts of Jeanette Baker over many years, the Friends has a significant archive of news items and other paper records about the Wapack Trail, starting in the 1920’s. Many of these are photocopies, while some are the original paper or photos. Jeanette’s recent retirement has brought the extent of these archives to my attention and their long term preservation and access is a new project for the Friends. With the assistance of Corinne Chronopoulos of the Peterborough Library, and Michelle Stahl of the Monadnock Center for History and Culture, we have a preservation plan. Part of this will be digitally scanning the documents to make them readily available, and provide an added level of preservation. For this, the Friends is seeking a volunteer, or maybe two, to do this scanning, at the library. As part of this effort, after the documents are scanned, they will be placed in new archival media. The long term archival storage will be at the Monadnock Center.
If you are interested in doing this scanning and archival storage, I would be glad to discuss it with you. Corinne has an idea it could take 40 hours, and that would be at the Peterborough Library. The schedule would be during their open hours, and could be spread over a period of weeks, maybe months. If you wish to support the Friends in the cost of the archival storage material, you can donate online at Wapack.org or send a check to:
PO Box 115, West Peterborough, NH 03468
… in honor/memo of “Archives”.
2024 Trail Work
On May 4th we had our first workday of 2024. A crew or seven showed up at the Berry Pasture trailhead. We opened up a number of view of Monadnock from the Berry Pasture which was clear cut a number of years ago by New England Forestry Foundation. Since then a lot of small maples have sprouted. We continued up the trail to the Burton Peak overlook where we opened up that view. Thanks to all who showed up including Bruce Myrick, Bob Saari, Alex Land, Breanna Glasgow, Molly Fince, Leah Lubetkin, and Phillip Ivannow. Our September 21 workday was rained out.
Saturday, October 12. The Wapack Trail at the Wapack National Wildlife Refuge, Greenfield, NH The final scheduled workday for this year will be on October 12th. We will be installing water bars just below the summit of North Pack. We will also be doing the usual trail maintenance as we hike in. Bring lunch, water, work gloves and sturdy boots. We’ll provide the tools. Meet at 8:30 at the Wapack National Wildlife Refuge parking lot on Mountain Road in Greenfield, NH.
– Mike Przybyla, Trail Master
First Day of Fall Hike
Friends of the Wapack (FOW) and the Harris Center co-sponsored a fall hike on the Wapack Trail on September 22nd. Gerry Coffey and I led the hike up the Beebe Trail to Temple Mountain and then along the Wapack to the Stone Chairs area just off the trail. We maintain the Beebe Trail for FOW.
At the summit of Temple Mountain, we spent a few minutes looking for hawks since it is the time of year many migrate south along the Wapack Mt ridge line. The hawks and other raptors use the rising warm air off the mountain ridges to aid their flight down to Central and South America. We were rewarded with a female American Kestrel flying around us at the summit and distant views of a Bald Eagle.
Several people were interested in the history of the Temple Mt ski area after seeing the cement remains of the old chair lift. I explained that the Beebe Trail was named after Charlie and Lucie Beebe of Peterborough who opened the ski area in 1937. We reached the Stone Chairs and had a snack. A group of Ravens flew above us and several Turkey Vultures while we ate. It was a great way to enjoy the first day of fall.
– Gail Coffey, Director
Wapack Trail Mail
We greatly appreciate all the email we regularly receive from hikers thanking us for the work we do maintaining the trails, sending photos or asking questions about the trails. Some will include reports of downed trees with photos and locations, which helps us respond quickly to clear the trail.
Here is a recent example. “Hi Friends, I just wanted to drop a quick line and say that my fiancée and I (and our dog) thru-hiked the Wapack Trail northbound this weekend and it was amazing. The trail was so well-maintained and well-blazed. We had such a great time, and I just wanted to thank you for the work that you do on this trail.” -James O’Boyle
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