Pondicherry-Hike Report: Oct 3, 2025

The Chestnut Encounter

About a dozen or so of the Denmark Mountain regulars enjoyed a light breakfast provided by the Reverend John Patrick in the church basement early Friday morning, an earlier than usual convening that allowed us to discuss and agree upon hikes to schedule for the remaining weeks of 2025. Once those matters were squared away, the group made their way to Pondicherry Girl Scout Camp where with the leadership of the long-time camp custodian Jeremy Bates, we happily explored the camp’s forests and viewpoints on a beautiful fall day.

There were 22 hikers today (along with a pair of latecomers who did not sign in). Those who did sign in included Pete Stickles, Susan Gessett, Rick Penney, Phil Johnson, Tina Estes. Kathy Hutchthausen, David Atchason, Sandy Bell, Tom Dugas, Jon Evans, Susan Sedita, Polly Lombardi, Martha Murray, Jonathan Weld, Jacob Schor, Dale Nelson, Greg Dean, Kim Colson, Marji Borkman, Pat Murchetti, John Patrick and Ginny Haase,

Our regular and esteemed hike leader Jeff Sturgis had to skip the hike so a number of the regular hike rituals fell to the wayside. Nevertheless, Susan did manage to read a poem while we viewed a beautiful panorama of the lake region. We arrived at the camp administrative headquarters at about ten and started walking not too long afterwards. We’ll omit a description of the specific trails we followed as we are not in a rush to reveal the exact whereabouts of our destination. Suffice to say that there are several living native American Chestnut trees growing within the camp boundaries. Some of these are young saplings that have sprouted up from surviving root systems of trees that were cut down years ago, but several specimens are independent relatively large mature trees.

Chestnut burr/seed covering

Chestnut leaf

A Maine Treehugger

Seeing and touching a living thing that is technically extinct can certainly give one pause; it’s not something one does every day. The sharp prick of the barbs of the seed cases fallen from that same extinct tree quickly disproves any notion that the experience might be just a dream.

Walking these trails was a lovely experience. The camp’s trails have not experienced the wear and tear, or erosion that so many of the more traveled trails in our region have endured. Rather than being boney with exposed rocks or roots hoping to waylay our feet, the trails were soft and spongy underfoot and a pleasure to walk upon. We had the pleasure of havingJon Evans, of the Loon Echo Land Trust and board president of the Bridgton Historical Society joining us and who accompanied us on today’s hike. Always the observant historian, Jon pointed out rocks, glacial erratic boulders, that had been split by early settlers to build their foundations and dated them by the splitting method used.

Testing the picnic bench for comfort

There’s a lovely viewpoint looking out toward Woods Pond that we paused at for a few minutes both to enjoy the view but also to admire the benches that Jeremy built using a design credited to Aldo Leopold the author of The Sand County Almanac. The benches, although simple to build, were surprisingly comfortable to sit on. Enough so that this particular hiker is thinking about purchasing the necessary lumber once this report is posted and building a pair this afternoon. There is an informative write up and instructions on how to build the Leopold Bench online. https://www.iowadnr.gov/news-release/2017-03-10/build-leopold-bench.