“Modern Girls”

March is Women’s History Month and to celebrate, we are sharing a poem entitled “Modern Girls” by Irving D. Appleby, who completed the first End to End hike of the Long Trail in 1926. The poem was dedicated to “The Three Musketeers” and he enclosed it in a letter he wrote to Marion Urie dated June 9, 1933.  “The Three Musketeers” were a group of three women who thru hiked the Long Trail in 1927: Kathleen Norris, Hilda Kurth, and Catherine Robbins.  They were the second party (after Appleby) to hike the entire trail, and the first party of women.  In 1933, Marion Urie and Lucile Pelsue became the third party of women to thru hike the Long Trail.  They corresponded with Appleby about equipment and clothing for the trek and it seems he sent Urie this poem as inspiration.*

Modern Girls
By Irving D. Appleby

Dedicated with profound admiration to
“The Three Musketeers”

Away on the Trail at dawn of day,
Away to the North in the murky gray!
                Our packs are heavy, our hearts are light,
                We’ll stand the gaff from morn till night.
The cry is “North!”  The die is cast,
We’ve nailed our colors to the mast.
                We’re full of fight, no room for fears.
                Make way, make way for the Musketeers!

Three modern girls of ancient blood,
                Each with a heavy pack,
March bravely out from Blackinton
                On the winding forest track.
Ancestral pride in every stride,
                Strong hearts that will not fail,
Fighting Pine Cobble’s steep ascent
                At the start of the old Long Trail.

Three modern girls of Viking heart
                In the teeth of a mountain gale,
Singing a song as they trudge along,
                Defiant of rain and hail;
True of purpose and strong of will,
                Nor seeking the sheltering vale,
Fighting their way up the rugged slopes
                To conquer the old Long Trail.

Three modern girls,–let the scornful rave
                That the race has gone to seed;
Offspring these of a Nordic race,
                Babes of the Pilgrim breed;
Along the “Skyline,”—over the “Hump,”
                And down the Winooski Vale;
Replenish the grub and heave ahead
                To conquer the old Long Trail.

Three modern girls,–and weary ones;
                Undaunted they face the height
Where Mansfield pierces the vaulted blue,
                Grim in his rugged might;
Up the “Ladder”—over the “Chin,”
                Down to the Notch they sail.
Old Whiteface rumbles: “On to the North,
                My Queens of the old Long Trail!”

Three modern girls,–on Belvidere;
                But the Storm King cries; “Not yet!”
He bars the way but they reach the Notch;
                By a cheering crowd they’re met.
They fight their way to the peak of Jay,
                And gazing o’er hill and dale,
They see at last their long-sought goal,
                The end of the old Long Trail.

 

L’envoi 

Away on the Trail at dawn of day,
Away—three hundred miles away—
                Where Jay Peak guards the Northern gate!
                Away—‘tis day, they must not wait.
The cry is, “North,” their belts hauled tight,
They’re facing Stratton, and full of fight
                We raise our voices in three big cheers:
                “Hip, Hip, Hurrah, for the Musketeers!”

*Historical information was taken from a paper written in 1993 by Teresa L. Davis: Women of the Long Trail 1910-1940.