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A Trip to King's Ravine with
My Grandfather, Louis F. Cutter King's Ravine was my grandfather's favorite place in the mountains; I think it is also mine. He mapped it as his thesis at MIT in 1885, and at the first opportunity bought the farm below it, where we still come. We started from our houses on what was then the Amphibrach, (now just a family path). After crossing the Moose and going through what had been a hayfield beginning to grow up and some young firs, we crossed the railroad (four passenger trains daily and numerous freights) and entered the main forest. My grandfather was dressed in wool knickers and stockings, with a short sleeve cotton shirt. He carried his lunch and extra clothing in a blue cloth pack he had made, with plenty of room for tools. On his belt he carried a Philippine bolo to cut branches that might be growing into the trail. "Always leave the trail a little better than you found it." I wore a smaller version of his pack, made from gray and white striped cloth, which contained a cup, lunch, sweater, and windbreak. Once across the railroad, the woods changed to hardwoods, much bigger and shadier, and joined the present Amphibrach near Coldbrook Fall and the Den (still standing and reasonably hospitable if you didn't mind mice). After walking through woods with hemlocks near the brook and hardwoods elsewhere, we came to a clearing in the trail - Monahan's Camp, where the Monaway goes off right and the path down to Coldspur Ledges goes left. There was still a little iron from an old sledge left from the lumber camp there then (I brought it down as part of the World War II scrap iron drive). After crossing Spur Brook, where we drank some water (we considered most of the brooks pure in those days), the path got steeper and crossed the Cliffway (still pretty new then). The trees got a little smaller and newer just before we reached Pentadoi (Five Corners) and we both sprawled out. After a rest we started left on the King Ravine Trail, almost level for a while then dropping slightly into the Coldbrook Valley, crossed the branches of the stream, and met the Short Line a little below Mossy Fall. Mossy Fall was icy cold and beautiful -- we could look up into the Ravine at Knight's Castle. Grandpa said it was even more beautiful before the 1927 flood that drastically changed so much of Randolph. Just in back of the fall, he showed me the place where the icy water from King Ravine comes out from under the rocks.
We had lunch at the junction of the Elevated, Subway, and Chemin des Dames, just reopened after a long closing by the Forest Service; they had thought it dangerous. This path was named after a battle in World War I, but with an obvious reference to the fact it is the easiest way up out of the ravine. My lunch was a hardboiled egg, followed by a vegetable and meat sandwich, a jam sandwich, a piece of fruit, maybe a cookie, and some squares of Baker's chocolate. His featured a can of sardines, the chocolate, and perhaps some other things. After lunch we tucked the remains in a bag inconspicuously under a rock. We had decided to do the Chemin
des Dames, foregoing the Subway, a great favorite of mine, and
exploring the ice caves which we both delighted in. The Chemin
des Dames goes up the East side of the ravine to the Knife Edge
on the Air Line and climbs through a lot of the territory burned
by the fire in the 1890's after the lumbering. When we reached
the Air Line, we came down, turning off on the newly built Scar
Trail that he had designed and had done much of the cutting.
I had been with him earlier, when we had scouted parts of it,
marking sections of the proposed trail with a line of white packthread.
This path was a revival of an earlier path to Durand Scar (wonderful
views back at the top of Mt. Adams) and was easy on the feet
after the rocky descent on the Air Line. After going over the
Scar and the False Scar, which he had found in his early scouting,
and which is now one of the best viewpoints, we then went down
a steep but soft section to the Valley Way. The Valley Way was
relatively smooth, and we could move quite fast and easily. Near
the upper crossing of Snyder Brook (now eliminated by a relocation
of the Valley Way and presently on the Brookside) he showed me
the site of the cabin that the Forest Service burned in 1921,
despite his warning that it was a very dry season in late summer.
The fire got into the peaty soil, burned underground and became
the Gordon Ridge Fire that burned over Dome Rock. It proved very
difficult to fight. Up on the Inlook Trail there were many trees
killed in the fire still standing. After crossing the bridge
at the bottom of the Inlook Trail, we headed for home on the
Beechwood Way, not pausing to look at any of his favorite waterfalls
on Snyder Brook that are a little further down the Valley Way.
Instead we crossed the Short Line (Mr. Edmands' path), the Air
Line (Mr. Cook's path), and the Donkey Path, used to help get
supplies up to Madison Hut without messing up other paths. He
would give me renditions of long sections of the "Lady of
the Lake" or sing a song about a royal bag pudding ending
with "what they could not eat that night the queen next
morning fried" (when we were younger he used to give us
"The Owl and the Pussycat" and the"Quangle Wangle
Quee"). We continued on the Beechwood Way over the Memorial
Bridge, which he and Mr. Blood designed and supervised building
in 1924, then hard right at the end of the bridge to the Amphibrach,
across the railroad, and home.
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We continued
up into the ravine through a grove of old and bent birch trees.
Coming out after considerable effort, we could see our houses
in the valley. Passing the Pointed Rock, steep but climbable
for both of us (he started rock climbing well into his 70's,
much to his family's disapproval). We then climbed up the floor
of the ravine.