School to Summit: Kingswood Students Hike to Learn!

I met the Kingswood Regional Middle School  "Project Vista" students and staff team in their Wolfeboro social studies classroom on the day before their late fall hike to Mount Major in mid-November. I was invited by teacher Arthur Viens to share the Forest Society program for students planning to hike this popular New Hampshire peak located right in their own backyard.

The student enthusiasm and hiking experience was immediately apparent.  These were seasoned hikers. My presentation about on-the-trail ettiquette and hiking gear and the tenets of the "Hike Safe" program would be a review for these 7th and 8th graders.  

The Mount Major Outdoor Classroom presentation also includes information about the cultural history of the Belknap Range and the geology, wildlife and forest communities at Mount Major. The students were thoughful and courteous and asked excellent questions informed by other hiking trips they had taken in the White Mountains and elsewhere. They were ready.

On a perfectly clear, crisp November morning we met at the parking lot and students, volunteer leaders and staff divided into 3 groups to review the plan for the day - who would be leading and who would sweep.  I joined a group ascending the orange blazed "Boulder Loop Trail" to the summit.   We visited some of the less well-known off-trail features: a small ancient cemetery of unmarked graves, a small impoundment that had once fed drinking water to lakeside cottages and surface quarry stones where metal wedges were used to split off slices of granite used to build stone headers at culverts and underpasses along the railroad and old Route 11 along the lakeshore.

Students hiked at a good pace and worked to stay together and communicate.  Students yielded the trail to allow other hikers, some with dogs, to pass by. At other times, English literature teacher Lynn Peterson asked her group to hike in silence.  I pointed out trees and geological features along the way.

A Mountain of Memories

At the summit, we took in the views.  On such a clear day we could see the peaks of the Sandwich and Ossipee and Belknap ranges. We could see snow-capped Mount Washington. I shared the names of peaks and some of the prominent islands in Lake Winnipesaukee.

Of course we talked about the Forest Society campaign to protect the mountain by purchasing some of the private tracts on or near Mt. Major in the Belknap Range for conservation and to preserve the recreational experience. 

I shared what we have learned about the power of Mt. Major to draw people to climb and return to re-climb the peak. Perhaps some of these same students will guide college friends and their own young families back to Mt. Major in the years ahead. Perhaps those who begin their hiking career in New Hampshire could venture to climb much higher peaks in far-flung locales as many New Hampshire residents have done.  But their iconic, backyard "home mountain" overlooking their hometowns from the Ossipees to Middleton and their school in Wolfeboro Bay will likely bring them back to an enduring place of hiking memories.

Many people we've met while working to protect the mountain have told us just that. Mt. Major has an allure that is disproportionate to its modest elevation of 1,786 feet. The views from the summit certainly exceed its stature.

Our descent allowed for an extended hiking experience. We hiked down the yellow "Brook Trail" to the blue-blazed Belkap Range Trails to adjacent Straightback Mountain. We hiked the orange-blazed Quarry Spur link trail to North Straightback where trails link to the Forest Society's Quarry Mountain Forest.  We hiked south on the white-blazed trail to the open ledge views south from Straightback Mountain and returned to the yellow-blazed Brook Trail to descend to the parking lot.

The Kingswood Regional Middle School "Project Vista" team is an experienced and enthusiastic group of students, faculty and community volunteers. It was a pleasure to accompany their hike to a familiar and special place: Mt. Major.