Photos from snowy walks in Sharon and Troy. More snow is on the way.
Author: Taite
Monolith
More photos from day trips around home, including to Vermont’s very own monolith!
In November 2020, a metal monolith was discovered in the Utah desert by state biologists. It had been there since at least 2016. Days later, monoliths appeared in Romania, and later, California, of similar construction. By now, there are over a hundred around the world. This one was discovered on December 12. It sits next to Shrek’s Hut, on the Green Mountain Trails behind Riverside Farm in Pittsfield, VT.
The trails themselves are used for mountain biking, hiking, and snowshoeing, depending on the season. My parents and I hiked up with microspikes since the snow was shallow. It’s a nice spot with an excellent view and I hope to come back someday, monolith or not.
Hunter, Sleeping Beauty, Jupiter
A lot has happened since my last update. First, and most exciting, I secured a position as an Electrical Hardware Engineer at Lutron Electronics in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. Lutron makes smart lighting and shade controls. I’ll get to work on projects that are engaging and challenging, for a company that is doing good in the world. Intelligent lighting saves energy. When scaled up to entire office buildings, smart lighting reduces demand for electricity by a lot. We need more renewable energy production and less energy consumption to turn climate change around.
Lutron products are used in:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Empire State Building
- The New York Times Building
- St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
- The White House
- Windsor Castle
The location, in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, is great for me. It is close enough to make NYC and Philadelphia a day trip, near hiking and skiing in the Poconos, and a day’s drive from Vermont. They still get snow and fall foliage. I talked to a lot of people, and weighed a couple offers, but in the end Lutron was an easy decision.
Outside of the job search process, I’ve finished up my second-to-last semester at RPI. I have also been getting outdoors. I hiked Hunter Mountain and Sleeping Beauty in New York. After coming home for Thanksgiving, I hiked Mt. Tom with my parents, and did some walking and skiing in local spots. We got 15 inches of snow all at once. We also saw the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the closest they have been since 1683. Although we didn’t see them at their closest, since the sky was going to cloud over for the next few nights.
Oh, and I’ve been working on this in my downtime. It’s worse in deep snow than skis, and worse on pavement than a bike. But it’s still a lot of fun to ride.
Greylock & Equinox
Continuing my streak of fall foliage hiking, the past two weekends I went to Mt. Greylock, in Massachusetts, and Mt. Equinox, in Vermont. Both mountains are part of the Taconics, and so is Berlin Mountain, which I hiked earlier. These are photos from those adventures.
September, outdoors
Loons
An update on the wildlife that keeps appearing.
These tiny toads are everywhere in the woods right now, so common that they scatter every time you take a step.
Lots of caterpillars and butterflies too. I’ve finally seen a few monarchs, but I haven’t got a photo of one yet this summer.
I got out on the water at Peacham pond today, and that’s where I saw the loons. It’s a nice little lake surrounded by woods and cabins.
At first, the loons would appear far across the water, barely recognizable. But this one let us come quite close in our canoe. It groomed itself for a while before finally ducking under, out of sight.
As we were paddling back to the boat launch, two loons popped up right in front of us. I made a bird-ish sort of noise, thinking it would probably scare them off, but one of them warbled its classic loon call right back at us. Then the other one joined in. I’ve never been so close to one of these birds; I guess they may be accustomed to humans on this small pond.
NEOWISE
A gallery of photos from the last few weeks, including night hikes to look for Comet NEOWISE, and some local wildlife.
Toad
I plan to go back to Troy this fall, to start my senior year at RPI. Under the current plan, some classes will be in-person, and others will be online. As of a week ago, I also have a paid research project to occupy my time, the same project I’ve worked on since summer of sophomore year.
May/June adventures
Red efts are on the move!
I checked out the Farnum Hill Reserve in Lebanon. It’s a nice, secluded set of trails. The view from the top isn’t much, but you can see a long way down the cut in the power lines.
The robin chicks in my yard have grown into full-size birds, with just a speckled belly to show how young they are.
I rode the Gile Mountain trails as part of a longer loop. The views from the fire tower are excellent. The trails were brutal on a bike with smallish wheels and no suspension.
At the Bill Ballard trailhead in Norwich, I saw a red fox. As I edged toward it at a safe distance, it ignored me and continued hunting. It would stand at the side of the road and stare into the meadow, then leap into the grass. The whole experience reminded me that I need to invest in a longer zoom lens.
On a clear night, I decided to try my hand at night photography again. The following picture is a composite, with the stars exposed for 13 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 6400. The Milky Way, barely visible to the naked eye, pops out in long exposures. Light from nearby White River Junction also adds a faint glow. Vermont’s dark skies never disappoint.
Robins & The Mine
The baby robins under the deck grew up quickly. They’ve left the nest now.
I returned to the abandoned copper mine, this time with a camera.
The Elizabeth Mine Superfund site is located in Strafford and Thatford [sic], Vermont. The site contains waste rock, roast beds and mine tailings left behind after 150 years of mining activity. Mining wastes contaminated groundwater, soil and sediment with heavy metals and acid-rock drainage. Mining wastes also contaminated the adjacent West Branch of the Ompompanoosuc River, Lord Brook and two tributaries.
EPA placed the site on the National Priorities List (NPL) in 2001. In 2005, EPA stabilized the tailing pile with soil and repaired the tailing dam. These activities prevented the release of mining waste and potential catastrophic loss of life and property downstream. EPA built a water treatment system in 2008. With reuse in mind, EPA consolidated and covered the mining waste in 2012.
epa.gov
At the moment, there is no work happening at the site. People hike and bike there often. But it’s obvious that a huge amount of geotechnical activity happened there; first, to cut the mountain open, and later, to patch its dripping wounds.
May Snow
On May 9th, we got a half inch of snow, the latest snow of the season as far as I can remember. Grass had already sprouted and birds were already raising chicks.
It all melted by afternoon.
A few days later, I took a hike up the back hill. It has great views of downtown Sharon, the White River, the Interstate, and Killington/Pico.
This guy fearlessly blocked my path on the way down.
