Stumbling upon a mystery while on a Dark Hollow hike

LAKEVILLE — Looking for a hike that’s not too strenuous and not too long, but will still get the heart rate up and provide a pleasant, woodsy experience?The destination, then, is Dark Hollow Road — the dirt road that runs between Farnam and Salmon Kill roads — and the trails there maintained by the Salisbury Association Land Trust.The road is closed for the winter, but the start of the Summit and Farnham Fields trails is just a few yards from the barrier on the Farnam Road side.The trails are well-marked and easy to follow — especially in this snowless winter. The Summit trail involves some immediate uphill action. Once up on the ridge, the hiker can see across the Salmon Kill valley, albeit through the trees. A quick walk off the trail improves the view somewhat.The trail then heads downhill, in a very “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” stretch of woods that conceals a bona fide mystery (More on that in a moment.)It loops around and returns to the road. Complete time from parking at the barrier to returning to the trail head (including pauses for fiddling with the camera) was about 45 minutes. Mild sweat, zero aches.It was the work of a moment to hit the trail and bear right this time, past the marker set in a boulder that dedicates Dark Hollow to Benjamin Moore Belcher and Nancy Knapp Belcher, and notes that “The purchase of Dark Hollow by the Salisbury Association Land Trust was made possible by the generosity of the Belcher Family and many other charitable donors, July 2003.”The Farnham Fields trail winds downward, past the holy grail of New England hiking (an old stone wall), past some fields (as advertised) and back up to the barrier and your car. Total time for this section is no more than 20 minutes.Now, about that mystery. It was surprising to spot what appears to be a grave marker leaning against a tree trunk, overlooking a hollow or ravine.The marker reads, simply: “Charlotte Remington, 1891-1968.”Tom Key, who helps keep an eye on Dark Hollow for the Salisbury Association, said he spotted it one day a couple of years ago. “One day I saw it, and I know it hadn’t been there a few weeks earlier,” Key said.“I thought at first it was a prank. But that’s got to be pretty heavy” and would be difficult to carry up to the spot.Key developed a couple of theories. “Maybe her ashes were scattered up there and someone thought the marker should go with it.”A more ominous theory: “When ghosts walk at night, maybe they take their stones along.”Town historian Katherine Chilcoat was asked about it. She remembered a Remington family on Covered Bridge Road, off Belgo Road.Possibly the answer is that the stone was a mistake by the mason. Chilcoat said there are plenty of door stops and rocks in gardens that are goofs from the gravestone industry.This theory has some merit. Records at Town Hall have a Charlotte Wilkie Remington, but the dates are 1885-1982.But if that’s the case, it still doesn’t explain why the stone is up on the Summit Trail, nor does it shed any light on who put it there.There’s also a metal folding chair at the beginning of the Summit Trail. Maybe it was brought along so whoever lugged the Remington marker could take a breather.In any event, the Dark Hollow trails (there is a third one, called the Lower Trail) are accessible and quiet, fairly easy on the limbs and fill a niche between the Rail Trail and a full-bore hike on the Appalachian Trail.