Gerry, Bruce, Bruce’s dog Caro, and I recently hiked Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway Trails 6 and 7 from Pleasant Lake in New London to the village of Wilmot. It was a pleasant, sunny day. We braved ticks and mosquitoes with a variety or defenses: long pants, gaiters, head nets, DEET, and non-DEET bug juice. I went with long pants tucked into my socks and some DEET and did just fine. For the next hike I’ll likely wear shorts.
I arrived a bit early in Wilmot, where we would spot a car near the library, and took some photos before Bruce arrived. There were lupines blooming that I couldn’t resist photographing.
Here is a photo of Kimpton Brook and some royal ferns growing near the stream.
We met Gerry at the Pleasant Lake trailhead and headed up SRKG Trail 6 to Bunker Hill. I immediately recognized the spot we were approaching and dropped back to “recreate” one of my all-time favorite photos, which was also taken at this very spot.
I had named my photo, “Tunnel in the Woods”. It shows my daughter, Heather, walking with Julian and Nora, the children of our older daughter, Jennifer. Julian and Nora are now in their 20s. Here is that photo.
I did not understand why I liked the photo so much, but I certainly did like it. Then I came across a photo by the famous photographer W. Eugene Smith. He titled his “The Walk to Paradise Garden”. Here it is. You can see the resemblance.
Here is an abridged excerpt from a 2013 article by Ben Cosgrove, the Editor of LIFE:
Few pictures have ever been embraced by as many people, without the photograph’s admirers knowing the first thing about the fraught back-story of the image, as W. Eugene Smith’s The Walk to Paradise Garden. Over the past seven decades, the picture has evolved into a kind of visual shorthand for myriad platitudes—hope, childhood, innocence, friendship—while somehow retaining the pure, elemental power with which Smith invested the photograph when he made it on a spring day in 1946.
A photojournalist of legendary intensity, commitment and, at times, epic irascibility, W. Eugene Smith was badly wounded while covering the fighting in the Pacific in the latter days of World War II. He shipped back to the States, where he endured two years of surgeries and rehab. On the spring day when he made his Paradise Garden photograph, Smith was in the midst of what might best be characterized as a spiritual crisis: his body half-mended, his confidence in his abilities as a photographer wavering, his memories of the horrors of what he’d witnessed on Saipan and Iwo Jima and other battlefields still brutally fresh in his mind, Smith had not made a photograph in many, many months. He was not sure that he could make another photograph that would, ultimately, matter.
It was to be a day, he later recalled, “of spiritual decision.” He grabbed a camera and went outside with his young children, Pat and Juanita. His body was in severe pain. He was in the midst of an “emotional and physical crisis more personally terrifying in its potency” than any he’d ever encountered. He followed his children. He watched, and waited. And then, right in front of him, he saw it unfold.
On Bunker Hill there are stone walls, fields, and cellar holes from times past. It is a beautiful spot for a picnic, a short walk up from Pleasant Lake. This day we did not linger, but previously I did on various family trips.
We headed for the Wolf Tree Trail, named for huge trees left behind in the fields when the land was cleared for crops and sheep.
We passed a huge erratic.
After walking along a very long stone wall, we dropped down to a small stream and entered Wilmot. Along the remainder of SRKG 6 we saw dozens of Pink Lady’s Slippers.
We crossed Route 4A and headed up SRKG 7. Short of Dud’s Dell, we walked across a long log. You can see Gerry with his bug net near the end of the log.
We came upon an interesting tree that had split and then sprouted another trunk. These photos would have been better if it wasn’t so contrasty.
From near the summit of Bog Mountain, we got a nice view of Mount Sunapee about 13 miles away.
Just a bit below the summit on a short side trail, I made a photo of Gerry, sans-bug-net, and Cardigan Mountain in the distance.
We dropped somewhat steeply down Bog Mountain. Part way down were the remains of something with chains.
We came upon a huge oak tree leaning at a severe angle. I decided to shoot up at it.
It was just past this spot that I got hit by mosquitoes for the first time. But soon I had walked past this localized problem area.
Just before we reached the end of the trail, I photographed the remains of a sugar maple sap boiler and found a huge and interesting burl.
We averaged just over 2 mph while walking this 7.5 mile pair of SRKG Trails, finishing just after noon.
If you would like to see more photos of SRKG 7 over Bog Mountain, please CLICK HERE.