The Green Mountains of Vermont

We left Saugerties, NY and traveled from the Catskills up to the Adirondacks seeking cooler weather. Stayed at the Adirondack Village Campground on the edge of the Adirondack National Forest, a six million acre area of scenic beauty in upstate New York. Even the elevation did nothing to dissipate the sweltering heat and humidity. We arrived right after 'Americade' which we were told was the largest multi-brand motorcycle event in the East with over 50,000 bikers in town. The weekend before Americade was a convention of Elvis impersonators - - and we managed to miss both events...

Monday (6/9) we ventured out to Lake George Village and Queensbury looking to experience local culture. Lake George Village was a disappointment in its commercialism. It costs $1 per hour to park the car near the lake, no picnic tables to be found, and access to the 'beach' was thru a pavillion and locked gate after paying an entry fee. The 'beach' was a narrow strip of sand on the lake. For a fee, one could ride a steamboat across portions of the lake and back. There was absolutely no breeze and we were miserable from the heat. We took our picnic lunch and tried to go to the picnic area next door at Fort William Henry, but that gate was closed. Apparently after Americade the streets roll up until school gets out [yes, school is still in session until mid-June here]. The area is quite beautiful and there were many things we wanted to see and do but the heat was just too much.

Tuesday (6/10) left Lake George, NY and traveled across to St. Johnsbury, Vermont via US4 across the Green Mountains. Initially the roads were wide and not alarmingly steep. However, just outside of Killington, VT we encountered a blinking sign that read, 'Use Caution - Pavement Ends.' Well, the folks in Vermont are very concise with their signs and tell no lies. For several miles and through several villages, the pavement was removed, leaving a very bumpy gravel roadbed with no guard rails and only one lane traffic in some spots. The Green Mountains are considerably taller than the Appalachians in our area. Even so, we survived. We passed through several ski resort areas with no snow, of course, but many tall ski lifts and such (many elevations over 3,500 feet).

We arrived to 95 degree heat at Moose River Campground, set up camp, put out the awning, kicked up the A/C and were settling in when the campground hostess came knocking to let us know a huge storm was coming and advising us to take down the awning. We had two rounds of rough weather, with tornado warnings, lots of lightening, lots of rain and high winds. The power went out around 4 PM and didn't come back on 'til 2:38 AM this morning. By the way, the sun rose at 5:24 this morning and we enjoyed temperatures in the mid-70s today. We are about 45 miles from Canada and 27 miles from Littleton, New Hampshire. What a difference a day makes. It's supposed to reach 30 degrees overnight.

We visited Stephen Huneck's Dog Mountain today. We have been huge fans of the artist for a long time and are amazed we actually got to visit here. Dogs are welcome here in both the chapel and the gallery and there's also a pond and agility course just for dogs. People come from all over the world and post notes about their pets and pay tribute to much loved, deceased pets. The chapel has stained glass windows featuring dogs; the steeple is an angel dog; benches are carved dogs; there are statues of dogs everywhere.... After all, it is Dog Mountain...

On the way back down Dog Mountain to the highway, we saw a mother moose and offspring trot across the road in front of us. It took a second or two to realize they were much taller than deer and have a thicker, longer nose. These didn't have any antlers. No pictures since it was such a quick and unexpected encounter, but we wanted to include a picture of the campground moose...

There is so much to see and do in this area that we extended our stay another day. In addition to Dog Mountain, we toured through St. Johnsbury, VT and went to see The Birdman outside of Danville, VT. Edmond Menard is 'The Birdman' and hand carves small birds, such as humming birds, chickadees, pelicans, ducks, etc. from the cambrian layer of white cedar. He is a very nice, somewhat reclusive artist that is more than happy to show you how he creates his art. We bought a humming bird from him. What is most amazing is that the entire bird is carved from once piece of wood, with the feathers fanned out individually. He uses NO GLUE as it is carved from ONE piece of wood. Our visit with Edmond was very interesting. The picture does not do it justice. The actual bird is about 4 inches long and probably weighs less than an ounce.

We visited Maple Grove Farms. They do not make maple syrup, but do make things from maple syrup, like salad dressings, spreads, maple sprinkles, fudge, etc.

We drove on to Cabot, VT to visit the Cabot cheese factory. This tour is only $2 and worth it since you can eat your weight in cheese samples (YUM!) both before and after the tour. Cabot is a farm co-op and receives milk from about 1,300 dairy farms. They make umpteen thousand pounds of cheese each and every day in lots of flavors. They also make yogurts, sour creams, spreads, and other perishables that are sold only in the New England area.

FYI, Vermont folks are very proud of all their local Vermont things and happily send you around to experience different places. Vermont is also home to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, King Arthur Flour, Green Mountain Coffee (processed in Vermont), and of course, maple syrup. There are many local farms that have sugar bush farms to harvest the sap to make syrup. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to reduce to 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Vermont may be a small state, but it's packed with stuff to do.

Until next time - - find joy even in the small things....

J&K