MA-NH-VT Northfield Quadrangle, MA-NH-VT.
On the west (right) bank o
f
the Connecticut River.
First Attempt, Monday, August 26, 1991:
The topographic maps showed the New Hampshire - Vermont State Line running along the west bank of the Connecticut River.
The first interesting problem was that a bridge over the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, shown as a bridge in 1991 the Rand-McNally road atlas, seemed to have been out of service for perhaps a decade. So, I had to backtrack south, losing half an hour or so.
Then, I reached a parking area at an old railway station site (no station building) very near the Massachusetts - Vermont state line west of the river. I walked down a road that might have been right on the state line, and eventually came to a gate with a "No Trespassing" sign. I walked toward the house to see about asking permission, but it was a new house under construction. I backtracked, and near the station site I met an elderly gentleman who had worked for the Vermont Central railway long, long ago. He said that in the 1930s there was a stairway from near the station that led down to the river back and the Tri-State point. I looked around, and sure enough there was an old wooden stairway, falling apart! But it was obviously unsafe and the slope was very steep and overgrown. However, a short distance to the south I found a road leading downhill to a hayfield. It was not posted, so I tried it and then went from the field down toward the bank of a tributary creek shown on the topographic map. But the creek-bed looked very deep and muddy, and I decided not to try to chance wading it. Reluctantly, I gave up, planning to try again some other year, perhaps by boat from the east bank (Massachusetts side) of the river.