Winter is on the way...

It was 27 degrees when I went out (not all that early) this morning.
The smell of snow was in the air.

The news is on now and they are going on and on about the historic snowfall headed our way tomorrow. They will be seeing up to a foot of snow in parts of the state.

Good thing we got out today to take a walk in the woods...

Moose tracks



Beaver Dam



Crawford Notch

Water icing over



The Willey Slide



Fiddleheads

 I stopped by the camp this week  and was excited to see fiddleheads and Trillium in the woods behind the camp.


Trillium



I decided to drive out to Crawford Notch stopping to get gas at Fabyan's. A plump red fox decided to cross the road as I was pumping gas. I didn't have time to grab my camera from the car because she was on the move. I did enjoy watching her as she trotted into the woods behind the gas station.
In Crawford Notch I stopped at the site of the Willey house and recounted the historical landslide that had occured there.

Native Americans used a trail up the Saco River valley through what is now Crawford Notch. During the French and Indian Wars, many English captives were taken to Canada by way of this trail. The obscure Indian trail transformed into the Coös Road, on which was built a small public house in 1793.

The house was abandoned, but in 1825 Samuel Willey, Jr. of Bartlett moved into the small house with his wife, five children, and two hired men. The first year, the men enlarged and improved the house, which the family operated as an inn to accommodate travelers through the mountains on the notch road.

The Willey family had been terrified when they witnessed a landslide on the mountainside across the river from their home.  As a result, Mr. Willey built a cave-like shelter a short distance above the house to which the family could flee if such a landslide threatened their side of the valley.

The summer of 1826 started out dry. But on August 26, a powerful storm brought torrential rains to the area, enough to raise the nearby Saco River 24 feet. During previous slides, the Willey family stayed put feeling it was safer in the house. This time, however, the Willey family, along with the two hired men, decided to flee. Instead of running to safety, they ran right into the path of the mudslide. Ironically, the slide split in two around an outcropping of large boulders behind the house. Each half passed on either side of the home and left the house intact. Inside, on the table, was found a Bible, open to the 18th Psalm, Samuel Willey's glasses were on the page.

Mr. and Mrs. Willey, two of the children, and both hired men were found nearby, crushed in the wreckage of the slide. The bodies were buried in Bartlett. Three children and the family dog were never found. If the family had stayed in their home, they would have lived...

Their tragedy inspired "The Ambitious Guest" (1835) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mount Willey was named in their memory. Today, the location is a state historic site.

The Hermit of Crawford Notch

On a hot August afternoon in 2009. Dan and I stopped at a general store in East St Johnsbury, VT. After looking around, I decided to purchase a thin paperback book with short New England Christmas stories. The book included a story of "The Santa Claus of the White Mountains" who was said to be buried at the Straw Road Cemetary in Twin Mountain, NH. A man who looked like Santa Claus and whittled wooden toys for children. He was especially kind to orphans. The writer was unable to find the gravestone of Jack Viallis among the 100 or so in the small graveyard.


Intrigued by the story, we set out to Twin Mountain in the late afternoon. We split up and began our search and within five minutes we found the grave of John Vials. Above his name were the words "The Hermit of Crawford Notch".

When we got home I decided to go online to find out more about this man buried in the small cemetary in Twin Mountain.

 He was known as "English Jack" and was thought to have arrived in Crawford Notch to work on the Portland and Ogdensburg Rail Road, which was completed in the notch in 1875.  He lived in a ramshackle  home built from scrap lumber from the railroad and he referred to the home as his "ship".  Tourists from the city would come to the White Mountains and would hike to see him. The railroad had posted a sign "the house that Jack built" to indicate where he lived. He entertained tourists with tales from his days at sea, sold a homemade brew, as well as postcards of himself and items he had whittled.

Some say he swallowed snakes and frogs to entertain tourists which may or may not be true.



English Jack postcard



In 1892 a small book written in verse "The story of Jack" was published. This was his life as he recounted to James E Mitchell.

Apparently Jack was born in London and orphaned by age 12. He wandered the docks looking for a position as a cabin boy to escape the workhouse. On the docks he found a young girl named Mary who was crying because she was lost and looking for her father. Jack helped her find her father who was Captain Simmonds of "The Nelson". The family took Jack in and he became the cabin boy on the The Nelson. He sailed with Captain Simmonds for the next nine years until a shipwreck occured. Jack was one of eleven who survived the shipwreck on a desert island but illness overtook the survivors. Jack and two others were rescued but only Jack lived. Captain Simmond's dying wish was that Jack care for his wife and daughter.

Jack returned to London and found that the wife had died and the daughter had been sent to the workhouse. He found Mary and enrolled her at a girl's school. He professed that he had fallen in love with her and they decided to get married after he made one more trip to secure their future. The voyage would be to China and would take nearly a year. When Jack returned to Mary, he found that she had died a month before his return.

Distraught, he went abroad and fought in the Crimean War eventually winding up in New Hampshire to work on the railroad.  Or at least that's the way Jack told his story.

In his older years, he wintered with a family in Twin Mountain. Jack died in the winter of 1912 while staying with the McGee family.The townspeople collected money for his headstone. His obituary was published in the New York Times.

Snowshoeing in Crawford Notch

Yesterday was a perfect day to be outdoors. We decided to head to Jackson to check out the snow sculpture contest. It was sunny and I think it got up to around 27 degrees in the afternoon. I wanted to stop in Bretton Woods to go snowshoeing on the way over. I had seen people cross country skiing and snowshoeing on some trails that looked interesting. When we got there we saw a sign that said "Don't even think of entering without a trail pass". I don't even know who owns the land...maybe the Mount Washington Hotel??
Anyway, it was a very unfriendly sign.
We drove on to Crawford Notch and decided to stop near the site of the old Willey House.

There were a couple of nice trails through the woods and there was no cost or trail passes involved.

We then stopped for coffee and scones at the White Mountain Cider House on our way to Jackson. The snow sculptures were at the Black Mountain ski area which seemed to be a very family friendly destination.

Then it was back home to clean the chicken coop and the rabbit cages. It was nice to get out in the sunshine before the next big storm hits.