I headed out at midday on 3 October for a weeks’ vacation. My intend was to camp, hike, and kayak in PA, VT, and NY. I never made it to NY except while passing through. I spent most of my nights sleeping on the ground. Two nights I crashed at my friends Linda and Ed Devinos’ place in West Addison, VT. One night I crashed at Ed’s beer camp up on the edge of the Green Mountain National Forest north of Killington.
The majority of the state parks in the areas I planned on staying were closed for camping for the season, which was really a tragedy. Vermont was near peak in the mountains, especially in the Northeast Kingdom, for fall foliage. I just don’t understand how you could close your parks for camping until after fall foliage. I guess perhaps people that car camp, particularly in state parks, just don’t do it much after the end of the summer when the kids have returned to school. The diehard outdoors people are probably just getting into the cool weather and heading out backpacking.
Here are the details.
Day One
I had a decent drive to East Stroudsburg, PA, were I stayed for the night at the KOA – Delaware Gap/Pocono Mountain. I really slept like crap…it was cold…maybe down in the mid-30’s and very noisy for such a rural area. The camp is not far from a 2-lane road that seemed have traffic constantly but for the wee hours of the morning. At one point the road noise was such that I thought I was camped next to a racetrack during a race. That area of the eastern Poconos off Interstate 80 has become very popular with folks that work in New York city. The commute is hell but the property is affordable. I got caught in rush hour traffic getting to the KOA. It took me about 30 minutes to go the six miles from the interstate.
Day Two
I drove up from PA to VT. I stopped in Middlebury, VT, to get some food and take some pictures. It happened to be parents’ weekend so the town was a zoo. I stopped on the road to my friend Mike Livingston’s old place where the “Trail Around Middlebury” (TAM) crosses to have some lunch. I decided to walk for a bit rather than head down to Linda and Ed’s to kayak. I’d been in the car for nearly 10 hours in two days and figured I’d stretch my legs rather than sit some more in my kayak.
I followed the TAM for awhile then split off on a trail that looked more relaxing. That, unfortunately, was probably an old farm track because it dead ended at a hayfield. I walked back and got on the TAM. That took me over Chipman Hill and back down into the northern side of Middlebury where I saw a woman walking her dog. I asked her if she knew how long the trail was and she said it was 14 miles but she really knew nothing more than that. Come to find out the TAM is closer to 18 miles long.
I figured if it were 10 miles, I might try to complete it but when I heard 14 miles, I decided I’d walk it a bit further then cut back through the center of town and get on the road out of town back to my car. My timing was perfect. I drove into Linda and Ed’s place right behind Linda, who got off work at 1700.
We all hung around knocking back a few quaffs and grilling burgers. Linda’s friend Jane, her son Benjamin, who does some work for Ed, and Chris Marshall, whom I had never met but is the younger brother of David Marshall who is married to Jackie Marshall, nee Mayoux (sp), a former classmate. Jane is a great lady who unfortunately lost her job working in a nursery near Vergennes when the owners retired and no one wanted to buy the business. She is now waiting tables at a cafe in North Ferrisburg. I am fairly sure that she is not happy about that.
Chris is a very interesting guy as are his brother Dave and sister-in-law Jackie. I though I saw lots of Dave in Chris. Ironically, he said they were never close. Chris was very well spoken and well informed which made for good conversation. He works as a boiler maintenance tech for IBM in Essex. He says his job is pretty secure but that lots of the IBM core business that used to be in Essex has migrated back to Armonk, NY, where IBM is headquartered. He works the graveyard shift which I could deal without but at least he can live out in the country and have an easy commute to work at that time. He’s been married, divorced, and dated Jane.
On another personnel note, Big Ed and Kelly Barrows, both of whom do deer and domestic meat butchering, are at odds. Apparently Kelly is sneaking in on Ed by using his butchering facility, power, and storage. He then processes all the meat without Ed’s help, takes the money and runs. I’ll be interested to see how this one plays out…
Day Three
Linda removed the fence around her garden and raked the weeds out today. Meanwhile, I paddled on Dead Creek WMA which is a series of waterways that eventually drain into Otter Creek. Dead Creek is a haven for waterbirds, especially those in migration. Last year I saw hundreds of Snow Geese in the area but this year I was a week earlier and the Snow Geese were far and few between. I did see tons of Canadian Geese, quite a few Great Blue Herons, who seem to be everywhere, and what I think was a beaver. It was definitely a good sized brown animal that noisily dropped into the water from the shore as I paddled by. The paddle was nice though nothing spectacular. There is still not much better than getting down on the water in a low-impact device and checking out the environs.
After getting back to the Devinos and packing up what little I had broken out, I snuck down Rt.125 to Middlebury and south to Brandon on Rt. 7 where I took Rt. 73 across the mountains to Rt. 100. From there I went south past Pittsfield, VT, and the road to Ed’s camp, to Killington where I picked up Rt. 4 east to the Long Trail Brewery. I had a beer there and watched the crowd. The place was jumping for a Sunday. The artifacts desk was doing a brisk business selling T-shirts and other such mementos. I should have bought a t-shirt but did not. By the time I left there and drove back up to camp it was getting dark. When you are tucked up into the east side of the Green Mountains, nighttime comes early.
I started writing this at camp which looks like it started out as a very small A-frame with a loft, living area, and kitchen. It has a porch on the front. Ed knocked out part of the front of the building to put in a sliding glass door. The door is cool but doing me nothing at this time of year. It’s too chilly to have it open and too dark too early to enjoy the view.
I had a bit of a hard time finding the camp to start with. The directions were quite clear but the description of the camp was a bit off from what I had last heard. I had this vision of a trailer with one sleeper cab each from a semi attached to either end of it, like ears on a box. To make matters worse, as I drove up the road I was swarmed by these three (not big) dogs that were just barking up a storm, running all around my car, and causing me to worry about their actual ferociousness and the idea that I might run them over.
As it was, I looked more carefully at this one place and noticed a sleeper cab from a semi attached to the porch. I figured that was probably the mother lode. A bit warily, I got out of my car amidst the dogs who turned out to be as gentle as could be. They were curious about the newcomer I guess. I finally managed to find the keys to the place and get the electricity on so I had lights. The place has running hot water but I didn’t need it and decided not to mess with figuring out how to get it all turned on. After a bit I got the wood stove going, which made for a comfortable environment to kick back in, quaff a few beers and work on writing this document.
Come to find out, the trailer was there to start with and one of the previous owners built the A-frame around the end of the trailer, which happened to be the kitchen. So I gather Ed cut the trailer off, left the kitchen part in the A-frame, and put in the sliding glass door. The building does have the two sleeper cabs attached to the back of the building side-by-side. Holes cut in the back of the building give access to the the cabs. They look pretty comfortable but had no windows and would have made me claustrophobic to sleep in them. I crashed in the loft.
Day Four
In the AM, I packed it up and drove up to the end of Upper Michigan Road to explore. The road theoretically ended at the border of the national forest. However, it looked in decent shape so I proceeded to go further but after twice misinterpreting the bumps and bottoming out I decided to back up, park, and walk on. I walked on for about three miles or so up the road hoping I would come to an overlook or at least the top of the mountain so I would have some milestone. It was not to be so. Nonetheless, the scenery was stunning. I took many pictures. The mountain clouds were constantly threatening so I decided to head back down. I had brought nothing like rain gear, warm clothes, food, or water so I felt it was best to get back to my car.
I stopped back at camp to change into some traveling clothes and head north for Brighton State Park, VT in Island Pond, VT. I got off the trail and back to camp just in time because the skies opened up pretty well for a while. There was a light rain/mist during most of my journey north which was all on secondary roads. The scenery, even considering it was fall foliage season, was awesome. I avoided going up Rt. 100 which would have been the obvious route north to Montpelier from where I would have taken Rt. 2 to St. Johnsbury and from there north to Island Pond. I was a bit worried about flatlander tourists.
Instead I took Rt.107 from just south of Stockton to Rt. 14 to Rt. 110 in South Royalton. From there I headed north where I picked up Rt. 302 north near East Barre. From Rt. 302 I picked up Rt. 232 to Rt. 2 which was awesome. The traffic was light to moderate. Rt 232 through Groton State Forest, VT was beautiful. But when they said there were frost heaves in the road they were not kidding! I think that my kayak shifted a ½ inch to the rear on that stretch of the road. From St. Johnsbury on Rt 2, I took Interstate 91 north to Rt. 5 in Lydonville. From there I continued north to Rt. 114 which took me to Rt. 105 in to Island Pond. Brighton State Park is just outside of town and includes Spectacle Pond on which I got my tent site…beautiful! I stayed there for three days.
The site was awesome. Everything was totally wooded. I was right on Spectacular Pond where I sat in the evenings and mornings reading and watching the sunrises/sunsets. I was still unfortunately close enough to civilization to hear vehicle traffic and the occasional train. I haven’t been too many places recently except for Alaska and the Arizona desert where I could totally get away from the sounds of modern civilization…which sucks.
The few people I talked to who were camping nearby were there for the same reason I was…the outdoors..the foliage…and just to get away. One couple was from New Hampshire. The fact that they had come to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont to get away said something for the area.
It was later in the afternoon when I got to the park and got settled in. An odd thing about camping by yourself is that you generally are killing time waiting to climb into the fartsac. You have no one to talk to, you don’t want to burn up a bunch of wood staying warm, and you don’t want to use up lots of kerosene running a lantern or batteries powering a headlamp while you are reading. But you really have nothing else to do. Sounds good, eh?
I tried out some new gear on this trip and was pleased with it. I bought a new backpacking stove which isn’t much bigger than a small can of tomato paste. The fuel canister is a standard butane unit. One of those canisters lasted through four meals and coffee/tea most mornings. My 50 degree down sleeping bag needed to be augmented by a fleece bag and layers of long johns because I did not anticipate that the temps would drop below 30 degrees and hadn’t time to wash my winter sleeping back prior to departure.
Nonetheless, I stayed warm, which is not to say I slept well. I never seem to do so when I am camping but this is not unusual according to my uncle who spends way much more time sleeping on the ground than I do. Finally, my new tent was everything I wanted it to be. As noted in the reviews, the fly had lots of condensation after a night’s sleep but, when it rained hard on Wednesday night, I stayed perfectly dry.
Day Five
I got up, brewed some coffee, and read for a bit whilst watching the sun rise over the pond. I made some tea for the road, packed up some fruit, trail mix, and water for breakfast and lunch and headed off to Lake Willoughby, VT to paddle. The quickest and best route looked like a dirt road over the mountains to the lake from where I was. I confirmed with the park ranger that that would be the case.
The drive over the mountain was great. The view of Willoughby coming down into the town of Westmore, VT was very good. It was a fair stretch of dirt road but plenty manageable at about 40 MPH. There was a massive house on the top of the mountain that had a pretty clear view both east and west that I was a bit envious of. However, I bet they get the wicked cold and wind chill up there in the winter time.
Westmore is nearest the northern end of the Willoughby. I head up Rt. 5A to the beach at the the north end of the lake where there was parking. I got my poop nearly in a group and launched my kayak. There was a point sticking out on the east side of the lake that I figured I would shoot for. I have no sense of distance on the water so I figured I would time myself on the way out for about an hour and then head back north to my point of departure.
The further and further I got out on the lake the rougher the water got. I was alternatively wallowing in the troughs or riding the crests of the waves. I did make it down to the point when I figured I should come about and head back. I tucked into a downed tree sticking out in the water to have a nosh, down some water, and take some pictures. Even tucked in as such I had to be careful to maintain position and not drift off with the waves.
At last I turned about and head back up the lake to the northern end. It was a struggle for the whole trip back. I was fighting what seemed like the current, the wind, and 18 inch swells. I didn’t swamp but got plenty of water over my gunwales from the heavy spray when I did not hit the crest of the wave just right. Since I was on the east side of the lake and the wind was coming from the NNW, I cut across the lake to the western shore hoping that getting in close would block some of the wind and result in smaller waves. That was really not to be the case.
I fought the elements all the way back up the lake and, other than getting wet, it really was not that bad. It was a hell of workout but who doesn’t need that? Due to the very steep and inhospitable sides of most of the lake, there are not that many homes around. However, as I worked my way further up the west side of the lake I saw some pretty nice places. Some were down on the water situated where, if they were much further south, they would have been in the flood zone. One was so high up on the bluff overlooking the lake that it had a 10-floor stairway coming down to the boathouse and dock. I’d hate to get all the way down and forget the boat keys!
I finally made it back to shore, got out of my kayak, and just left it on shore so I could stretch out. There was a couple from Connecticut with their parents from Scotland in the parking lot. They were taking pictures of my license plate “Angst,” saying they liked it. It took a bit for me to regroup. I had some lunch, changed into dry clothes, got the kayak up on my car, and packed up the rest of my gear. I got back on Rt. 5A and head south to West Burke, VT. Then I cut over to East Burke, VT and headed down Rt. 114 to Lydonville.
There I tried to find my brother-in-law’s college, Lyndon State but it was not to happen. Eventually, I stopped to see if Trout River Brewery, VT in Lydonville was open. It was not. They are open for very limited hours on Friday and Saturday only. Since I had to head back up Rt. 114 to Island Pond, I stopped again in East Burke where I got more fuel for my stove and looked to see if I could get a beer anywhere. I thought I found a pub but it was closed. Back to Island Pond it was.
In Island Pond again I looked for a pub. I parked my car and walked around town which took less than ten minutes. Not a place to sit down and have a beer was found. Apparently, at this time of the year you couldn’t even get a beer in town until Wednesday. It just wasn’t profitable to keep bar/restaurants open all week long even though it was hunting season. Apparently during the winter the area rocks with snowmobilers. I could do without that for sure.
I did pop into a couple of outfitter stores. The two could not have been much more different. One seemed totally devoted to hunters and boaters whereas the other was marketed towards hikers, campers, backpackers, etc. That place had the most awesome selection of gear in one outdoors store that I have ever seen. I talked to the owner but still don’t have a clue how he could maintain such an inventory in such a remote area.
Day Six
I got up, brewed some coffee, and read for a bit whilst watching the sun rise over the pond (again). I made some tea for the road, packed up some fruit, trail mix, and water for lunch and breakfast (again) and headed off to Lake Willoughby to hike up Mt. Pisgah, VT which overlooks Lake Willoughby from the east. The climb was about 1500 ft in 1.7 miles but I believe it was more like about 1200 in .5 miles. Darn near killed me.
When I got to the top my legs were so wobbly I was afraid to go out on the overlook for a few minutes. When I finally did, I found the views to be as great as I expected them to be. I snapped a few pictures before meandering on. I ended up walking back down the mountain on the south side trail then walking back up the Rt. 5A along the lake to where I had parked my car at the north end of the trail, which made for about a seven mile hike.
I chatted a bit just south of the overlook with a younger woman who was from Washington, D.C., visiting family or friends in Craftsbury, VT. She said she had hiked on the Long Trail the day before and thought it was a piece of cake. It looked like the hike up Mt. Pisgah from the south side had hardly phased her. She must have been in awesome shape…compared to me anyhow. I guess that is not saying much.
On my way back, I headed over the mountain from Westmore to Island Pond on the dirt road. Once in town, I got some ice and had a beer at a place that was finally open. It was a combo old-style hotel with restaurant/bar that had dart boards, pool tables, etc. The bartender was probably in her middle thirties. We chatted a bit about life in Island Pond. She complained a bit about the cold but said she had moved away to a warmer place for a bit, Hanover, NH! Funny. She moved back to be closer to family. Sounds familiar.
Back at camp, I took a wrong turn thinking that I could find a shortcut to the ranger station to see if they could get me a reservation for Grand Isle State Park the next night. That was a mistake. I kept walking and walking thinking I would come out somewhere that I recognized. It was pretty stupid. Rain was threatening. I had clothes lying out at camp waiting for me to don post shower. I had nothing on me but the clothes I was wearing. (Sounds like my hike up into the Green Mountain National Forest from Ed’s camp….) At least I knew all I had to do was turn around and head back the way I came. I did that finally after about two miles. I did see lots of moose tracks which was cool. Add four more miles to the days hiking total. I never was able to get a reservation at Grand Isle.
Day Seven
We had a fair piece of rain starting about midnight in Island Pond. My tent kept me perfectly dry thankfully. Unfortunately, everything was pretty wet in the morning and I had no way and no time to dry things out if I wanted to get over to the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge for a good day of paddling. I had to cut across the state and had mapped out a route as direct as possible without getting on too many secondary roads. Good east/west roads are practically non-existent in Vermont where all the mountain ranges run north/south. I expected the drive to be about two hours and predicted a six hour paddle.
Even thought it was misty and rainy for the whole drive including a fairly good downpour while I was checking email on my Blackberry just outside of Swanton, VA, the drive was incredible. I guess I could call it my “Misty Mountain Hop.” Amazingly, by the time I stopped at the NWR HQ, the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to come out. Was I blessed or what?
No I was not. The route I had planned to take down the Missisquoi to the Dead Creek out to Missisquoi Bay on Lake Champlain, back up to where the Missisquoi drained into the lake, and then back down the Missisquoi to my point of departure was foiled by duck hunting season. At the NWR HQ, I was advised not to go out onto the bay and to not venture too far down Dead Creek toward the bay.
I took part of the advise and did not venture out into the bay but I did paddle out Dead Creek all the way to the bay. I heard a few shotguns only one of which was close. The guy must not have been a very good shot because he scared up about seven ducks who took off without apparent harm.
When I got back to the launching point it was interesting to see guys coming in and heading out in their gear all camouflaged up. Many had dogs and many had waders on (the hunters that is), presumably to get to their duck blinds and/or retrieve downed ducks. I didn’t see anyone coming in with ducks but maybe they don’t flaunt them. I did see some elaborately camouflaged boats that made me wonder about the expense and time involved in just downing a few ducks a day, if you are lucky. I guess it is all about the sport. I did even see one guy with Quebec tags who had driven down with his camouflaged boat in tow and looked like he was heading home empty handed. What a sport…
I had a very enjoyable three hour plus paddle. And I stayed dry! Once packing up my gear and racking up my kayak, I headed west and then south through the Champlain Islands, VT to Grand Isle State Park where I hoped to get a lake front site for the evening…my last night in a tent for the trip. I was fortunate enough to get a lake front site with a lean-to no less! It was nicely isolated and the quietest site of my trip…if you discount the crows. Discounting Crows? Never mind.
I did have to kill a bit of time to wait for the park reservation guy to come back around so I popped down to the local store to buy some beer. I was a bit interested in finding some “Trout River” beer. I did find some but found it to be not very good. Who knows how old it was… I should have known better when I got excited about seeing Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale in a six-pack on the shelf. Then I noticed that the bottles in the six-pack weren’t all the same and the label said “2007 Celebration Ale.” Needless to say I did not buy that. Nor should I have bought the Trout River. I still have two sitting in my refrigerator waiting desperate times.
Not long after I got back to the park, I was able to register and get my lean-to site. Most of the lean-to sites there have chain link fences between the lean-tos and the edge of the drop off to the lake. That’s all well and good but I don’t really like my view impeded and told the reservation guy that. He got me one of the two sites that were unencumbered by fences. On my walk around the park the next morning I noticed that even the site I camped at in 2004 had had a fence added to it. Must be a family park…
From my site I looked east out over Lake Champlain toward Colchester, which is north of Burlington, and the Green Mountains, including Mt. Mansfield and Camel’s Hump. I took a number of pictures all in the process of just taking pictures and familiarizing myself with my new digital SLR. I read for a while, had a few beers, and then cooked up some ramien for dinner before hitting the fartsac to read for a bit more.
I woke up to the very acrid smell of skunk at some point…I never look at the time if it is dark and I am trying to sleep. I woke twice more to the smell which finally dissipated about dawn. The skunk did not get me but it got something nearby. I am not sure what the threat might have been unless I was in his winter home. The most annoying things around seemed to be just the crows and chipmunks. Just as a reminder of the close call, when I opened my car, the windows of which had been cracked all night, I got the skunk smell reminder for a few hours.
Day Eight
Truly in the AM the most annoying thing was the Crow Communication Network. Forget about CNN, the CCN rules. Those bastages are so loud and so annoying. Thankfully, the show lasted for only about 45 minutes. It was enough to get me out of the fartsac a bit earlier than I had intended though.
I was in no real hurry in the morning having planned only to hike up Snake Mountain in Addison County before returning to the Devino’s for the weekend. I worked the early morning light walking around the park snapping foliage pictures, let my gear dry out from the dew, packed it all up and headed off about 10:00 AM. The drive through Colchester and Winooski to Burlington had me tempted to throw the kayak in the Winooski River for a bit but unfortunately I did not do so.
I stopped in Burlington at the Episcopal Cathedral to pay my respects to both my dad’s parents whose ashes are interred there in the Memorial Garden. Grandma and Grandpa had set up residence on 9 acres of land east of Essex Junction not long after we moved to Vermont in 1973. I think they were happier there than any other place they had lived or traveled…which was mostly NJ. I have many fond memories of staying up there with them for a few days at a time traipsing around their property, working in the garden, checking out the barn, building snow forts and sledding. The sledding was the best of any place I can remember and I have done some sledding. But I digress.
I headed south from the cathedral down Pine Street until I could cut over to Rt. 7 south in South Burlington. From there I headed down to Ferrisburg, where I took a quick peek at the house we used to live in, and then picked up 22A south to Addison to hike up Snake Mountain. I wasn’t sure where a good trail head was so I stopped at the corner store at 22A and 17 where I was told to drive south to a street the name of which I understood enough to find but never could have spelled. It was a bit further, like a mile, south than I expected but the name of the street sounded like what the guy at the store said.
Once I pulled off on the road, I stopped to snap a few pics of the mountain from afar. It is not really that much of a mountain but it stands out pretty well in Addison County and has a good view all around particularly in any direction but the east. There was probably an overlook that I missed. Anyhow, the hike up took only about 45 minutes.
To start with parking was tight. There was a group of 5th graders who were taking a field trip up the mountain…nice to see that kids can still do that in places. I saw them all coming down as I was going up. Fortunately the climb wasn’t nearly as exhausting as the climb up Mt. Pisgah at Lake Willoughby. At the top of the mountain was a concrete pad which may have been part of a carriage house that supposedly was once perched on top of the mountain.
The pad made for a great place to kick back, have a nosh, relax, and take some photos so that is what I did. One couple was laying flat out on their backs reading and soaking up the sun. Three guys from Burlington who seemed to be some type of engineers who worked together powered up shortly after I did. We chatted a bit and then I tried to keep up with them heading back down the mountain. I kept up pretty well especially since I was stopping to assess the views and/or take photos of the views.
It was still early by the time I headed down to the Devino’s in West Addison. I stopped to chat with Linda at the store she works in a few hundred yards down the road from her house then headed to the house to shower up and regroup after five nights camping.
It was mostly quiet at the Devino house. The Ed’s were in Rutland working on the house that Linda and Big Ed helped Brittany and her significant other buy. The Ed’s crashed at camp in Pittsfield, Linda and I had a quiet dinner after which I showed her some of the pictures I took on the trip. Shortly thereafter Cassandra came home. It was pretty much over after that. I had had a few beers and was ready to crash.
Day Nine
I had intended to stay at Linda and Ed’s until Sunday when I would drive home to Virginia. As I was waking up on Saturday, I thought about just getting some coffee and getting on the road home. So I packed up what little I had brought into the house, said goodbye to Linda, who was the only one up, and headed off. I stopped in Ticonderoga to get breakfast at the McDonald’s and continued on.
Let me just say, if I have not done so already, that the drive south all the way from West Addison through Ticonderoga to the Northway, all the way down the Northway and then the NY State Thruway south to Newburgh where I picked up Interstate 84 west to Scranton, from there south to about 30 miles north of Harrisbury was totally stunning. The fall foliage seemed to peak as I drove through it. The views and fall colors were certainly the best I have ever seen. Would that I had been able to record what I was seeing as I drove south and replay it here some how.
Summary
This trip to Vermont was one of the best vacations I have had in the last few years. It was very relaxing, I got good paddling and hiking in, I reveled in a couple of great campsites, and hooked up with some good friends. I also got to do a lot of work with my new DLSR, a Nikon D60.