Saturday afternoon, August 6th, 2005: Putnam Farm

Dave says:
After racing the train and losing honorably -- we did catch up with it eventually, after all -- we went on from North Creek to Johnsburg, and found the Pearsalls hard at work at Putnam Farm, putting new first-floor siding on the barn.

In the early afternoon, a contingent made up of three generations of Putnam descendants, along with Al Huggard, our next-door neighbor over Pine Ridge, arrived for a surprise visit -- Jasper Putnam's daughters Myrtle Putnam Boyce and her sister Doris Lasselle; two of Doris's children, Linda and Dick, and Dick's wife Karen; and Linda's daughter Linanne and her husband Tom Conroy.

They all headed up the road eventually to find the cave and natural bridge, but were temporarily sadly misled by Adam's new road to the Sand Pile (really the old road to Kenyontown -- though it looks much better these days than the road up to Putnam Junction.) Adam and Sara had made signs to clarify where hikers should go, but someone had since absconded with the key one that pointed out the trail. We'll have to come up with a more permanent solution sometime soon.

In the late afternoon Isabel really wanted to climb Crane Mountain, so we went up together around 4:30 while Calvin got a long-delayed nap.

Isabel's first words when we reached the swimming spot were, "This isn't a pond." "What is it, then?" I asked. "It's a LAKE!" [Obviously a true Crane Mountaineer: almost from Day One, Adam has insisted on calling this body of water "Crane Mountain Pond Lake."]

Perfect weather for swimming, and I'd brought just enough warm clothes along to keep Isabel happy afterwards. We bushwhacked up the back of the Northwest Ridge, and found one patch after another of the very last blueberries of the year -- big and blue and sweet. We wanted to get to the crest of the ridge, to see if the crop was any better up there, but were reduced to quoting Frog and Toad as each new patch came into view: "We -- need -- more -- willpower!"

Eventually did get to the ridgetop, where no really good patches of blueberries appeared (probably already picked out) but there was a gorgeous sunset to remind us that we'd really better be getting back down the mountain. Isabel climbed halfway down on her own, and was headed for a complete ascent and descent on her own two feet... but we were running out of time. It's dark at the bottom of the mountain when the top is still up in the sunset.

So for a while I helped her jump off rocks, and we made great time until I chose a more ambitious landing spot for her than she had chosen for herself, and she bumped her shin on a rock as she aimed for the lower target. So I carried her the rest of the way down to the base of the escarpment, by way of apology.

-- And the day _still_ wasn't done: Ed DeWald, an old fellow Tech Supporter from MapInfo, had arrived after all, and with no direction but a couple of scrawled notes from me, had managed to construct a square pyramid of old rejected barn boards that flared up into a beautiful 20-foot-high bonfire after dark, with sparks reaching up a hundred feet. From the barn, the entire Great Maple was backlit with an amazing orange glow.

We put Calvin and Isabel into the wheelbarrow to see the show, but Isabel fell asleep snuggled up in the sleeping bags very shortly after we arrived in the upper meadow. Calvin, on the other hand, stayed up watching the fire for some time, finding small sticks to donate to the cause, and generally looking very impressed by the whole affair. Hope we haven't given him _too_ many ideas...