Mt. Moosilauke (1842) - A Rude Foot Path
". . . From this stream [the Oliverian] a rude foot path has been cleared, which winds up the mountain's side. Your approach to the summit becomes visible by the diminished size of the trees, and by their naked, dead and gnarled aspect. They are pine, spruce and fir - the only one that retains its greenness is the mountain ash, which seems to flourish at an elevation where all others die. The mountain sorrel, which adorns the path with its delicate white bell, striped with red, appears to be the attendant of the trees, and ceases where they disappear. At last they sink to craggy dwarfs, and are destitute of foliage.
Approaching the summit, the moss becomes thicker and thicker, until near where the trees disappear it covers the ground with a carpet of the brightest green. Emerging at last from a forest of small firs, the summit of the mountain rises before you, bearing no forest tree, but bare and seemingly composed of ledges and loose blocks of granite. The blueberry and harebell lie hid amid the crannies of the rocks, and the low and knotted vines of the mountain cranberry run over them, even upon the extreme summit; where also the same small and solitary white flower, which flourishes on mount Lafayette, springs up amidst the thick beds of moss. . . ."
From "A Rude Foot Path" by George Barstow, pp. 312-315, The Moosilaukee Reader (Vol.2). ©1999.
