New England - July 2013

Monday July 1:  After spending a few hours at Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge, we moved on to Smuggler's Notch State Park.  The weather says rain, rain, rain - and heading into the Green Mountains the appearance was consistent with that (picture at right) - so we didn’t make any other sightseeing stops - just wanted to get the tent set up before any rain came.  We did stop for lunch in Swanson – John got a sandwich at Dunkin Donuts and I ate the lunch I had packed this morning.  We did stop at a Vermont Maple place along Hwy 104 north of Mansfield Forest where John had a maple “cremey” (soft serve ice cream) and bought some maple syrup and a maple candy.  We are in Vermont, after all!

So we got to Smuggler’s Notch State Park, down VERY twisty and narrow Hwy 108, around 2:30 or so.  We got the tent up, the bed made, the screen house over the table; pretty well set up for the evening before it started to sprinkle.   We were able to fix supper (chili) and get things put away before the real rain came.

We made our site reservations long ago - figuring they would be crowded during the holiday week.  That was right - the camp is totally full tonight!  One of the reasons we picked this site #7 was its proximity to the restroom.  But it’s one of those "you can’t get there from here" things!  The sites are very secluded and wooded, 15 feet or so back off the road, which is nice because it doesn’t feel crowded.  But the only way to get to the restroom, which is quite close as the crow flies, is to walk back out to the road, go down two sites and then turn into the restroom "lane" and hike into the woods again!  Fortunately it is only two sites away so it's not too long.  It just made me laugh when I looked around and said "Oh, so much for that good idea."

Tuesday July 2

It rained all night as far as I could tell.  We had a little water seepage on my side of the tent but just the floor was wet, the rest was okay.  Happily it stopped before we got up, though it was so foggy that we awoke in a cloud! 

Before we start hiking, I should introduce our guide for much of this trip.  We used New England Waterfalls - a book (by Greg Parsons and Kate B. Watson) that we highly recommend.  Without it, we would not have found most of the wonderful falls we visited!  They also have a web page that includes much of the content of the book as well as updates they have added since the book was published.   We found it very complete and mostly accurate, though of course, some things change - trails are re-routed and areas become inaccessible.  But it was great fun for us - something like a Treasure Hunt to track down some very obvious and some obscure waterfalls!

Today’s prediction was 70% chance of heavy rain so we elected not to do a long hike, but rather, several shorter ones – on the theory that we’d always be within sprinting distance of the car in case of a major downpour!   As it turns out, it only drizzled a little so we lucked out. 

We started out at Bingham Falls which is very close to the campground.  The walk, along the West Branch of the Waterbury River (above, right) from the parking area was less than half a mile and the falls were stunning.  You can see in the picture of the falls above, left, that it was a fairly short plunge but it emptied into a beautiful pool. (That's a picture that might be worth enlarging just for a better look at the pool and the sparkling teal color of the water.)  Just standing near the spray was refreshing!  One nice thing about so much rain is that it makes for very nice waterfalls!  Besides the main falls, there were lots of small tributaries that, in other places, would be considered "falls" in their own right, as seen at the left.

Next was Sterling Brook Gorge.  On the way to and from this gorge we passed a wooden covered bridge – the "road not taken" but we did take a picture of it, shown at right.  At the start of the trail is a nicely kept old graveyard (at left) – the large stone you can see is labeled "Anderson" but there are other flat ones in the small yard. 

This would be a great walk for kids of middle school age and up, as there are interpretative signs, about the geology and rocks in the gorge among other things, all along the trail.  To the right is one of many "trees hugging rocks" that we saw during our hikes in New England.  At the end of the trail are some wooden steps; take a left at the bottom and you end up at a nice little stream-side picnic table.  There were lots of small falls and cascades all along Sterling Brook (like the one at the right below. We also saw a tiny hyper active bird near the picnic table – it seemed like a little chickadee type of bird but I couldn't catch a picture.   One of the most picturesque of the many small falls along the gorge is shown below, left.  

I think it was driving from here to Terrill Gorge that we saw a fox zip across the road - too fast for a picture but worth noting anyway!  We were forewarned in the waterfalls book that there was a river to forge to get to Terrill Gorge.  And, after the heavy rains all spring, it was fairly deep and quick moving.  So, though the first part of the trail was a pleasant stroll, we then had to trade shoes to get across the river. John used his all-purpose Crocs and I used my swim shoes – and thank goodness for hiking sticks to help me keep my balance!  It was over John’s knees (see the picture below left, taken after we got across) and, of course, higher than that on me.  And cold.  But neither of us fell in; we didn't lose any cameras or phones!  Yay! 

On the other side of the river, we walked along the edge of a field; as the trail goes back into the woods it was total mud.  I'm glad we didn’t bother changing our shoes back!  They were very nice falls – not high, but wide, and emptying into in a lovely pool as Kenfield Brook met the Lamoille River.  When we got back to the car we dried off and changed shoes.  I changed my jeans, too, because they were just too soaking and muddy.  We had a picnic lunch right there in the pulloff and then headed for the last falls of the day.

The last stop was Moss Glen Falls (in CC Putnam State Forest).  Again, it was only about a half a mile hike, with some mud but not nearly as bad as the Terrill Gorge trail!   The trail runs along Moss Glen Brook (at left) so John spent a bit of time along the shore seeking driftwood or rocks.  Then comes a very steep climb up to a ridge and suddenly, there are the falls: a stunning 125 foot drop, pictured at the right!  By the way, this was the first time all day that we saw other people on the trail.  At the first three locations we had the whole place to ourselves.

As we drove back through Stowe we stopped at the grocery store (Shaws) and picked up a few items.  We also got directions to the laundromat – that’s on the agenda for tomorrow morning since we now have too many wet clothes that will begin to stink soon!   I cooked the chicken, broccoli and noodles as soon as we got back to camp so I would just have to do the sauce quickly in case heavy rains showed up. 

There is nothing in the literature about bears and there are no "bear boxes" here in the camp so we asked the ranger about it - he said there are bears around but they stay away from the people and they've never had any problems.  Must be nice to have such obedient bears!

Wed July 3, 2013

It didn’t storm last night; it did rain, however, and the outside of the tent was still pretty soaking but we had taken the shade canopy down last night while it was mostly dry.   John cooked pancakes this morning (yummy) and he discovered he really likes the darker, grade B syrup.  We broke camp around 10 AM and went to the laundromat, across the street from the Post Office.  I had to take a picture of the PO - it typifies what one sees around here: definitely not your ordinary post office!  And, the laundromat?  Oh my,  I know this is an expensive area and it was a very NICE facility, but that was ridiculous!  $12 to wash and $4 to dry about 2 loads.  But we now have clean and dry clothes to last us a while.

Next we went to the Depot Street Malt Shop for lunch (grilled chicken salad; cheeseburger and sweet potato fries) which was a fun place to visit - it feels like a 50's era malt shop and also had good food and large portions.  We had some time to kill since we couldn't check in at the B&B until after 3 so we took a drive out in the country, stopped at a Thrift Shop, found another covered bridge (Emily's Bridge) and had some very good, but fairly expensive, ice cream at IC Scoops.  We ran across Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church that is covered with murals that depict the work of Brother Joseph Dutton with lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii in the late 1800's.   The church was built on the site of the farm where Brother Dutton was born.  

By then it was late enough to check in at the Auberge de Stowe B&B.  We moved into town tonight because we're going to go see a musical downtown and didn't want to be driving back to camp along that very twisty, scary road late at night!   The B&B was pretty much as expected, though I was a little put off by the "tip envelope" for housekeeping!  Isn’t that part of ownership of a B&B? But the room is fine, the hosts friendly, the A/C kept the upstairs room cool even on a hot evening.   There was one drawback that we didn't know about until morning - a small window that had no shade but was situated so that the sun was streaming right in my face at dawn!  

We had supper at Frida’s – a very nice Mexican restaurant.  We ate on the deck and I took this picture of the rather classic Stowe Community Church just up the street.  The staff at Frida's was very accommodating - they changed some sauces for me since I can't deal with very hot spices.  The price was not unreasonable - at least until we added desserts, but that was our own doing!  We had assorted tacos for dinner; for dessert John had an almond cake and I had flan.  He also enjoyed a local beer - Gose: a lager made with coriander and sea salt, brewed by Lost Nations Brewing Company in neighboring Morrisville.

We went to see the musical "Nine" performed by the Stowe Theater Guild.  It was an excellent performance but neither of us liked the musical very much, which is probably why we had not heard of it before.

Thursday July 4:  Breakfast at the Auberge was very good – yummy croissants (which I shouldn’t have eaten but I did - there was butter and jam…); an egg casserole and rhubarb crisp.  Great start to the day!

We left around 9:30 AM and decided to visit some more waterfalls on the way down to Branbury State Park.  The directions for the first place we tried, Bolton Potholes,  said to turn on Bolton Valley Access Rd and park on the shoulder.  The right side now has guard rails right by the road, so there is no shoulder, and the other side was posted "No parking."  We could see cascades from the road but there was no place to safely park so we didn’t get out and mess around.   [According to the New England Waterfalls website, which I checked after the fact, there is now a parking area at the base of the Access Road.  I believe we saw such a place, but its location would have required a half mile or so hike UP to where the falls and cascades were so we just skipped it.]  On the way from Bolton down to Bristol, we drove through the Appalachian Gap - one of the many points where the Long Trail crosses a major road.   We stopped to enjoy some of the views (picture at right).

Our next stop was  Bristol Memorial Park Falls – well marked and easy access.  We hiked down the trail and then took a long wooden staircase to a bridge.  There were good views of the waterfall from the bridge (left).  Following the trail, we walked all around the falls for additional views.  Below is a closer view of the upper part of the falls and then another perspective, looking down from the bridge to Baldwin Creek below the falls.

 

After that we visited a section of the New Haven River that runs along Lincoln Road - but this one really had space to park on the shoulder and we spent some time climbing around the rocks (at left) before making our way up to Bartlett Falls.  The river itself was flowing rapidly and had some impressive small falls but there were also two long "feeders" on the other side of the river that were quite nice (picture at right).   Supposedly, when the water is low, you can swim up to the falls – today that looked pretty dangerous (below, left)!  We saw others sunning on the rocks, but nobody was trying to swim.

We stopped at a city park in Bristol for a picnic lunch then got into long, long traffic line heading out of town – July 4 traffic.  Turned out it was just the 4-way stop at Hwy 116 (where we were turning south).  Every single car had to stop and traffic was backed up for a couple of miles! 

Our last falls of the day was Abbey Pond Cascades (picture at right) – the instructions in the book said to take the left fork as you turned off the highway but there was a huge tree down across the road; however, the right fork got us to the same parking area.  It was quite a steep climb (note to self: don't leave car without hiking sticks - even for a "short" hike) but awesome views. The cascades are from a stream originating at Abbey Pond - the longest "falls" (above the bridge) are shown at the left.   It started to rain while we were there so I'm glad we weren’t planning on going on up to the pond (another 1.7 miles and 1000 ft+ elevation gain).  That would really be a nice day hike another time.  

We got to the Branbury State Park campground – no rain (yet), blue skies - around 2:15 PM or so.  We waited a while to set up the tent because we wanted the floor to dry out from the rains at Smuggler’s Notch.  By the time we got it all up I was sweating and exhausted and just wanted to sit.  John, however, had seen an enticing sign at the check-in station, and he went off to an ice cream social at Salisbury Congregational Church. They had much ice cream and many pies – he enjoyed himself.  I relaxed with iced water, typing up the log, reading and enjoying the cute little chipmunk that is playing around looking for a handout.

This site is actually too small to be able to make a fire – it would be too close to the tent.  So brats on a stick are out, but I used the camp stove to cook the biscuits and brats separately.  This campground has a lot of amenities – including a beach on Lake Dunmore (photo right)!  If you are camping here, you don't have to pay the day use fee so we walked down to the beach for sunset (picture at left) and then stayed for most of the fireworks, too – there were about 5 different communities around the lake that were shooting them off so we enjoyed quite a show.  

Friday July 5 -

We had oatmeal and some leftover biscuits for breakfast and started off to hike to the nearby Falls of Lana and Rattlesnake Cliff.  What a comedy of errors!  We started out using the trail from the campground, which a ranger said led to the best view of the falls.  It climbed pretty steeply as you can see from the view looking back at the campground on the left.  We found the falls, though there were no good viewpoints and the trail petered out – some places were marked, others not.  (My best view through the trees is at the right.)  So we backtracked back down to the campground and walked down Hwy 53 about a quarter of a mile to a gravel parking lot, as advised by some people we met on the path.  Following the "book" directions we ended up hiking along the penstock (below left).  Again, we could find the falls but there were no good views – and there were no trails, either.  Finally we went back to the Highway, walked down another quarter of a mile to where the Silver Lake trail starts!  (Who knew?)  Then we could get up to the new bridge on that well-marked trail (that might be some of the problem – one bridge washed out and the new one was built after the book was published), though the views of Falls of Lana still weren’t especially good from the bridge (photo at right).

Next we crossed the bridge and headed up Rattlesnake Cliff Trail.  We had been told that one of the viewpoints at the cliff top was blocked off due to Peregrine Falcons fledging but the other was still open.  This trail was VERY steep, very hot and when we were about 45 minutes into it, we passed people coming down who told us that both viewpoints were now out of bounds.  At that point John was also almost out of water, so it made it an easy choice to stop.  We did get this picture of Lake Dunmore from about half way up the trail; we had lunch along the trail and then hiked back down.  I think we did about 5 miles this morning!

When we got back we were soaking so we changed into swim wear, jumped in the lake and got cooled off quickly!  It was quite nippy getting in but not bad after we got used to it.  But about that time, thunder and lightning started so everyone was herded out of the water.  We went to the showers which were WAY too hot with no way to control the temperature - I'm sure a child would have been scalded.  By the time I got out and dry, the heavens opened and it was torrentially raining!  I had my poncho and umbrella so I could get back to the camp site pretty easily.  I then drove down and picked up John (who hadn't thought to take rain gear to the shower) and we read and napped in the car until it rained itself out.  It was a very hard downpour for a long time.  If we return to this camp, or one like it, I think it would be worth the extra fee to get a Lean-to site.  As I read about them, it didn't seem that a 3-sided structure would be particularly beneficial.  But, after 3 nights of rain, I changed my mind!  They do offer quite a bit of protection and the tent floor wouldn't have been soaked.

Around 4:30 John got out food, put the beef in a marinade and it started raining again!  We gave up, put the meat back in the cooler and drove up to Middlebury in a downpour (again) to Rosie’s where we had a very good meal, good service, good food, reasonable prices.  Much better deal!  After supper we stopped at the Hannaford Grocery to restock; and still got back to Salisbury in time for a chamber music concert at Salisbury Congregational Church.  The performers were faculty members at the  Point-Counterpoint Music Camp along the lake.  It was very, very good, though quite hot and stuffy in the small church (they handed out fans).   They performed Brahms Piano Trio in B major, opus 8  and Beethoven String Quartet in F minor, Opus 95 and their standing ovation was well-earned.

Saturday July 6

I think it rained more during the night but it was dry in the morning – yay!   John cooked pancakes again this AM – very good; love that Vermont maple syrup.  It was overcast and we’ve learned not to trust the weather so decided to go back to doing shorter things so we can bail out if needed.  That worked fine.  It was around 10 by the time we got to Texas Falls.  This was the first place on the whole vacation so far that we encountered large numbers of people.  (Because it's after July 4 now?)  They are beautiful falls (left) and there are lots of good viewing places.  After we gawked at the water for a while, we took the 1.2 mile loop trail (right).  It was rather steep (I was glad I remembered my hiking sticks this time) and quite wet in places (surprise, surprise) but a nice hike. We passed loads of lovely little babbling streams (left, below) – which were no doubt just run-off and probably didn’t exist most of the year.  When we left there around noon, the parking lot was totally full and people were waiting for our place!  
 

   

Next we walked the Robert Frost Trail near Ripton (where he lived for many years).  It was very nicely kept and a delightful combination of poetry and nature.  We had lunch on a bench in the parking area then did the short trails (about a mile).  One nice view is in the center above.  We heard loads of birdsong but we didn’t see anything identifiable except a red winged blackbird.  John played around by the stream for a while and left a piece of driftwood artwork (right, above) for others to enjoy!  

When we left we stopped at the nearby Ripton General Store which was a fun place to visit.  This really is a general store - and where local folks pick up their mail.  John bought some wine, coffee and honey; I bought a cookie and some Nancie Dunn cards plus a nice small watercolor print of the store - the same view I photographed at left.

Then we went back through Middlebury to Bittersweet Falls.  Not much to do there except just look but they were very picturesque falls (picture at left).  On the way we passed a fruit stand and got some yummy peaches.   While we were still in the Middlebury area, we stopped in a parking lot to check phone messages and return some calls.

Returning to camp, we found it was sunny and warm - something new and different!  I managed to dry out the ponchos and most of the towels; John’s backpack and hat will take longer.  My stuff wasn’t so wet because I didn’t leave it on the table during the storm.  

John made goulash tonight with the beef that marinated over night - very good.   Then we walked down to the beach and watched our final lake sunset.  It was dry all night and we slept well!

Sunday July 7

Then came morning.  I got up just before 8; on the way back from the bathhouse I felt the first drop.  Woke up John and we broke camp, packed up quickly and were out as the rains came pouring down around 9!  We went back to Rosie’s for breakfast and it was great; and then headed into Middlebury to the laundromat.  We had accumulated not only a lot of dirty clothes but a lot of wet clothes, too.  This was a much better deal than in Stowe.  Admittedly the equipment was older, but was only $2-3 depending on size of washer and we did all the drying for about $2.50.

Next, since the sun had come out, we headed to Mt. Horrid for a hike to the cliff… only to find that it was also closed for falcons.  We stopped at the viewpoint but couldn’t see the falcons, just some vultures.  We had lunch at a wayside with a picnic table along the highway.  We stopped at a Maple Museum but didn’t pay the $5 for the museum, just browsed in the shop – we bought a 2014 calendar and I bought a pair of earrings.  Driving south on VT 7 the scenery looked a lot like Iowa (left) - except for the mountains in the background!

Down past Rutland, we went in search of Clarendon Gorge Falls.  Eventually we found 1 of the 3 falls we had been directed to – it’s a segment of the Appalachian Trail and has a nice suspension bridge over the river (pictured at left).  This section is known as the Upper Falls - picture at right is taken from the bridge - and they are really cascades rather than falls. You can pretty easily climb right down to the Mill River so many people were there swimming.  In the picture at the left below you can see the suspension bridge over the river, too.  John would have really enjoyed messing with the rocks (center below) and going through the "bone pile" of driftwood shown at the right below.   Except that right after we got there, it started thundering and we got back to the car just as it started to rain.  I think it has rained at least for a while every day we've been gone so far.  

We'd about had it with being rained on every night, so we went on up to the Red Roof Inn in Rutland, checked in, caught up on email a bit.  We headed to West Rutland for dinner and found ourselves (again) driving into a storm!  (Picture at right)  We ate at Sweet Caroline’s (reasonable prices, good food, friendly people) – they had a nice collection of 60's music going (originals, not covers) and that was fun.  As we pulled into the parking lot the thunder and lightning seemed to be right next to us and just as we walked in, the skies opened.  What a deluge!  How nice that we were inside this time!

It was just dripping when we left and we saw a nice rainbow on the way back (but I was driving so couldn’t take its picture).  After being back in the room about 20 minutes the rains started again.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to go hike tomorrow or not.  But at least we have a solid (red) roof and a microwave and fridge so we can have breakfast and lunch even if it continues to rain….

Monday July 8

We had a great breakfast this morning - this Red Roof Inn is atypical!  They have all of the normal "continental breakfast" fare but also sausage and eggs, fruit and yogurt.  I'm a very happy camper!  We decided to ignore the rain that was falling and the nasty-looking sky and go hike anyway!  So we drove down to Manchester and found the Lye Brook Falls trailhead.  By the time we got there (about 40 minutes) the rain had stopped!  Yay!

This was a great hike – about 2.5 miles (each way).   It starts out easy; then there’s a short rocky, slightly uphill part.  If this makes you gasp, forget it and don’t even try.  In the middle is about a mile and a half of uphill.  It varies from muddy to rocky to "stream-like."  Now remember, it has rained every day for about a month as far as I can tell.  So it probably isn’t always like this.  But parts of the trail were literally a brook!  It took us about 1.5 hours to get up there.  There’s a landslide not far before the falls (left over from Hurricane Irene) but by now there is a pretty obvious trail through/around it.  

From left to right: John crossing Lye Brook; a section we passed along the trail that looks very jungle-like and John said that's what the shower in our next house should look like!  Finally, the landslide from 2011.

At the falls (left) there is very little space but we found some nice rocks to sit on and gaze at this stupendous falls.  Definitely worth the hike!  We sat there and had lunch.  Another couple showed up and we chatted and traded picture-taking.  As we were leaving, a group of about 6 came in – that was as much as this small cliff area could hold so it was good we had finished eating and were ready to start back down.  Surprisingly, it took 1.5 hours to get back down, too!  But it was much easier on the legs and lungs in that direction.

On the way back to the motel it rained lightly – the sky looked quite threatening but didn’t turn into much.  When we got back, John hit the tub for a soak and I went for a swim that was very refreshing!  I then ran a batch of laundry and we went to the Ginger China for supper.  John had MaLa Lamb (at right) and I had a Chicken and Shrimp Combo.  Both were excellent.  We only ate about half of our servings so we now have another "leftover" meal for later in the week!

It wasn't raining when we got back so we threw the tent over the car so the floor could dry out a bit!  We did a batch of laundry since it was convenient (and we had some very sweaty clothes after today’s hike) and read a little before bed.

Tuesday July 9

Today was a travel day - we're moving into New Hampshire, but there were a few more places we wanted to stop on the way. We left around 9:30 this morning after another great breakfast and stopped first at Thundering Brook Falls near Killington.  There's a nice, new trail to these falls about half a mile past the Killington Town Hall (follow the signs to the Killington Recreation Area off of VT 100).  There's a nice boardwalk through a marshy area, lots of lovely flowers, including a Canada Lily which we had not seen before (left and right); this is also a segment of the Appalachian Trail.  The falls were impressive but the walk to get there was enjoyable, too.   The left picture below is taken looking up at the falls; the one in the center is looking down towards the old mill house. 

   

The next stop was the Long Trail Brewery (pictured right, above - we added a pin for Evansdale on the map) which was right on the way.  It was my turn to drive so John had a sampler of some of their beers.  He was not especially impressed; of the beers, he liked the Traditional IPA best.  But he also found a hiking cap that fit his head - he was much more excited about that!

Quechee Gorge was next.  It is nothing like a "Grand Canyon of Vermont" but it’s a relatively deep gorge and a nice river and you have to drive right over it anyway.  We walked down to the river (about .5 mile); it's a wide gravel path but rather steep.   Apparently sometimes you can swim there, but the river is very full and fast right now so it didn’t seem real safe.  A view of the gorge from the bridge is on the left and the Ottauquechee River on the right.  There is a gift shop, snack bar and a wine store right there at the bridge.  We had ice cream for lunch!   Well, John had a grilled cheese sandwich, too and we shared some fries.  Then we went across the parking lot to the Putney Mountain Winery where he did some wine tasting and bought 2 bottles.

Next stop was the campus of King Arthur Flour.  They have a huge retail store, a bakery (that also serves lunch) and a "school" where you can sign up for various classes.  We were looking for wide bread pans which they didn’t have.  The staff said they were called "Hearth pans" and were on order but not in yet.  I could have saved quite a bit on the flour, but we really didn't have room to haul too many bags so we made do with snacks at the bakery.  John had a big sticky bun and I had a little piece of "chocolate indulgence."  It's very rich - it looks small but it took me 3 days to finish it!

Finally, our last stop in Vermont.  We got off the highway in Fairlee (near Lake Morey) and hiked the half a mile or so to Glen Falls.  That was a very nice hike (cool in the woods) and we enjoyed the falls.  The top part (left) was lots of tumbles and then it goes through a gorge and plunges into a lovely pool (right).  A great "last Vermont waterfall!"  

From there we continued north on I-91 and then made our way over to Franconia, New Hampshire where the trip continues in Part 3!