Stites McDaniel is the director of Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center and his experience in the outdoors prompted him to

enter the Champlain Area Trails Travel Writing contest. One of the contest’s finalists, McDaniel’s entry “Looking Home” compels an almost nostalgic tinge to our peaceful pastoral Essex landscape. Here is an except from his essay:

“While North Bouquet has a gradual ridge rising to its peak, its sister to the south had two sections: the mellower pitch through the lower forest and the severe grades of the evergreen forest near the peak. We had made it through the first portion and now began to really climb. It was slow going as Marynell was blazing a trail on a hill that was slightly less than straight up and down. We followed in each other’s steps, using our hands, calves and quadriceps to pull ourselves upwards. Then we walked on a side slope, trying to lean into the mountain on our left to avoid sliding down though a small open glade to our right. Near the top, the mountain gave us mercy and the pitch became nearly flat once again. The clouds were high enough to give us wonderful views of the valley towards the east. All of the farmlands west of the village of Essex were distinct, the white snow and brown hedgerows signifying each changing farm; the buildings, the brick and wooden farmhouses, standing out against this cold winter’s background. The woods at the top were thick enough to offer consistent shelter, but thin enough to offer us views all the way to the lake.

We talked and surveyed the land that we know, the land that we drive through several times a day, but land that we rarely saw from this vantage point and thought of how connected it all feels from above. Whallonsburg, Whadams, and Essex are just names. Clearly, the land does not recognize these boundaries. It just rolls on…” [Read in full at Looking Home | Champlain Area Trails.]

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