THE STEAM DONKEY

BEAUTIFUL VERMONT MOUNTAINS

As  I was working in the Ranger’s Hut with my laptop, I saw the pictures Ed had taken from the Observation Tour of the mountains surrounding Ascutney.

Finally I was able to compare the labeled pictures with the ones I took on Brownsville Rock so….here’s the layout from the west of Mt Ascutney.

DEATH MARCH RETURNS!

Not really!  Well maybe! 

We were having another beautiful autumn day that screamed GET OUT AND DO SOMETHING!  So……we decided to hike up the Futures Trail to the Steam Donkey. 

The hike was deceivingly moderate, in the beginning.  This part of the trail was the last half of the 4.6 mile trail from our campsite to the summit.  The trail followed a skid road that became progressively steeper until it seemed I could reach out in front of me and touch the trail!

Need to climb down alongside these boulders.

As we climbed and climbed we came to an interesting rock fault that took some thinking as to how to negotiate it without breaking bones.  

Looking down -- where to place our feet!

Billy had no problems though.  I think he’s part mountain goat

Looking up between the slabs!

Once through this mountain fault, the trail leveled out for a short distance deceiving us into thinking we were through the worst of it…..then it started to climb again.  All I could think of was this climb is a bitch going up but going to be a bastard coming down!

Finally we came to a spur off the Futures Trail pointing to the Steam Donkey, .1mile down the way.  Now we were doing a descent which meant we’d be doing an ascent back up to the Future’s Trial. 

The Steam Donkey is a part of Mt Ascutney history.  It  is an old steam powered machine that was used in the early 1900’s for cable logging since the terrain was too steep for conventional logging equipment.  The Steam Donkey was abandoned in the 1930’s.

Steam donkey’s origin is with the sailing ships where the “donkey” engine was a small secondary engine used to load and unload cargo and raise larger sails or power pumps.  A good deal of cable-logging terminology derived from 19^th century merchant sailing as much of the technology originated from that industry.

The logging engine has a powered winch with hemp rope , boiler and skids or sleds made from logs.  A water tank is mounted on the back of the sled.

  

Unfortunately this particular Steam Donkey is not maintained and slowly falling apart, but an interesting stop to view some of the history of this mountain. (They should organize a “Friends of the Steam Donkey” to preserve the old bugger!)

Like a kid - getting ready to climb up!

After Dave finished climbing around the Steam Donkey and having it almost collapse under him, we headed back to the Future’s Trail and back down to the road. 

Sometimes I think going up is easier than going down!  My feet were jammed into my boots as I slid down these steep trails on slippery leaves and gravel.  It was a bastard going down.  I have a bruise on the back of my calf where my boots jammed into my leg as I slid back down the Future’s Trail.

Eventually we reached the bottom as the sun was moving to the other side of the mountain.  It was a great afternoon and we did enjoy the hike.  Have several other destinations before we leave …. so stay tuned.