[at-l] Trail History: "Rogers Cottage"

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

A poster wrote:

<One other private home setting was available back then: Roger Brickner's 
cottage above Greenwood Lake in NJ. Roger owned a cabin in a summer home 
community up there, and opened his house for extended weekends in hiking 
season, when he was there. He actually had a friend post a small cardboard, 
hand-lettered sign on the AT maybe two days north of Springer as an 
inspiration to beginners to keep on going. You had to sign up at the DWG 
hostel. Again, you could stay one night, you helped with cooking and 
cleaning, and you were gone in the morning. (Roger would shuttle hikers to 
various places, as well.) This also was a "town" setting; although you 
reached the cottage by a faintly marked side trial from the AT, the cottage 
was set cheek-by-jowl with the other bungalows in the colony.>

 ~~~ I stayed in "Rogers Cottage" on my 1986 hike. It was a simple little 
bungalow about 40 feet long and 12 feet wide under a canopy woodland setting 
on a steep-sided ridge dropping down to Greenwood Lake. This was a real Trail 
treat because it was off a small side trail about a 1/4 mile steep down from 
the Trail on the ridge. The faint side trail had a small inconspicuous sign 
at the junction and Roger built a small "oasis" about half way down. The 
oasis consisted of a metal patio table and chairs upon which he laid the NY 
Times and a cooler full of lemonade -in case he wasn't home. It was great 
because it was on a mundane flat ridge walk in between town stops. But is was 
also great because it was a Trail fixture and part of the anxiously-described 
features one kept looking forward too as he hiked. It was definitely 'Old 
Trail'. We built the Wildcat Shelter in 1992 a few miles north relieving the 
fact that Roger moved up to New Hampshire.

     I visted Rogers Cottage last fall. It still has the big painted white 
lettering on the back extension roof with scruffy shingles old with moss 
saying, "ROGERS COTTAGE" in white paint. This faces the uphill where the 
faint side trail comes down. They tore down the bungalow next to his. I 
remember talking to Roger in 1987 asking who owned it. He said the town 
traced the owner to Newark, but the taxes had not been paid in years, so it 
was demolished.

    His name is still on the mailbox, so I assume he still owns it. I peered 
in and saw that the inside is still like it was in '86 with sparse old 
furnishings. The cottage probably needs work now and is starting to show 
signs of aging in the Appalachian humidity. The 'right cut' tongue and groove 
clapboard shack lacks a foundation and sits on shifting cinder block supports.

    I am probably a little Trail soft, but seeing these Old Trail icons -now 
no longer considered on the active Trail, makes me nostalgic. I looked at 
some concrete work on the walk with "1969" scratched in it and mused over 
what the world was like back then, and how many original Trail people were 
still alive and involved, the old route, and the hundreds of early day hikers 
who wandered down to a cottage when the Trail was a simpler entity. The side 
trail is still visible, but showing some grow-in, and the grounds seem to be 
settling back into forest floor unkempt. The scene is Trail poetry unwritten.

    Just as a side note: The ATC is initiating a program of directing 
Trail-interested people towards corridor adjoining lots that are being sold 
off by the owners. The idea is that these lands could be developed with the 
Trail in mind. I assume this strategy involves parcels that are too difficult 
to acquire and will inevitably be developed. These new owners then arrange 
with ATC for preserved forever status when they purchase. This way 
encroachment can be controlled. I know there are several lots off to the 
right of the Trail on Peters mountain about a mile before Wildcat Shelter 
(NY).