My road, west to east or maybe east to west.

Now that I have started a blog I suppose I should give you more information about the road I live on.

This road runs east to west and like most roads follows the contours of the land. That is to say there are some places where you can stand and see the road a quarter of a mile away as it curves and winds its way towards east or west. Both ends of the road end up on Rte. 35, the major road that cuts through Athens.

The west end is less than a mile from the Townshend line. About a half mile or so from the end of the road is the beaver pond. It has been here since we purchased our land and before and has no other name than the beaver pond.

I have watched the ebb and flow of this pond since I moved here. Putting my baby Eli into a backpack and trekking around the edges of the pond, finding the remnants of an old sugar house and the remains of an old apple orchard. The pond is where the deer and moose come. Where the beaver live and maintain the dam and where the geese come in the spring to nest and raise their young.­

Twice since I have lived here I have seen the pond nearly drained of all water due to natural catastrophes. Once when beaver no longer plied their trade in this pond the unattended dam finally gave way during a storm. The rush of water took about 400 feet of road out, about 4 to 5 foot deep. A property owner next to the pond at that time had fill brought in and a man-made earthen dam took the place of most of the old beaver dam.

The second time this happened, there was what is called a micro-burst. It rained very hard for a brief period of time but this event caused a beaver dam further up to give way. The rushing water didn't destroy our dam this time but overwhelmed it, carrying debris down the short length of creek bed to an old stone culvert. A portion of a tree became jammed and debris became caught in this and caused the water to overflow the road. This time the damage was much more extensive. For this 'cloudburst' had caused a section of our road with several houses on it to become isolated from the rest of the town in a very real way. It tore the underground phone line out and the power went out. It is hard to imagine but a 12 foot by 40 foot culvert that our road had lain over in bridge like fashion now lay at the bottom of a washed out creek bed. McKusker Road which connects to Reed Road was reduced to a pathway of 3 feet wide for a good part of its length. And where the water had overcome the stone culvert, 500 feet of road was washed away and there was a trench of approximately 6 feet or more deep. Vermont is a state built on ledge and here you could see the ledge shelf that the road had once kept hidden.

It was frightening and fascinating. I couldn't call my husband Don or son Eric to warn them of what happened. Nor for a time being could anyone go across these breaches to see if everyone was alright.

Response from the state was immediate and welcomed. By the time night had fallen, my husband had been able to park his car up off of McKusker and walk to our house. Our son was safe at a friend's in Bellows Falls and trucks, machinery, manpower and dirt were coming in and reconnecting our road.

That beaver pond is still my favorite view. To the north you can see two houses on adjoining hillsides. One owned for 2 generations by one family and the other goes by the name of Turkey Roost. I have watched the geese glide over mirror still water with early morning mist rising around their bodies. I have seen the spectacular change of color on the hillsides from green to gold to flaming red. I have brought my kids there to see the blue heron or listen for the beaver slapping it tail against the water.  Sometimes in life you need a spot where you can just stand and breathe. This is my spot. It is not my land and I don't know how long it will exist. But for the here and now this is where it all comes together for me.

 The east end comes out and over a creek or stream, which ever you prefer to call it. If you look up the hill across from this end you can see part of the stone wall of the West Cemetery. This cemetery dates back to the 1700's and contains the headstones of some of our town founders.

Less than an eighth of a mile before the east end, my road is bisected by 2 other roads. One is McKusker and the other is Ernst. McKusker has a fine, large red house that sits on one side of the road, with a fine view of the hills and open fields. This house used to be an inn. The part facing the road is actually the backside of the house. The front now faces woodland. The road use to swing around the inn so stage coach passengers could be let off. You have to remember that back in the 1800's it was all fields and pasture. So the front of the inn would have been facing fields. Vermont was a state of farms and farmers. There were sheep, cows and sugarbush. The trees we see now were not there. This is all 'new' growth in a sense.

The other road, Ernst is truly a road to nowhere. At one time it did have a destination, silly as it seems, it looped around to Rte. 35. But over the years the expense of maintaining a portion of road that no one lived on or rarely used due to washouts,  that part of the road was 'thrown up', a term to refer to the fact that this portion of the road is a public pathway.

The busiest time this road has seen in many years was 31 years ago when a farmhouse and 100+ acres were sold, logged off and subdivided. Most of us at the west end of the road have been here about the same length of time.  The east end has some older homes, a couple of newer ones and at least 1 family that has lived here for 2 or more generations.

It is a typical dirt road, a combination of old and new, families that can walk through the local graveyard and touch the headstones of their ancestors. And families that have come from different states to make this road their home.