Thursday June 27, 2013
Site 1, Exeter Elms Campground
Exeter, New Hampshire
We’re taking a sneak peak at Maine.
It’s not that there aren’t many things to see in New Hampshire. it’s just that this is as close as I’m going to be camped to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, a place Winnona cannot just stop by and visit.
I’ve wanted to visit the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge for ever and ever. Carson is one of my BIG HEROES. Can I call her a Shero without getting trouble??
There isn’t any reason to hang around Exeter Elms as you saw yesterday so even though it’s an iffy weather day, rain predicted of course, we drive 45 miles up I-95 into Maine to make my wish come true.
After we pay $.75 to New Hampshire to drive on their section of 95 for about 10 miles and then we pay $3.00 to drive on 95 in Maine. And here I thought 95 was an Interstate FEDERAL highway constructed by my tax dollars rather than a toll road. Wrong again it seems.
First stop, visitor’s center
When we reach Maine we stop at the Visitor’s Center where I pick up way more information than I can possibly read. I also see this sign which I love posted just in front of the walkway to the snack vending machines. Given that it is at the bottom of the 3 signs and so small, do you think anyone really reads it?
But the big thing about the visitor’s center is that their flame azaleas were in full blooms. Aren’t these stunning? This is only one bush of an entire bank of them blooming outside the large glass window in the rear of the building.
I love getting my Blue Goose Passport stamped.
My original desire to full time came about because I wanted to see all the National Wildlife Refuges after living in Virginia Beach and visiting Back Bay frequently. I bought my Blue Goose book years ago and am getting it stamped as often as I can. Since then I have also picked up the passport books to the National Parks and to the Florida State Parks. It really is lots of fun.
When we arrive at the Refuge and go into the office they graciously stamp my passport book as always.
We look around at the information on Carson nearly all of which I already know but it is a very nice informative educational exhibit and a good way to begin your day here. She really is very largely responsible for the big boost the environmental movement got in the 1970’s.
Rachel Carson was a woman ahead of her time.
Upon graduation from college, in itself an unusual accomplishment for a woman, she was awarded a scholarship for graduate study in biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1929 this was an even more exceptional recognition of her academic success. In 1936 she was one of only two women employed with the Federal Bureau of Fisheries at a professional level. Her first book, Under the Sea Wind was published in 1941. In 1943 she was promoted to the position of aquatic biologist with the newly created U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She became Editor in Chief of all Fish and Wildlife Service publications. Her second book The Sea Around Us was published in 1952 and was on the New York Times best seller list for 81 weeks. Its success enabled her to resign her position in 1952 and devote her time to writing. She concluded her series on the sea with her third book The Edge of the Sea.
Her final book, Silent Spring, was published in 1962 and created a storm of controversy as well as personal attacks. Strong attacks came from the pesticide industry. Ironically as she strove to protect us and all life from the ravages of pesticides and other chemicals in our environment, she was ill with cancer and died two years after her book was published. I wonder if she lived long enough to know how great her legacy was or if she died feeling she was under attack and discredited.
The refuge website has a short but excellent biographical sketch of Rachel Carson. You can read it here.
This is one of my very favorite pictures of her and I love the quote they selected to go with it. Her books are filled with wonderful quotes.
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction”
Time to go out and see some of the beauty Carson dedicated herself to protecting.
The refuge encompasses 5400 acres in several parcels along 50 miles of Maine’s southern coast. Most of it is closed to the public as it is a wildlife only refuge. This area which contains the office also has a one mile trail along the upland edge of a salt marsh.
The trail is really lovely and walking it is somehow very peaceful. The paths wind through white pines and hemlocks with oaks and maples intermingled. The ground cover is ferns. There is something about a ground cover of ferns that makes the forest look lush and verdant.
I find myself walking more and more slowly as I gaze out to the salt marsh between the upland forest and the ocean. Even with the totally fogged in skies from all the rain we’ve had, it is so magnificent.
The marshes are flooded and drained twice a day by meandering tidal creeks like the one we see. It looks like a nice grass lawn around that creek doesn’t it? And it sort of is but if you take any steps out there you’ll sink right into this tidal marsh.
The tidal creek twists and turns as it winds through the salt marsh.
At any wide turn, or meander, tidal currents erode the outside bank as they build up the inside bank. The creek will carry the soil away spreading it through the marsh. I love. the patterns the water has created on the edges
These small ponded areas are called salt pannes. They are low spots in the marsh that hold salt water as the tide falls. The water evaporates concentrating salt in the pannes. Only specialized salt-tolerant plants can grow here. This marvelous planet of which I am lucky to be a part is SO amazing.
BEAGLE ALERT!
As we are standing on the board walk trying to take in all this beauty we hear footsteps and turn around to see a BEAGLE ALERT. Here comes Roscoe. He’s very busy taking his person for a walk and with all the smells. He doesn’t really have a lot of time for any head scratches but he’s just darling. I do love beagles and have to meet each one I encounter. It wasn’t until I was putting this post together that I realized I had cut off his owner’s head. Opppss sorry.
Ok Back to the Marsh now where was I???
At this point on our walk Branch Brook merges with the Merriland River creating the Little River which flows to the ocean. These water ways so close to the varying tempered ocean are so tranquil. They are nurseries for many of our shellfish and finfish.
The marsh is almost a mystical place. It’s so quiet, so lush, so restful.
This is a garden of Eden type spot, just so lovely and perfect as it is needing no altering or improving by man.
Everything here seems to be working perfectly to keep the habitat running smoothly for all the sea life, the fowl and the people. All are nurtured and protected in a perfect interweaving.
I don’t know whether things usually grow larger in a marsh or if all the rain in the last month has caused these huge leaves. Maybe they are what brought the garden of Eden to mind. You could sew them together for clothing.
As we near the end of this one mile loop, I think to myself that I could easily just keep right on walking around again through the upland habitat looking out on the marsh that separates the forest from the oceans and protects us all from the violence of storms as it cleans our waters and nurtures our sea life.
I do want to walk down to the ocean though and there is no way through the marsh.
I can’t recommend this lovely, easy hike highly enough to anyone and everyone. It is more than worth going out of your way to spend some time here. It’s a little office and short path but it makes a big impression even on a day that is overcast and rainy like this one. We have spent the entire morning and come away feeling relaxed, refreshed and reinvigorated by this wonderful tribute to an amazing woman.
We leave this lovely spot to seek out the path to the sea next door at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm. But that will have to wait for another post.
Thank you Rachel for everything.
