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JUNE 1, 2002 VT MEETING IN GREAT BARRINGTON, MA

PRESENT:
Tompt and his wife Gonnie
LeDragon
Hurgata and daughter Sarah
Drolkar
Picklegirl
ABL1958

We met at Monument Mtn State Reservation and took a rather steep hike up to a beautiful view on top. I'm so GLAD everyone was so game and that the weather was so fantastic! I had the best companions ever and enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you!
Please also enjoy the travelogues of the same meeting.
Angie

<b>The picture above was taken by Tompt</b> using the timer on his camera. He then had to scramble to join us in time---looks like he made it! :) Thanks Tom. From left to right on the picture---Yvon, Tom, Lucille, Angie, Gonnie, and in Sarah in front.

"Monument Mountain is probably best known as the first meeting place of 19th-century writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. They were brought together by mutual friends in August 1850 for a picnic and hike. Hawthorne had just finished 'The Scarlet Letter' and had taken his family to the Berkshires for a vacation. Melville, who lived north of the mountain in Pittsfield, was just thinking about writing 'Moby Dick' at that point. On the hike, the two writers were forced into a cave for two hours during a thunderstorm. The story is that their long talk there while waiting out the storm so inspired Melville that, when he finished Moby Dick, he dedicated it to Hawthorne. -- (Kathy Shorr)"

For a poem written about Monument Mountain by William Cullen Bryant visit the following site:
http://www.hearts-ease.org/cgi-bin/library_poem.cgi?ID=2152