Rainy Spring

The saying may be that April showers bring May flowers, but in New England, showers tend to last into early June. This year, with work for the AMC starting in late May, I’ll be out in the thick of it. A good thing, perhaps—rain always seems to be more dreadful from behind a window than within its midst.

It’s been an unpredictable winter’s weather. Our late fall extended into December, stoking fears about global warming; then February and March were searing cold. The public seems to have reached consensus over the existence and causes of climate change, if not the solution, and the AMC is earnestly pursuing studies on how fast the vegetation and wildlife is changing around the huts. This week during training at Mizpah Hut, we woke before breakfast to search for the Bicknell’s Thrush, a species with an ever-dwindling habitat thanks to competitors moving up into its warming mountain habitat. It did not appear.

So the persistent and sometimes intense rainfall around the Whites last weekend was comforting. Rain will bring bugs, wet trails, and a general damper on excitement. That is as it should be during a New England spring. Insects bring migratory birds to the White Mountains in the first place; they are the cornerstone of our ecosystem, even if they are a nuisance.

Pictures: A western ridge of the Wildcats in Pinkham Notch; Cowboy Brook by AMC Camp Dodge.