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A History of the RMC Camps: Rebuilding the Original Camps
The Perch became a favorite spot for campers seeking the solitude of the high peaks. As backpacking became a popular activity and increasingly more hikers walked the Appalachian Trail, bootleg tenting sites dotted the landscape. To provide a supervised alternative for tenters, the RMC built four tent platforms above the Perch in August, 1980, using memorial funds honoring Ben Campbell, former trailcrew member and 1976 caretaker at Crag Camp, who had been killed in a climbing accident in Scotland in May of 1980. A large volunteer group of Ben’s RMC and AMC friends, including helicopter pilot Joe Brigham, built the new platforms, while Jack Boothman, Sandy Harris and Wayne Parker worked on repairing the underpinnings of the shelter itself. The platforms were again rebuilt in the summer of 2002.
Gray Knob, 1989. Gray Knob, given by the Hincks family to the Town of Randolph in 1939 4, was maintained for years by the RMC. Repairs were made in July, 1958 to the basic structure: In July Freeman Holden...and his son Baxter took up residence in Gray Knob. They replaced the rotten supports, rebuilt the porch, installed three new windows and a new stove, made a wonderful mouseproof, and fixed up the toilet. At the same time, 50 lbs. of oakum were transported up and a volunteer party spent a day and a half chinking the many air vents between the timbers, a condition which had given Gray Knob the reputation of being all too well ventilated. Now it is so no more. In the evening the whole chinking party repaired to Crag Camp for a square dance. The fine organ of Crag furnished the music 5.
By 1986 it became clear that Gray Knob’s underlying structure was rotten, and the RMC Board began planning. At the 1987 annual meeting in August, the membership voted to proceed with the cabin’s reconstruction. Construction was delayed until the summer of 1989, when the cabin was completely rebuilt, following a plan by former winter caretaker Jeff Tirey that echoed the design of the original cabin. The old structure was demolished on April 8-9, and the remains burned on April 15. An initial helicopter flight transported building materials on April 24, and construction began on May 14. Builders were John Tremblay, Peter Rowan, Peter Wallace and Albie Pokrob. The camp was constructed for a cost of $63,806. In a special campaign, the RMC raised $79,543 for the project, 7 including contributions to the memory of Ruth Dexter Cutter, Jonathan Frueh, Timothy Frueh, Caroline Hincks, Herbert Malcolm, Timothy Muehl, Margaret Arnold Woodard, and Davis Woodruff. The camp was dedicated on the 29th of August.
The builders, who lived under tarps on the site during the summer of 1993, were John Tremblay, Albie Pokrob, Peter Rowan, Patrick Hackett and Roland Tellier. The total cost, $84,402, was largely defrayed by almost $80,000 in contributions raised from members, foundations, and other friends of Crag. Dedicated on July 9, 1994, a new plaque was installed to recognize major donors and honor the memory of R. Ammi Cutter, James Nichols, Leigh and Mary Thornton Page, and Charles C. Torrey, the builder of the Spur Trail. An old plaque that commemorated Nelson Smith’s 1939 donation of his cabin to the Club was retrieved from the walls of a trophy collector, and it, too, now hangs in a place of honor. Of Toilets and Trash The Outhouse Years. The camps were all equipped with outhouses. Crag’s was perched precariously on the edge of the Ravine, with a spectacular view (known as “the lights of Berlin” in the old days). Porcupines consumed much of the Perch toilet on an annual basis. The state of the outhouses has been a major preoccupation of RMC Boards, beginning with the first RMC minutes I’ve seen from 1946 detailing the cost (not to exceed $150) of a replacement at Crag. For many years the facilities were a major point of discussion between the Forest Service and the Club. In 1971 the Forest Service decreed that all camps should have portable pit toilets. Following a design by Bliss Woodruff, modular plywood outhouses were built and hauled up the mountain, the total installation costing $981. Theoretically the new structures could be dismantled so as to be easily portable. This new system depended on the creation of new pits, the digging of which was a Herculean labor at best, and at worst resulted in the recurrent striking of ledge just beneath the surface. A constant refrain in Board minutes is the cry that “the outhouses need to be moved.” Resourceful caretakers and Camps Chairs devised an alternative, albeit unadvertised, method: dig a hole necessarily shallower than practical for relocating the outhouse, move the contents of the current hole to the new location, and create new space at the old site. (The workers tried to make the job tolerable by smoking really horrible cigars that covered the aroma.)
A thermophilic, batch composting system was selected for Crag Camp and finally put into operation during the summer of 1984. 9 The system proved satisfactory for a few years, but required well trained labor, continual attention, and large volumes of wood chips that had to be hauled up the mountain. Male visitors were finally asked not to urinate in the toilet, but instead to use the nearby woods. As Crag Camp became increasingly popular on a year-round basis during the 1980's, the composter was eventually overwhelmed by usage. 10 In 1989, with the rebuilding of Gray Knob, a Shasta bin toilet was installed to replace the pit toilet. The Shasta dehydrated solids while draining untreated blackwater onto the soil surface. Within a few years, the toilet was nearing capacity: the system was not adequately dehydrating the solids, and the toilet was serving only as a collection and storage system. During the winter, the mound of waste inside the toilet grew to unmanageable heights. The Club was facing the prospect of routinely flying out untreated solids, an expensive and intrusive option. In 1994, the RMC, with the assistance of caretaker Paul Lachapelle, evaluated possible waste management options for its facilities, and finally settled on a continuous composting toilet. Selection of a properly sized composter was critical, since ambient air temperatures allow composting only between May and September. For the remaining months the device would function essentially as a containment device. In 1995 a Bio Sun toilet was installed at Crag, and subsequently two other Bio Suns were put in at the Perch (1997) and Gray Knob (1999). The costs were considerable, averaging $12,000 each (many of the camps had been built for less!). 11 Crag’s Bio Sun worked at
first, but was soon plagued with breakdowns. Liquids began to
climb in the composter because the solar-powered turbine failed
to vaporize enough liquid up the exhaust stack. Aerobic composting
was minimal. The following summer, the RMC adopted a “Beyond
the Bin” liquid treatment system that had been devised by
Trash. Trash has always accumulated wherever people camp or picnic. Marian Pychowska wrote in 1885 that she found the vicinity of Madison Spring “so littered with cans, old shoes, etc., etc., of last year’s campers, that we looked for more attractive quarters.” 12 In the “old days” (before plastic) food scraps and paper were burned in campfires or woodstoves inside the cabins; empty cans were thrown into a can pit. At Crag, the pit at the edge of King’s became the perfect, never-to-be-filled cavity. As late as 1958, Brian Underhill, when describing the short route from the floor of the Ravine up the slide, reports “The top of the slide is almost right below Crag, just a few hundred feet away. You can throw cans at it and hit it with no trouble at all. We used to rope off down there into the heaps of cans.” 13 When open fires were prohibited by the Forest Service, paper, plastic, and even garbage were thrown into the can pits. As early as 1961, with trash pits overflowing, the Board wondered how to dig new pits - would the Forest Service let us use dynamite? Eventually RMC caretakers packed down accumulated trash for disposal in the valley. 14 By 1971 the Forest Service decided that all old trash pits needed to be closed and emptied. Caretakers devoted much of the summer to emptying the pits and carrying down the old mattresses and other detritus that had built up under the camps. To finish the job, on September 1, 1970 a dedicated RMC volunteer work force of 23 (plus two dogs) climbed the mountain in rain and hail. A group of wet campers at the Perch joined in, later writing “The line of people descending with their burdens, all ages and sizes, was akin to a funeral procession in a way; to a demonstration in another way; and more so than these, it was like our silent marches and work in the Society of Friends. A purpose and answering devotion to it. So we congratulate you.” 15 In all, at the end of the day 37 large bags of garbage and trash had been hauled off the mountain, filling the garbage truck and one pick-up, as Gordon Lowe reported. The trash problem was largely solved in the early 1970's by a “Carry In - Carry Out” policy, vigorously promoted by the AMC and the Forest Service. By 1975 the problem had gradually diminished although not been completely eliminated by the Carry In - Carry Out policy. Caretakers now are responsible for seeing that campers remove their own trash, part of a coordinated campaign by mountain organizations which is known as “Leave No Trace.” An anti-litter campaign, it
should be noted, is not really a new concept. The indomitable
hiker Hazel de Berard described the founding, early in the 20th
century, of “The Egg Shell Rescue League.” Members
were enjoined to remove “any fragment of eggshells, cigarette
stubs, orange peel, empty boxes, tinfoil, or any other refuse
left by uncivilized man...” 16 RMC members have perpetuated this custom. As a
child, I remember my mother’s having picked up scraps of
paper and candy wrappers as she hiked; many of us still do so.
Judith Hudson has been coming to Randolph since the age of four or five; her parents, the Drs. Stephen and Charlotte Maddock, first visited Randolph in 1923 or 1924 at the invitation of the Cutter family. Active members of the RMC, Judy and her husband Al have served in a variety of RMC jobs, including the presidency. Al is currently the Club’s Archivist, and Judy is working on a history of the RMC. Footnotes 1 See Cutter’s obituary by Frank H. Burt in Appalachia:25;523-5 (1945). 2 Excerpts from the RMC Directors’ meeting on August 29, 1947 cite an estimate of $500 for the Perch’s restoration, given by John Boothman, Sr. 3 Klaus Goetze, “The Randolph Mountain Club Camps,” Appalachia:32;275 (December 1958). Goetze carried many loads himself, according to Jack Stewart who also lugged 8-foot boards up the Randolph Path. 4 Forest Service land leases for private camps expired in 1939, and their builders were no longer allowed to own cabins within the National Forest. Ownership by the town or the Club gave the public access to the facilities. 5 “The Randolph Mountain Club Camps,” Appalachia:32;275 (December 1958). The organ was a new instrument that had been transported up to Crag by Chris Goetze, Brian Underhill, and Mike Field in August 1957. See Appalachia:32;119 (June 1958). See the photo on p.16. 6 Personal communication, 28 September 2003. 7 The balance left in Gray Knob’s account was used in 1993 for the rebuilding of Crag Camp. 8 See Doug Mayer’s “The Demolition and Burning of Crag Camp,” and his dramatic photographs in the RMC’s Remembrances of Crag Camp, 1909-1993,pp. 92—97. 9 For much of this information, I am indebted to Paul Lachapelle, Doug Mayer and Anne Tomaso for their paper, “Randolph Mountain Club Bio Sun Continuous Composter Chapter for Appalachian Trails Conference,” [n.d.] 10 In 1977, there had been 2,272 overnight visitors at the RMC camps; by 1995, that number, at 4,923, had more than doubled. These figures are low as they don’t include considerable usage by day hikers. 11 In addition to traditional Club sources (dues, camp fees, and donations) grants were received from the Appalachian Trail Conference, the Davis Conservation Foundation, and the Reavis Foundation. 12 In a letter to Isabella Stone, July 30, 1885, quoted by Laura and Guy Waterman in Forest and Crag, AMC, Boston: 1989, p. 284. 13 “Improvements at Crag Camp,” Appalachia: 32;120 (June 1958). 14 One caretaker, who shall remain anonymous, stowed the week’s camp fees in the garbage bag along with his load of trash, hauled it down the mountain, left the bag unopened, slept late, and awoke to find that his father had already disposed of the bag in the morning’s trash collection. Father and son failed to find the bag in the town dump. 15 Hudson Log Book 1, p.22-24 (September 1, 1970). 16
“Memories of Randolph,”
Appalachia:31;196 (December 1956). A drawing accompanies her
description.
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The Perch,
1948. During the early summer of
1948, the RMC constructed an open-faced Adirondack-style log
shelter on the site of Edmands’ old birchbark structure
at the Perch. The new shelter was erected as a memorial to Louis
F. Cutter, the famed mapmaker, summer resident of Randolph since
1885 (when he created a contour map of Mt. Adams while still
a civil engineering student at MIT), and long-time RMC activist
who had died in June, 1945, a few days short of his eighty-first
birthday 1.
John H. Boothman was consulted about costs 2, but the project was
organized by Klaus Goetze, with materials for the floor and the
roof packed up by volunteers. Cutting the logs and the actual
carpentry was done by Freeman Holden, who camped at the site
during construction 3. Completed on July 14th, the shelter cost about
$818, all of which was raised in memorial contributions for Cutter.
A wooden plaque to honor Cutter was commissioned from Roy Woodard
and mounted in the shelter.
The
Log Cabin, 1985. By the 1980's,
all of the RMC camps were showing their age. In worst condition
was the Log Cabin, which had not had a major overhaul since 1923.
The structure had been used mostly by hunters or by climbers
in the late or early seasons and was in dilapidated condition,
despite the almost annual work parties to repair windows, the
roof, and rechink the walls. Planning began in 1983, and was
finally brought to fruition under the direction of Bert Dempster
in the summer of 1985. Styled after an Alaska trapper’s
cabin, today’s open shelter is the latest building on the
oldest site in the Northern Peaks. Builders Joe Gill, Jack Corbett,
and Jeff Burke cut logs on the site, volunteers carried other
construction materials, and the structure was completed for $3,926,
principally supported by contributions honoring one of Randolph’s
best known outdoorsmen and favorite hoteliers, Jack Boothman,
who died in 1983.
Freeman
Holden was again the master carpenter when additional work in
1964 added new windows, cabinetry, and insulation, as well as
shingling over the exterior vertical logs. Peggy Grant organized
caretakers Jon Frueh and Chris Campbell to transport fresh steaks
and other delicacies she had purchased to keep the resident carpenters
happy. Nancy Frueh, then RMC President, recalls having fetched
two urgently needed bundles (70 pounds) of shingles in Berlin
(instead of attending the Picnic). She carried them herself as
far as Pentadoi: “You ask how I managed to carry 70 lbs.
to Pentadoi. It was a matter of sheer determination, punctuated
by words that I had learned while working on a primitive farm
in Vermont one summer during WWII, now growled at whatever wildlife
happened to show up along the Amphibrach.” 6 As winter
usage increased, the camp was even more thoroughly insulated
in 1980 and reroofed in 1982.
Crag
Camp, 1993. Crag Camp, the favorite
haunt of many Randolphians, had received ongoing repairs through
the years: a new floor, window repair, a front porch, several
new roofs. By the early 1990's the original structure had become
decrepit, and the Board voted to replace the existing structure.
Planning and a fundraising campaign were begun after the members
voted approval in August 1991. The old camp hosted its last overnight
guests on April 3, 1993; the party of twenty tore apart the building
the next morning, saving anything still useable. The debris was
burned on April 8th, and only the stone chimney still stood.
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The new cabin was moved back from the former perch at the brink
of King’s. Designed by Tim Sappington and Jeff Tirey, the
plan departed completely from the design of the original cabin.
A large communal space with a dramatic view of the Ravine, a
caretaker’s room, bunkrooms, and front and back porches
combine to create a welcome haven for hikers. Once again a small
pump organ (the third such instrument) graces the premises.
Composting. By 1981 the Forest Service ruled that composting
toilets should be installed, a caveat that had President Judy
Hudson trailing behind several macho AMC crew members as she
spent a substantial part of the 1982 summer inspecting the facilities
the AMC had installed. We also surveyed facilities at Forest
Service shelters, where we observed that their pit toilets
were in far worse shape than ours. We were worried about
feasibility. The RMC cabins, unlike the AMC sites where composting
toilets were in use, were all located at higher altitudes and
on north-facing slopes. Would composting work in these locations?
Gray Knob’s major accumulation came from winter usage, when
a composter would not function. After much study, the Board decided
to launch a pilot project at Crag Camp, because the usage was
mostly in the summer months.
I am actively seeking any additional
comments, corrections, anecdotal materials, or relevant photographs
that my readers might have. Please contact me at 111 Amherst
Road, Pelham, MA 01002; (413) 256-6950; or by