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Valley Quests are not the stuff of adrenaline rushes and internet bragging.
Organized by the White River Junction-based nonprofit Vital Communities, the treasure hunts are adventures of a simpler sort, designed to encourage exploration of the Upper Valley. In the 15 years since its launch, the program has expanded to include more than 170 quests that crisscross the area, offering residents and visitors lessons on local history, culture and ecology. Some provide a new perspective on well-trodden paths, while others take people to spots they’d never have sought out on their own.
The newest quest in the collection, created by a third- and fourth-grade class at Albert Bridge School in Brownsville, qualifies as the latter. A 45-minute round-trip walk up a wooded hill behind the school leads to the mausoleum that entombs obscure Vermont poet Daniel Cady.
It’s not the sort of place a person would likely investigate unprompted, nor is the hunt for it likely to take anyone’s breath away.
But by highlighting an oddball monument in the middle of nowhere, the quest aptly illustrates both the vanity and solace of trying to leave one’s mark on the planet.
A picturesque village curled at the foot of Mount Ascutney, Brownsville is a sleepy destination on a summer day. Albert Bridge School, where the quest begins, is nearly as deserted as the large cemetery across the street.
Written in rhyming verse, with tidbits of Daniel Cady trivia woven in, the quest map leads into the woods behind the school, beginning near an outdoor classroom. Figuring out where to start is a little confusing, as the trail is primarily a footpath that’s overgrown in some places, but once you get to the snowmobile bridge referenced in the clues, you know you’re headed in the right direction.
The trek continues up a steep hill and connects to a dirt road, then plunges back into the woods. The path is overgrown in places, and the destination is well hidden until you’re nearly upon it. There’s no real danger of getting lost or running into any difficulties, aside from a few suspicious-looking patches of weeds, but a feeling of self-conscious wandering may grip the lone walker who ventures here. If you’re neither part of the Albert Bridge School community nor a scholar of lesser known New England poets, the rationale for climbing this particular hill in this particular town may not be evident.
But aside from the quest’s avowed purpose of illuminating a local landmark and the man for whom it was built, there’s a separate, not unrelated lesson in this short walk.
Once well known around New England, Cady, a Brownsville native, wrote poetry extolling the elements of everyday life in Vermont: making candles, farming, breakfast. After his death, in 1934, he slipped into obscurity. Aside from an annual Daniel Cady Day in June initiated by a local historian in 2013, he’s mostly been forgotten.
It’s unlikely this new quest will do anything to change that. But those who print out the map and follow its clues to the tree that bears a tiny sign reading “Cady,” and then veer obediently to the left to find the granite mausoleum, its iron fence enclosing throngs of weeds, may attain some morsel of wisdom.
Everywhere, people leave records of paths they’ve wandered, heights they’ve attained: cairns atop mountains, carvings in trees, a flag on the moon. In its unseen grandeur, Cady’s tomb underscores the vanity of all such attempts to leave behind evidence of our journeys, large and small. At the same time, pausing to view it, and then leaving some remarks in the little (empty as of last Tuesday) handmade journal hidden nearby, brings a certain peace, a knowledge that all our exertions on this earth matter little — and yet matter a little.
Also, there’s an ink pad and stamp of the mausoleum inside the quest box, so the journey can leave its own little mark on those who complete it, too.
To view the Daniel Cady Quest and other quests, visit vitalcommunities.org/valleyquest.
Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com or 603-727-3268.