FEBRUARY 1999 PMCC BULLETIN PAGES 5

The Appalachian Trail

The Postmark Adventures of Kelvin Kindahl, Part 13

 July 7 -- The only postmark currently in use at Lake Elmore CPO Morrisville says "Elmore." The clerk told me that the post office is still Lake Elmore, but for reasons that weren't clear, she had bought an Elmore postmark. Lake Elmore is the only post office, and the only village in the town of Elmore, but perhaps she preferred a name which reflected the whole town. Greensboro Bend takes its name from a sharp bend in the railroad tracks, rather than a bend in a river.

July 8 -- One of the few days where I have been able to average a full two postmarks per post office. Between places that have only one, places that will not postmark with a round dater and places that are closed for lunch, I usually average a little less than two postmarks per office. Occasionally, I've found as many as four different types, but I haven't found five in one place for a number of years. (Note: On July 14, I would later find six different ones at Raymond, Maine!)

This was my last day in Vermont. Went to the last several PO's I hadn't gotten to in Caledonia County, then back into New Hampshire. Heading east on U.S. Route 2, I passed a couple of Vermont offices which were closed for lunch, but ones I'd been to before. This road is at the northern edge of the White Mountains.

Turning south from Gorham, I went to the Mount Washington Auto Road and drove to the summit of New England's highest peak, well-known for its wild weather. The world's highest recorded windspeed is 231 mph in 1934 on Mt. Washington. The Mt. Washington CPO Twin Mountain is the highest post office in the east. It is there as much as a tourist attraction as anything else, I think, but is also an important mail stop for through hikers on the Appalachian Trail. Mail doesn't come up the auto road, but comes up the Cog Railway from the other side of the mountain.

July 10 -- Went to the only three offices I hadn't been to north of the White Mountains -- Berlin, Milan and Errol. (The accents are on the first syllable in both Berlin and Milan, and Milan is pronounced as in "mile" and not "mill.") Berlin is a paper mill town and is the largest town in the northern half of the state.

Errol is the most remote post office in the state, at least 25 miles from the next post office. Tourism, especially hunting and fishing outfitting, appears to be the main business, although logging is still important.