Understanding and living a lifestyle are two different things. For Robin Tarnas, a now-retired physician and recently a recipient of the local Bennington Unsung Hero Award, it is about embracing the natural world, giving back to its conservation but also using his lifetime of experience in both logical and emotional matters to make it better. Today we stand atop a ridge just on the southeast side of Bennington where originally a Southern bypass was to be built. Tarnas brims with brightness and enthusiasm as he talks to the Banner about his journey, intent, life lived and looking towards the future.
Tarnas says many people walk in the world because they have to. He says “walking” is more of a lifestyle in Vermont but it has become an all-embracing one. Tarnas begins speaking of the first long distance trail in the United States which was the Long Trail here in the Northeast. He explains that it was established in 1910 by a man named James Taylor (not the singer) up on Stratton Mountain. Taylor at the time complained that he couldn’t get to the top of the mountain because there was no trail. It took him another 20 years, Tarnas says, to complete it. He and some of his colleagues then said “We have to put a trail all the way down the East Coast.” Tarnas then adds: “So the Appalachian Trail was actually inspired by the Long Trail.” Obviously the AT is now one of the calling cards to the Bennington area where it closely intersects.
“But because of that it became a movement — a population movement — to come here and turn Vermont from one of the most conservative states in the union (to its current state).” Tarnas says, by the time he settled here, that shift had already happened. He laughs that he might have been a part of it.
Tarnas continues that he has seven brothers and sisters (not of each) and they all began in Michigan. “Many are still in Michigan, but some are in California, some are in Hawaii but we were born in Detroit.” Tarnas says his grandfather came from Poland. “And the biggest population of Polish people was in Hamtramck, which is actually inside the city of Detroit. Tarnas laughs that “you were asking about the different (location) circles for where we ended up…those Venn diagrams. I would draw circles, and then it is about wherever (certain aspects) overlap (which is where we might end up). Some of them had to do with weather but not all.” He says some of the circles he and his wife made intersected Western Oregon. Some of them intersected Eastern Connecticut. Some of them were near the shoreline of New Hampshire. But Tarnas says there was a specific one that included the Berkshires of Southern Vermont. He adds that they also had the advantage of both having a profession that they could find jobs as physicians pretty easily. “There is always a demand. And we were looking for health manpower shortage areas and, at the time, Bennington definitely had that…even greater (than now). And so when we saw that opportunity, we said, ‘Here’s a town that has a need for the two of us.’”
Tarnas recalls that he went to a high school in Michigan that had a motto: “Men for others.” He was taught to do what one could for other people. “And that was a very important thing in my life, and my wife’s life too. We wanted to find ways that we could be of service. And when we turned 70, we said we want to retire from medicine, but that doesn’t mean we stop being of service.”
Joining a conservation club was very important in this endeavor. Tarnas continues that the Long Trail and the Green Mountain Club in the area had been long active before they arrived. His wife is currently the president of the local chapter while conversely soon after they arrived in the mid 1980s, Tarnas himself became the president of the club (back in 1986). “But it has changed dramatically. Now it is much better organized.” He laughs that “my wife did a much better job than I did.” At the time he was heading the club, Tarnas says they were just maintaining the Long Trail. “There were also some side trails there on the slopes of Mount Anthony (as well) but the BATS (Bennington Area Trail System) group have been working on those.”
The key for Tarnas is about making this place better without losing what it has. “There’s always ways you can improve (the quality),” Tundras adds. “And as national park system says, ‘preserve the environment, but allow people to enjoy it.’ So it is about maintaining the same access here.”
On top of the trail looking back to the east towards Bald Mountain, Tarnas explains that this current trail work we are standing on has been in play for a while. It is just south of where Y-Woods is located across a small patch of wetlands. “What we’re doing is taking what could be considered a huge eyesore of this dump of fill.” Even though it is at this point covered in snow, “it’s grass underneath and just the last summer, for the first time, the town has agreed to brush lock it.” He says the path didn’t look like a trail before then. “It was just impassable before a year ago.” Tarnas adds that originally it was just part of a plan to connect some of the new parks that have become town parks in just the last 20 years like the Greenberg Reserve and the Headwaters Park, along with the the Walloomsac Valley Trail System, which goes right through the heart of Bennington. “We wanted to build this trail. And a lot of the trail was state land, which had been bought to build a southern bypass in 1998.” Tarnas explains that the western bypass and the northern bypass were built because “before that, if you were downtown, say at the Banner offices, there would always just be semis idling or trying to turn on Four Corners…it was a real clutter. Now they’re able to go around.” Unfortunately, Tarnas adds, that took too many tourists away from downtown. “That was another error, but the original plan was to have a southern bypass as well.” If the southern bypass had been built, he adds, the people coming up from the Berkshires, would have bypassed the town and gone around to connect to the 279 towards Manchester. “But it would have disturbed the wetlands all around this area. I wrote a few letters and talked to a few engineers, telling them why it was not a good idea.”
Tarnas lives not too far from this location near Morgan Street so he had become exceptionally familiar with the topography and its history. “These wetlands (here) are part of the residual lake that covered all of this land when the glaciers were receding about 10,000 years.”
He points down towards the wetlands.
“This is Jewett Brook that comes in (there), and it winds through this and connects with a stream in Pownal. They come together at Headwaters Park which (crosses the) headwaters of the Walloomsac. The Walloomsac is the river that provided the energy for Bennington to become a town.” Tarnas adds that, as they were talking about the history of this trail through Headwaters Park, “we said one of the things we could do, is to both connect the trail right to downtown, but also to bring the history of the town into the open by bringing it through the Bennington Historical Cemetery which is where Putnam and Valentine and Park are buried. You know their street names (but that’s where they rest.)” Tarnas continues that he has always enjoyed the history here, beyond even the 1800s with the industrial rise of Bennington. “Bennington has gone through a lot of transitions and has had to renew itself constantly.”
Tarnas says every year with the Green Mountain Club, they clear the local trails, work on any blow downs, and curb any trees that crawl across the trail. “We try to keep the trail open for all the hikers that come up and down the LT and the AT for these 100 miles from the Massachusetts border up until the Appalachian Trail turns east to go into the White Mountains.” The Long Trail, Tarnas adds, continues on up to Canada. There are also several side trails, including ones he says go up and over Bald Mountain in addition to several trails they work on with the BATS group over at Mount Anthony to the west.
In terms of the proficiency needed for these hikes, Tarnas says the trails have different degrees of difficulty. He says that one of his projects is that, about once a month, he leads a relaxed pace hike along certain trails. He did one just two weeks ago. It went from Main Street, and was about three miles long. The rise up to the top of the fill on the trail where we now stand, he adds, is about the steepest section of this walk. “And there are many, many places with great views.” In terms of some of the more challenging trails: “Probably the most famous one…If you see those white rocks up on top of Bald Mountain. That is a two and a half hour walk and the trail head is right off Branch Street.” He says from there, “you can go up, over and down the other side into Woodford.” He says that Ann and Billy Martin take care of the far side of that trail on the other side along with Tim Marr. The white patch near the top, he adds, is called Herman’s Hill. “We spend the day (clearing trails there). You climb up and you carry a saw and clippers for the little things that are growing. We have different saws. In fact, we just gave a presentation to the Lions Club in Wilmington describing all of this just last week, alongside the Martins, who are actively involved there.” These connections are mostly done via word of mouth but people can find out more about these initiatives through the Green Mountain Club’s local Bennington chapter website: benningtongmc.org.
Coming back to establishing the current trail we are standing on, Tarnas explains that it is not on any maps or guides quite yet but he hopes that changes very soon. “My vision is that this is a small park — a pocket park with a bench or picnic tables — where we get to learn and actually see the results of the glaciers here in front of us.” There is a small placard he has already put up that describes this. “The other side of the path looking over there, which is a view of Mount Anthony….there is also a trail-side information placard placed there as well describing how Mount Anthony was formed.” Tarnas adds that while the glaciers were here 10,000 years ago, Mount Anthony was formed 500 million years ago. “It is one of the oldest ridges in the Taconic Mountains, And the reason it is so well studied is that that over the last 100 years, two of the most prominent geology departments, one at Yale and one at Cornell, said, ‘What mountains do we want to study?’ And they thought, “Oh, this is a close one.'” As a result this specific part of the range has had a lot of science attached to it. “These mountains used to be 20,000 feet tall 500 million years ago. But this is when all the continents were together as Pangaea, and then they started to separate. Some of the rock formations and fossils have been found on Mount Anthony (that reflect this). But the mountain itself has eroded down dramatically….maybe 90% of its height has been eroded away.” Tarnas says another range that is smashing up right now is the Himalayas. “So you have an idea of what this probably looked like.”
When Tarnas led the hike up here with about 20 people a couple weeks ago, “we wanted to show those people who had not been up here before just how beautiful the area around Bennington is. But on top of that, we wanted to get more people aware of the fact that this specific trail and area would be a good addition to the recreational facilities of Bennington. Very few people know this is here. I would like it if people would walk this, and appreciate it, as long as they’re not damaging it.”
Tarnas wants to make sure more people are discovering the trails around Bennington. He says the best map of the trails around Bennington was put together by Mark Anders of the Bennington County Regional Commission. The map (online at shorturl.at/a9gyE), he adds, is also available at the Bennington Welcome Center at Elm Street. “And whenever the Green Mountain Club publicizes that we’re going to go on a hike (on our site), we will describe it by distance and elevation change and usually with those descriptions, it will say if it is a relaxed pace or challenging.”
As far as where his love for these types of adventures comes from, Tarnas says it stems, in many ways, from the fact that he is an enthusiast for the national parks. “I have two sons, and from the time they could walk, we would say, ‘What national parks can they deal with?’ And every year we would go to different national parks.” He adds that one of the first ones they went to when their kids were young was probably Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, “where being small is helpful. It was also a good way to teach them to not be afraid.” From there, they would try different other national parks. “We would kayak in the Everglades. Or climb up over Rocky Mountain National Park. We would go to see Glacier or Devil’s Tower.” Tarnas continues that one of his sons now lives in Alaska and works for the Native Alaskan Corporation up there. As a result, they get to visit him and enjoy that environment as well. Tarnas explains that his son does project management to help improve the infrastructure for small native Alaskan communities. However, he adds, many of these settlements are so remote that they don’t even have road service. The only way to reach them is by boat or airplane. To work on many of these projects, his son has to fly out there onsite to manage whatever work needs to be done.
As far as the most recent national parks Tarnas and his wife have visited: “We lately have been to Arizona and Southern Utah: to Zion and Bryce.” He laughs that now they don’t have to wait for the kids to get out of school so “we try to get there before the families arrive.” That last trip was this past May. “We’re having the discussion for what we are going to do this year now. (Before that) I think that within the next couple weeks, we’ll be doing some cross country skiing up in northern Vermont.” He says this time of year, he and his wife like to go cross country skiing several times a week. He adds that Prospect is really the best cross country skiing in the area. “It has been extraordinarily good. Last year we had a lot of melting but we had purpose. And they’ve done a great job maintaining it.” Tarnas also says that there’s a group that loves to go deep into the backcountry, “and I will join them sometimes, because I like the variety. And every week I will also go downhill at Bromley.”
The key with keeping any trail maintained and healthy is also to keep it wild but accessible. “Opening the view shed is very important,” Tarnas stresses. “Because so much of the Long Trail is in wilderness. And in wilderness, we are so cautious. We do that because of the wildlife and everything, and just because of the experience (it provides).” One of the ways he says they do this is “rather than having frequent blazes (or marks) where you paint the tree to make sure people are on the (right) trail, we spread that across places so that if they’re not necessary, we don’t put them there.” This helps sustain the wildness.
In addition to his trail work and enjoying his retirement, Tarnas has always loved gardening. As we speak, the first birds of spring are twittering about…and a flock of geese honks overhead. “It’s that first hint of spring that’s coming. We’re not quite there but we’re not totally freezing either. And this is why we can see the mud coming. There will be mud.” He laughs that this is also the time where he starts to think about his vegetable garden. “In fact, my wife and I are taking the Master Gardener course now online on video through the University of Vermont Extension Services.” Tarnas continues that he very much enjoys going online and listening to the lectures. “But then I realize I know this other person who’s also taking the course. ‘They live right over there. I know them.’” That kind of connection Tarnas says he really loves.
“I’ve had vegetable gardens since 1976 and I have had them here in Vermont since 1985.” He adds that he grows a variety of vegetables. “And, of course, you rotate around where they are. I have tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. Those grow very well as well as blueberries and raspberries and strawberries and blackberries.” He says the deer will will eat any apples that are low enough. “And I have to watch out for the birds who will eat the the blueberries, if you don’t cover them. They don’t eat the raspberries.” He adds that they did have a problem with Japanese beetles that were getting the raspberries. “But we got chickens who eat the beetles. And that’s a good example of a real natural eco structure that is naturally set up.” He says that there is balance. “It is not like you’re trying to kill one bug and then you end up killing all the other beneficial insects as well. It’s about the balance of preservation and access (for those who need it).”
As a matter of course coming back to his conservation and service work, Tarnas says that “access” to trails should be done in such a way that it minimizes damage and and maximizes enjoyment. “You should also do everything here to preserve the beauty and quality of life and let nature take its course.” He continues that there is a rejuvenating quality of being able to get out into nature. “That is something I value. We also talked about being of service and what we can do to help those that need our help the most.” He says that can be through housing assistance or the food bank, Tarnas says he has worked hard all his life “but everything I’ve done has also been in in service.” He explains that “it’s not like I chose a specialty in medicine that is the most profitable. I chose the one that I thought would allow me to have the greatest impact on people’s lives.”
He muses though that he didn’t choose to pursue medicine until he was halfway through his undergraduate studies. And none of other members of his family are in medicine.
With that sense of irony, Tarnas concludes our conversation with a sense of the philosophical. “My brother teaches Jungian psychology. And this (thought) relates back to the things that are important in our all of our lives (as well as the outdoors).” He ruminates that in life, thought and pursuits, “we have that ‘ego’ of our consciousness and everything that we’re aware of. But there is also the ‘unconscious’ (which Freud talked about)…and this is the stuff that we’re not aware of. We have to really dig (deep) to find it because there are other layers (of consciousness) that affect us.” He says this is where the teachings of Carl Jung come in. “Jung talked about (the) collecting (of) images, and how civilizations, communities and even our ancestors…their experiences affected us (and continue to do so).” Tarnas says an obvious place this is seen in modern times is how the arc of history changes…and yet reoccurs. “And things that used to be considered unacceptable — like women in positions of power — are now not just acceptable, but completely obvious.” But, as Jung suggested, in this arc, there is layer upon layer of being. “There are the archetypes and then there’s another layer of our connection with the rest of the world.” Tarnas says Jung also spoke of “Gaia” which theorizes that the Earth and all its biological systems behave as one single entity. This is what connects back into our discussion of the outdoors. “It is about maintaining that connection from being outside, from being in the wilderness, from being in the woods. That helps us (as human beings). But there’s also the wider (sense within that) of the cosmos and beyond” which are also part of the natural order. “So there are all of these layers of who we are that are important.” But Tarnas adds, it is only by connecting to it — enjoying nature, building trails or simply being of service — that we really find that understanding…that path.
