“Lookout” by Lucinda Kirk is another entry in the Champlain Area Trails Travel Writing Contest. In her essay she describes some of her favorite places in the Champlain Valley including Live Well, the Westport Library, Everybody’s Supermarket, and the Champlain Area Trails. She conveys facts that make each place unique and a must visit!

The largest portion of her essay describes a hike on a CATS trail to Wildway Lookout in which she strives to complete the hike despite being ill. Her pride in herself and the achieved peace makes it a heartwarming tale.

Read “Lookout” below, and please also read the other stories in the contest and don’t forget to vote for your favorite to win a $250 prize!

“As I walked through the woods, I remembered once again how counting the tree rings on the trunks of fallen or cut trees fascinates me.  They tell the story of how old they were when they fell.  But the ring widths also tell something about how each year went.  The thicker ones mean it was a good year.  As I thought of this past year for me, the ring on my trunk would be narrow.

Our end point and the goal of the uphill hike, and what gives the trail its name, was a lookout over something called Split Rock Wildway.  I understand this to be the forests that connect Lake Champlain to the Adirondack Mountains.   When we got there, we took turns creeping out to the very edge of the flat rocks to look across the forests and farm fields of Essex, Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont.  In the distance, we saw Coon Mountain, another hike I enjoy and Split Rock Wild Forest, which was where Sue Morse examined the dead deer.  My cough was still rattling me, but somewhere in my heart, I was calm and grateful to be there…” [Continue reading “Lookout.”]

Related articles

• Split Rock (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
• Conquering Coon Mountain in Winter (champlainareatrails.com)
• $80k Awarded Locally (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
• Essex-Charlotte Ferry Schedule (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)