East Vs West

The two sides of the tunnel offer completely different atmospheres. On one side, the mark of humans, as if in a post-apocalyptic world. The other, the bruise of human interaction at every turn. The West Portal is marked by age. Every part of the area is weathered and worn. A muddy, dirt path, covered by …

Continue reading “East Vs West”

The two sides of the tunnel offer completely different atmospheres. On one side, the mark of humans, as if in a post-apocalyptic world. The other, the bruise of human interaction at every turn.

The West Portal is marked by age. Every part of the area is weathered and worn. A muddy, dirt path, covered by snow on all sides, leads from the road. It is barely wide enough for a car, with tracks in the mud too wide and deep for a low car to pass safely through.

A yellow gate that is never closed marks the entrance. Like other parts of the tunnel, it is rusty, covered in vines and clearly in need of repair. The websites that talk endlessly about the tunnels all agree that the gate is often closed, or the area is often patrolled by police, or plastered with “No Trespassing” signs. As luck would have it, we experienced the opposite. Empty, open, and despite the recent snowfall, quite warm weather as well.

The path continues on towards the tunnel, past the parking area, past the Old Building that contains the only signs of “No Trespassing,” although merely for safety. The path can lead three ways, towards the Old Building, another way towards the beavers and the old kiln, and the last, which leads directly to the gaping mouth of the tunnel.

The warm weather is making the snow melt, though the closer to the tunnel, the colder it becomes. Icicles hang from the ceiling of tunnel like teeth, dripping water into the streams on either side.

A soft trickling sound can be heard, water coming from between the bricks in the wall, releasing into a pool full of grime and leaves.

An imagery of a mouth comes to mind, saliva spilling into the gaping hole of the mountain giant, razor sharp crystal teeth, and train tracks as the tongue. The only thing that saves me from the thought is the ever present Berkshires tag, You’re Gonna Be OK, written just on the edge of the tunnel.

Visiting the West Portal a second time, the area has changed. The beavers are still here, chewing slowly away at a pine tree at the edge of the dammed off stream. The progress they have made allows me to more easily see the changes that nature has made in reclaiming the space.

The progress nature has made is more easily seen while contrasting the West from the East.

The East Portal is miles apart in both location and by atmosphere. The drive is around 20 minutes long, over the Berkshire Hills, past the summit and the hairpin turn, and down into the depths of a valley 4.5 miles from the West Portal.

This place has the imprint of humans every 30 yards or so. Houses spotted on the drive down, cars and jungle-gyms, the stark absence of snow. Already the differences are so drastic. We ooh and aah at them, the tiny cabins with the view of the lake. Cassie remarks to me where she would place a lawn chair by the lake, and we hmm at the idea of the area flooding come spring and heavy rains.

The rest of the trip is strangely marked by the sign of other humans. A drastic change from the previous, where there was no one, hardly any sign of recent human activity.

Here, we parked to the right, where there was significant space for cars, whereas at the West Portal there was barely room for two, maybe three cars.

There was a car leaving when we arrived, two women who drove up in a large navy blue truck, embellished with pink, Harley Davidson stripes along the sides. They didn’t offer hellos, or any other indication to why they were here, only leaving as quietly as we arrived.

We cross a road to start on the short walk to the tunnel. Here it’s a shorter walk, and we feel as though we’re being watched. A car with Connecticut license plates sits on the other side of the tracks, it looks like a cop car. We keep to the left of the tracks and only cross over once to look at a memorial.

Our journey ends there when we see a sign that reads, “DANGER, ACTIVE RAIL LINE, NO TRESPASSING.” We decide that it’s a better idea to take pictures from afar, and not risk it. The active rail line, the strange car, and the waterfall nearby keep us firmly planted in one spot.

This side is more human than the other. The area seems more active with human activity, with the houses, the frequent visitors, and especially from the maintenance truck that drove up just as we were heading out. Despite the portals connecting to the same tunnel, the differences are startling.

On one end, it seems to be an aspect of life. The East Portal, alight with activity, with continued use and maintenance.

The tunnel itself, although grim, seems like the death of the area (remembering, also, how the fumes inside the tunnel will kill anything that is in the tunnel while a train goes by). Because the tunnel itself killed so many in production, this only reminds us of the ghost stories, the afterlife that the tunnel brings.

The West Portal, into the conclusion, appears as the regrowth. The moment where humans have gone and the beavers return, buildings fall apart and few come to see what has become of it.

Strangely, or maybe not, we find the West Portal far more comfortable. Perhaps it’s being closer to nature, or the excitement of the beavers. At the East Portal, we spend ten minutes there, tops, and leave practically right away. The adventure wears off quickly, and we pack up to travel to the place we know and love: the West.

Scene VR Trial

This week I experimented with Scene VR as a potential tool. I was also trying to get a sense of the diversity that the Greenway presented, even within a half… Read More

This week I experimented with Scene VR as a potential tool. I was also trying to get a sense of the diversity that the Greenway presented, even within a half hour drive from Geneseo, so I found myself following the thin gray line of the trail on my Maps app attempting to find some good places that I could easily access the trail. This situation proved much more difficult than I imagined; at some points where it claimed the trail was, I was met instead with a creek or at times a small dirt one-way street. As the weather warms up though, I am hoping to be able to bike a little along the trail so, rather than hopping along it, I can see the trail in a much more continuous way.

I chose to try out the Scene VR tool because I thought it could potentially be an interesting way to display the diversity that the trail offers. Lizzie and I were thinking about doing some sort of map of the Greenway with videos that we take to showcase the different parts along the trail, so I am thinking that something like this could be an alternative if we decide. Using Scene VR was very simple, besides the fact that it took me a while to figure out what kind of image files to use (your photos have to be uploaded onto Flickr beforehand), but once I figured that out it was very simple. The photos I used are all panorama photos that I took with my iPhone. The one thing I do not like about the way it turned out though was how the pictures do not have a lot of height to them, resulting in the black space above and below. I am wondering if a GoPro might work better, or if anyone has any other ideas about this. I also do not love how the text is just at the bottom because I feel like it could be very easy to not pay attention to. I know the New York Times has 360 videos that they do where text shows up directly on the image, which I think would definitely be more ideal. So if anyone has any idea about applications that can do that, that would be great too!

I had some trouble embedding this also, so below is a link that should work.

http://scene.knightlab.com/scene.html?source=1uPyHmcAXXtL-2EJYrgmErwnq_zxfpOKb-u0VUmj84Vc

 

Contemporary

Erica and I started our exploration with high expectations, or at least I did, when we decided to visit the East Portal. We were there for perhaps fifteen minutes before… Read More

Erica and I started our exploration with high expectations, or at least I did, when we decided to visit the East Portal. We were there for perhaps fifteen minutes before we drove back to the West Portal. The East Portal did not seem to offer as much as the West Portal at the moment. At some point while standing beside the East Portal I vaguely recall saying, “I hope the beavers are okay,” as if they would be disappointed that we hadn’t visited them in a while.

 

This visit to the West Portal was different from our first visit but just as exciting. We were careful not to slip in the thick mud and slush in the area as we made our way back to the beavers. I’m not sure what it was about this visit but the water seemed still, serene… I could have stood there for hours just taking in the scene. Regrettably: I did not take a picture to remember the moment. I did however take a picture of the tree we came across last time. We were amazed to see the progress the beavers had made in the last month. I wonder what it will look like next month.

 

 

We took a couple time lapse videos to see what the result would look like and moved on to the tunnel. Carefully, we weaved our way around the mud and pointed out all the things we missed when there was more snow: the clear stream to our right, the depth of the stream to the left of the tracks, and all the rocks I naturally tripped over every few feet. And this time when we neared the West Portal: “Hey demons!” To be completely honest I have been completely absorbed with all things… spooky… lately and this time I was ready for something to scare me. This trip wasn’t made for that purpose but I was ready. I lost count of how many times I said, “What was that? What that the demons?” “I think it was a bird–” Erica (the logical one). Ghosts or spirits would have been the proper name but I was lost in the world of memes that particular morning and kept reciting them throughout the trip (sorry Erica).

We spent time taking video of the location, trying out the time lapse feature, testing the slo-mo feature, and taking a couple boomerangs. I thoroughly enjoyed using Erica’s tri-pod and temporarily hi-jacked it (sorry again, Erica) while taking a stroll around the area, still stumbling over those rocks. I was testing out all of these features hoping to make a Hoosac Tunnel “moodboard gif” of sorts, but completely failed to figure out how to upload them onto this blog. As someone who encounters countless moodboards every day I thought it would be interesting to try and make one. While they lack any clear “mood” or color scheme it was fun to make.

 

To be completely honest I turned the flash on for this photograph hoping to have an experience where I can shout, “There’s an orb!” But all I said, rather dully, “Huh. You can see a couple feet farther if you turn the flash on. That’s cool,” to myself.

One time lapse video I took was in one of the two moodboards that I (dare I say) cleverly titled “Demons”, has (what I believe to be) a funny backstory. I was making a time lapse video of drops of water falling in the tunnel, fascinated with the way the light was shining into the water. I was standing there for only a few seconds when I heard a crack and the sound of water splashing and immediately panicked. “Was that you,” Erica asked me. I remember yelling and saying something along the lines of, “IT WAS A DEMON,” as I ran… It was actually an icicle… And I didn’t stop recording when I started running so the whole thing was captured and condensed into two seconds.

I’m going to try and find a way to upload these subpar moodboard knock-off gifs and if nothing works I will find a new method to display the meme-filled exploration Erica and I experienced on our second visit to the West Portal.

 

….I wonder what the beavers think of these snowstorms every weekend….

Chestnut Cove

I tried to travel to Craggy Gardens to take pictures and videos for this post, but once again found the Blue Ridge Parkway closed due to weather. I drove south… Read More

I tried to travel to Craggy Gardens to take pictures and videos for this post, but once again found the Blue Ridge Parkway closed due to weather. I drove south instead, away from Craggy Gardens where the Parkway was still open. I took my camera and GoPro along to take pictures and a time lapse video along the Parkway, which are included in the ArcGIS Story Maps Cascade below.

The Blue Ridge Parkway was covered in mist at higher elevations, which I tried to capture through pictures. I really enjoyed using Story Map Cascade because it seamlessly integrates media (pictures in this case) with text. As we continue to develop our project website, it seems that Story Map Cascade will be a wonderful tool to integrate digital tools with creative writing.

My GoPro has a built in time lapse function that is very easy to use – I can alter how quickly the pictures are taken, which will be useful for capturing longer time lapse videos such as blooming flowers. I have to experiment more with the GoPro to see if it can capture close-up images because it seems better equipped to capture images from far away. UNCA’s library has tripods that can be borrowed by students, so I need to investigate whether those will work with my GoPro. I took a few time lapse videos, but the one included in the Story Map Cascade was a little wonky because the camera fell throughout the time lapse – that would have been fixed with a tripod! Most of these images were taken with the GoPro, but a few were taken with my camera and the picture of the closed road was taken with my iPhone.

An ARCGIS Cascade of Craggy Preservation Documents

Curious about ARCGIS cascade, I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly it is easy and similar to using a Prezi, a tool for presentations I’ve used in high school…. Read More

Curious about ARCGIS cascade, I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly it is easy and similar to using a Prezi, a tool for presentations I’ve used in high school. Yesterday I went to the University Special Collections office and used their scanner to scan all the archives I have found interesting and useful to our project so far. This ArcGis Cascade is my experience going through all those archives and how I found hope and passion in words from the past. I used this digital tool to combine archival documents and nature writing in hopes to express how historical passion seeped into my soul through words on paper.

Craggy Gardens is a success story. Something I don’t hear too often in my ENVS classes these days. A story of a man who was relentless in his desire to preserve this section of virgin hemlocks so he and others could find respite and recreation amongst the trees. He didn’t give up despite many letters I read through that told him it would be difficult, impossible even. In a society driven by capitalism, how could he win this land when people were going to make money off of that timber? However he used the spiritual yearning and internal craving from his community that thrives off of escaping from their busy lives in nature.

This blog post is shorter, because I spent a lot of time at the Special Collections office and creating this story map. Hope you enjoy my first attempt at ARCGIS! (it may be easier to access it through the link so you can see all the pictures up close: https://arcg.is/1XrPPP)