Sunday, March 10, 2024

The Phyllite Zone

     Time to get this border situation straightened out once and for all. No, I'm not talking about that border. Not the one in the news all the time. Problems at the southern border require underlying issues like corruption, lack of economic opportunity, gun violence, unsustainable birth rates and this country's insatiable gluttony for cheap labor be addressed. Given the state of our politics do you really think that is going to happen? Me either.

     So let's deal with the border between New York and Vermont instead. This should be easy, even fun by comparison. First we'll start with a bit of advice for my realtor friends: "STOP IT!" Stop offering Washington County property with 'Green Mountain views'. Yes we have beautiful views to the east (and west) but the mountains along the NY/VT border are the Taconics, not the Greens. The Green Mountains are further east in central Vermont and only visible as a distant horizon from a few places in Washington County.


Find the Taconics? Look for the narrow strip marked 'T'.
The map is a bit off. The Taconics should fill in a little more towards
the 'A' Adirondacks where the purple border zig zags.


     Next, let's put slate in its place. It's been hogging all the glory for too long. Yes, it's beautiful, useful and of great economic significance in a narrow belt from Granville up towards Poultney and Fair Haven. But most of the mountains that lie along and just east of Washington County's border are made of phyllite. May not be as well known but it's a pretty neat rock well worth getting to know and that's what we'll do in this post. 


Detail of an old geologic map. The slate belt along the NY/VT border.

Slate






Phyllite




     The slates and phyllites along the border originated as clay muds eroded off the edge of proto-North America some 500 million years ago. Over time they settled to the sea floor, were buried and then lithified into shale. Eventually they got caught up in a plate collision called the Taconic Orogeny that subjected them to heat, pressure and metamorphism. Metamorphic rocks are classified according to grade, or how much they have been changed. In the Taconics the grade tends to increase from west to east or from lower elevations to more mountainous. Thus we find the higher grade phyllite to the east of the slates and mudstones that underlie the lower hills to the west.

 
Web image

     
     Foliation and fissility are two terms associated with these rocks. Foliation refers to a layering caused by mineral grains aligning from  pressure and fissility describes a tendency to split into sheets. They are related characteristics seen in both slate and phyllite. Mica flakes are what give phyllite its satiny sheen, best seen in freshly exposed surfaces. Also diagnostic is a crinkled or wavy appearance. The color I've seen locally is a grayish-green. A very pretty rock.



     So where do you see this beauty? Hikers will see outcrops on St. Catherine, Haystack, Mt. Antone, Equinox, Grass, the Folded Rock Trail and Two Tops among others. People looking for a roadside ledge should check out the cut on Rt. 313 between the rest area pull-off and the Vermont state line midway between Cambridge and Arlington. Watch for traffic (and falling rocks!) but you can usually find recently dislodged shards at the base of the cut. Thank the Battenkill and the DOT for slicing thru the ridge to let us look inside. 








Rock and roll
My bike resting on the 313 phyllite ledge

     
The Phyllite Zone
A Google Earth screen shot from high above Cossayuna looking east
Merck Forest, Bear, Equinox, Red, the Battenkill Gap and Grass Mountain left to right 


Saturday, February 17, 2024

What a Saint



     Would you like to be known for your faults? Me either. But with mountains, faults can be the key to understanding their origin and history. Take St. Catherine Mountain for example. It forms the eastern backdrop to Vermont's Lake St. Catherine in the Towns of Poultney and Wells. It is part of a north-south range of hills and mountains with very steep west facing sides that reach their apogee at Pond Mountain. Here, impressive vertical cliffs tower 600 feet and more above the village of Wells. 


Google Earth screen shot of Pond Mountain looking north



Gwenne took this pic of the Pond Mountain cliffs
Looking east from Rt. 30 just north of Wells



       The dramatic topography here is the result of thrust faults where large chunks of the Earth's crust were pushed westward during  a plate collision 450 million years ago. Called the Taconic Orogeny, it gave us the hilly landscape of New York's eastern border.  


On this geologic map the heavy dashed line down the center
marks the position of a thrust fault


     To those of us who love to explore (my hand is raised), features like this ridge and cliff have an hypnotic draw. I've long dreamed of starting in Wells (with coffee and a pastry at the Wells Country Store!) before climbing along the spine of the range and finally coming down for a well deserved swim/beer/cookout at Lake St. Catherine State Park.

My fantasy hike starts with an ascent of Pond Mountain at the 
bottom right and continues along the ridge over St. Catherine
Mountain with a descent to the Park just off the top of the map


     Alas, it is not meant to be. To the best of my knowledge most of the route is privately owned with no public access. Most, but not all. Thanks to the Slate Valley Trails  and a generous landowner there is a path to a vantage point on St. Catherine Mountain that should not be missed. Gwenne, Zia and I hiked it recently and it gives an enticing taste of what the whole ridge walk could offer.

The hike starts at the red balloon on the right.
Two trails lead up the mountain to a viewpoint in image center.
Lake St. Catherine is on the left.

 
     To get to the Lewis Deane Nature Preserve take a right off Rt. 30 just before the state park entrance (Rt. 30 is the scenic road along the east side of Lake St. Catherine between Wells and Poultney, Vermont). Drive a little less than a mile on Endless Brook Road to a small parking lot on the right. The trail crosses the brook on a new footbridge to open meadows where there is an informative kiosk, some small ponds and a sentry on a hilltop.

Bridge over tumbling waters





Gwenne and Zia with the King of the Mountain







        In 2002 the landowners donated this 85 acre property to Green Mountain College for use in teaching, research and recreation. When the college closed in 2019 the land reverted back to the original owners who continue to let people hike here. There are two trails to the top of the ridge. We took the short and steep yellow trail up and returned via the green trail for a loop of several miles.

    
Up the yellow trail

 

     The forests are a mix of hardwoods and evergreens with some sections of dense hemlocks. Careful observation will reveal signs of past land use such as grazing and logging. Rock outcrops are of  greenish gray phyllite, layered and tilted. They originated as off shore muds more than a half billion years ago before taking a wild ride of 50 or 60 miles to end up here. No wonder they're crooked and crumpled.
     After hiking a mile or so you arrive at the top of the ridge and an amazing view. There is a wetland directly below and the lake just beyond. Quarries of the slate belt are visible with the hills of Washington County leading your gaze to the Adirondacks on the horizon. Faults aren't such a bad thing if they give you a panorama like this!


  
     I suggest taking the green trail back down. It switchbacks at a gentler grade and takes you thru some interesting forest stands. The long even slope down a hogback to Endless Brook is a delight and the final section to the meadow follows the stream.
     The state campground would be an ideal basecamp for adventures in this area. There are other Slate Valley trails nearby and one of my favorite bike tours leads from here to Poultney, Middletown Springs, Pawlet and Wells. The swimming holes of the Poultney River are just up the road and for refreshments you have several options in Poultney and the rustic elegance of The Barn restaurant down by Pawlet. It's a saintly place to spend time exploring.

     Let's finish up with some interesting images of the area that I found on the Web:

  
Looking south with the Pond Mountain cliffs and hills of the fault scarp left to right


Looking north past the steep west face of Pond Mountain

Looking south with St. Catherine Mountain, the cliffs of Pond Mountain
and other hills of the fault scarp angling from left to upper right




     And finally, a web image of a beautiful oil painting by Andrew Orr. Pond Mountain from across Little Lake: